Updates from our Cuckoos

Since crossing the Sahara almost two weeks ago, Sayaan has been taking it relatively easy and has spent the last few days in the same area in southern Chad, close to the Central African Republic border.

With conditions in this region being wetter and greener, he should find lots of food to help him recover from his epic desert crossing.

Hafren, like Cuckoo Wilfrid, is still in Senegal, but has moved slowly southwards in recent days.

He is currently by the River Gambia, just to the west of the Forêt de Diambour, in the Tambacounda region.

Amazingly, Hafren and Wilfrid are just around 40km (24 miles) apart from one another.

Wilfrid is slowly making his way toward the Guinea border.

He has spent the past couple of days in the wooded savannah and arid forests close to the Niokolo-Koba National Park, a World Heritage Site and home to Lions, Chimpanzees, Hippos and around 330 bird species.

Five days ago we could see that Hafren was approaching the border of Western Sahara from Morocco.

Since then, he continued his journey south, covering a further 1,660 km (1,030 miles).

He then made his way along the coast of western Mauritania and our most recent signal, received at 6.24am today, shows that he has now headed inland, and is in central Senegal, having spent some time in the relatively lush environs of the Sylvo-Pastorale National Park.   

Our last update from Wilfrid, around a week ago, saw him still lingering in Portugal.

However, soon after this he set off across the Atlantic, bypassing the Canary Islands and the Moroccan coast, and making landfall at Dakhla, in the Western Sahara region.  

From here, he continued through Senegal, and our latest signal shows that he is now following the River Gambia and is just 60km (37 miles) from the Guinea border. Since leaving Portugal Wilfrid has flown more than 2,900 km (1,800 miles).  

This is the third ‘autumn’ that we have been able to follow Joe, after he was satellite tagged in Norfolk in May 2022, and he has taken much the same route this year as on earlier migrations.

Mirroring his previous movements, he is currently in south-east Chad, nearing the Bahr Aouk River, on the border of Central African Republic.  

Hafren has now left Spain and is making his way south along the North African coast.

His route saw him setting off across the sea, leaving the Spanish mainland west of the famous Doñana National Park, before arriving on the Moroccan coast just to the north of the city of Agadir.

At 7.36 this morning, we received a signal showing that he was close to the Western Sahara border. In the last 48 hours Hafren has covered around 1,220 km (758 miles).

Henry, if the satellite information is accurate (and there’s no reason for us to assume that it isn’t), is behaving rather oddly… following his 12-day stay just to the south-west of Paris, he finally set off, but instead of heading south he took off to the north, towards Germany!

Two days ago he passed Cologne and continued to fly northwards. He then bypassed Bremen and cracked on towards Hamburg, before veering west, and at 7.56 this morning (24) we received a signal to say that he was just north of the North Sea port city of Bremerhaven!   

In summary, Henry appears to have flown approximately 960 km (596 miles) in the wrong direction. Hopefully, he will soon reorientate and head south after his surprising German tour.

Since our last update, when Sayaan was in the Jalo oasis area of northern Libya, he has flown a further 1,766 km (1,097 miles) across the desert and is currently in east Chad.

He has reached the Sahel region, where he can hopefully rest and feed a little before continuing south. At 8.03 this morning (24 July) he was close to the western border of Sudan and just north of the city of Abéché, the fourth largest city in Chad.

Having crossed the Sahara a week ago, Joe has been taking it relatively easy.

He moved down through north-east Nigeria, passing through Cameroon and is currently in the Chari-Baguirmi region of southern Chad.