Updates from our Cuckoos

Ripple is making good progress east from west Africa towards the Congo Basin. Having flown from southern Mauritania to south west Mali he has now pushed further east into eastern Burkina Faso. He is currently 24km (15 miles) north of the city of Fada Ngourma in eastern Burkina Faso. 

After a couple of weeks close to the Senegal River in southern Mauritania, Ripple has taken flight again. New updates received earlier today show that he has flown 723km (450 miles) south east into south western Mali. He is now 143km (89 miles) north-north east of the Malian capital of Bamako. 

By the morning of the 21st August, Ripple was well on his way across the Sahara and was just south of the Mauritanian town of Atar, on the Adrar Plateau in the Sahara Desert. Here however, Ripple's journey ground to a halt and as several days passed with no onwards movements, we began to worry about him. Our experience is that Cuckoos don't normally stop for long in the desert and doing so is usually a bad sign. Could this stop be an ominous sign for Ripple?

By zooming in closely to the map we could see some evidence of water and greenery in the general area that Ripple was in. We contacted a birdwatcher, David Monticelli, who had visited this area a few years ago, to ask him about conditions on the ground. He told us that "this is a rather desert and montane region but with oases; the latter could be really green areas where we found loads of Palearctic migrant (birds) and other local specialities". He was also kind enough to pass on the contact details of a Dutch birdwatcher (Justus Buma) who runs a hotel in Atar. We contacted him and he told us that "we had three years without rain in the adrar, nearing a catastrophe. But finally in June (2022)...rain started to fall, resulting in the first complete filling and overflowing of a new dam 15 km sw of Atar, flooding over 50 kms. That is why I presume the  thirsty and exhausted Cuckoo found a paradise to resource himself". Priceless intelligence from sources who know the local area that gave us considerable reassurance that Ripple may well have been surviving in the middle of the Sahara!

Then on 27 August, having stopped in this area for a whole week, we received the signal we were desperately hoping for - an update from Ripple's tag showing that he had flown approximately 440km south to complete his desert crossing! Further updates have confirmed that Ripple is now on the banks of the Senegal River in southern Mauritania.  

This has been a fascinating journey, including the longest desert stop we have seen from any of our tagged birds. Hopefully Ripple is none the worse for his stop-over and will continue on his journey to the Congo Basin.

Updates received between 09:00 and 12:30 today show that Ripple has pressed on from his last location in northern Morocco and is attempting to cross the Sahara. He has so far flown 1,080km (670 miles) and is close to the border between north west Mauritania and Western Sahara. The winds in this area are very light at the moment so hopefully he will continue to make good progress south. 

Since our last update Ripple has flown 1,017km (632 miles) south through Spain and across the Gulf of Cadiz. By 7am this morning he was in northern Morocco, approximately 20km (12 miles) south east of the city of Settat. We know that this western route south is more perilous for our Cuckoos and has already claimed the life of JD. We'll be keeping everything crossed for Ripple over the next few days. 

Ripple has flown 100km south from his last location in and by the early hours of this morning was approximately 7km (4.3 miles) south east of the town of Puebla de Sanabria in the province of Zamora in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. Is this the start of Ripple's big flight south to Africa? Stay tuned to find out!

Since our last update, JAC has flown approximately 300km (186 miles) east towards north central Nigeria. His route took him to Kamuku National Park and he has since flown a further 30km east. He is now in north west Kaduna state, approximately 90km north west of the city of Kaduna.  

We are sorry to report that we have lost Worcestershire Cuckoo Calypso. Our last good quality signal from Calypso's tag was received on 24 July when he was in northern Italy and although we have had a couple of signals since ,they have been low quality and from the same location. Having reviewed the diagnostic data from the tag we could see that between 26 & 28 July, the battery charge dropped substantially and the temperature reading dropped by 5C, neither of these are good signs. It also seems strange that his last locations were in the middle of an urban area when there is so much apparently suitable natural habitat surrounding it. All of this means that sadly  it looks like the end of the road for Calypso, but he has given us some excellent data including of course a complete migration cycle between Worcestershire and the Congo Basin. 

JAC's visit to Benin was brief as new updates received last night show that he has flow 186km(116 miles) south east, taking him over the border into Nigeria. He is now in north western Nigeria, on the edge of the Illoka Oje Forest Reserve. Last year JAC spent almost two weeks in western Nigeria before moving further east into north central Nigeria where he remained until early October. He then moved directly to the Congo Basin where he spent the winter. 

After a brief visit to eastern Burkina Faso, JAC has hopped over the border into Benin. He is now in the W National Park in the far north of Benin, close to the Mekrou River which separates Benin from Burkina Faso.