Updates from our Cuckoos

It looks like Dudley's move to southern Mali on the morning of 6 April was indeed the start of his migration! Between then and around 10am on 8 April he flew 2360km (1470 miles) crossing Mali and Algeria to reach northern Morocco. He didn't stop there though and crossed over into southern Spain by late afternoon of the same day becoming the first of this year's tagged Cuckoos to return to Europe. Further low quality signals indicate he has continued north 330km (205 miles) and was south of Madrid just after midnight this morning. 

Dudley has moved north-west from his location in Ghana, travelling 550km (340 miles) and is now in Mali. Could this be the start of his migration? 

Chris is on the move! A good quality signal on 31 March placed Chris just inside the border of Ghana, showing that Chris had made his move west, albeit later than in previous years. Since the last transmission received on 21 March he has covered 1700km (1060 miles).  We are glad to see he is once again on his way. This will be the fourth return journey over which we will have followed him - we wish him a safe return! 

On the evening of 26 March a transmission received from David showed that he was on the move again and had travelled 650km (400 miles) further west. He is now in Sierra Leone, close to the border with Guinea. 

In both previous years he has also set off on his desert crossing from Sierra Leone but in both cases he arrived there in the first week of April. In 2013 he started his desert crossing on 15 April and headed to Mauritania while in 2014 he left on the 17 April but went slightly further west still, to Senegal, and then on to Morocco. 

Given his earlier movement this year, could he be the first Cuckoo to turn north and head home?

Since receiving one transmission from Fred's tag on 5 March, nothing further has been received which details his location and he has once again dropped off the map, which shows only active Cuckoos within the last 10 days by default. We presume that, if all is ok, Fred would by now have moved to West Africa. We will have to wait to see where he is when further transmissions are received.  

On 5 March we received one good signal from Fred's tag which showed that he had moved to the northern forest edge, where many of our tagged Cuckoos have moved to before heading to West Africa.  

A signal received on 24 March showed that Chester was still in Nigeria but has left the Cross River area. He has moved 245km (152 miles) south and west and is now on the edge of the Niger Delta.

After arriving in Ghana on 4 March Dudley has moved north and west and is currently 56km (35 miles) from the border with Ivory Coast.

Chris is still at the same location in Central African Republic and has yet to move west. Looking back at his movements last year we can see that he is in almost the same area within Central African Republic as in 2014 but had left the area by 14 March and moved west to Nigeria. By the 21 March 2014 he was just inside Ivory Coast, as many of our other tagged Cuckoos are now. 

In the first two years Chris only ventured as far west as Ghana before making his desert crossing in early April. Last year was the first time he had ventured as far west as Ivory Coast. In all three years, however, he was in West Africa by this point in March and making the final preparations for his desert crossing in early to mid April. He embarked on his desert crossing last year slightly later on 12 April 2014.  

It's interesting to note that he was later leaving Europe this year compared to previous years. His delay in moving to West Africa will likely push the date of his desert crossing back and we will have to wait to see how this affects the rest of his journey.  

On 13 March, Stanley a transmission from Stanley showed that he had moved west and crossed into Ivory Coast. He is currently 230km (143 miles) west of his last location in Ghana.