Updates from our Cuckoos

A couple of high-quality locations received during the early morning of 4 April show that Lambert didn't hang around in Nigeria. In the last few days he has headed west out of Nigeria, across Benin and into Togo. He is currently just to the south of the village of Adedakope and in the Tchiela Monata Forest and close to the Amou River. During this movement he has flown 704 km (437 miles).

During the last week Knepp has headed back east and is now close to the River Comoe in eastern Ivory Coast. He is 281km (175 miles) east of his last location in Ivory Coast. We are seeing a few of our tagged Cuckoos making interesting movements at the moment. Presumably this is in response to the intensity and location of the rains that are currently moving around the region.

We have received a couple of poor locations from Carlton II's tag that suggest he is in Sierra Leone, not far from the border with Liberia. We will have to wait for higher quality locations to confirm this but if this is the case he is in the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary on the banks of the River Moa. This would be an interesting movement 314km (195 miles) southwest of his last location in Guinea. We will have to wait and see what unfolds over the next week.

A series of locations from Selborne's tag during the early hours of 3 April showed that he was in southern Spain, just to the west of Antequera. However, a set of poor locations received around breakfast on 4 April suggest that he had moved on and was 118km (73 miles) further north and east and close to the town of Lopera. Since leaving the Guinea Highlands on the evening of 31 March he has travelled 3,294km (2,047 miles). We will have to wait for high quality locations to confirm his most recent stopover and for it to update on his map.

Selborne's tag transmitted again last night (Monday 1st April), confirming our suspicions that he was on migration over the Sahara Desert. Selborne was still in Guinea at 22:24 on 31st March and we next heard from him at 17:48 on 1st April by which time he had flown 1,440 Km (895 miles) north to Mali. Another update arrived at 19:50 last night showing he had pressed on to Algeria, making the total distance traveled 1,718 Km (1,067 miles) at an average speed of 49.8 mph over a period of 21 hours and 26 minutes. The latest update shows Selborne in the Erg Chech Desert in western Algeria. 

Lambert has flown 643 Km (400 miles) north west from Cameroon to south-eastern Nigeria. He is now 180 km (111 miles) South of another Knepp Cuckoo, Raymond who is also in Nigeria. 

Raymond has flown 181 Km (112 miles) north west towards central Nigeria. He is now 1,230 Km (765 miles) east of the third Knepp Cuckoo, Knepp who is way out west in Ivory Coast.

An update received from Hampshire Cuckoo Selborne's tag at 22:24 last night (Sunday 31st March) showed that he had flown 392 Km (243 miles) north to the north-eastern corner of Guinea, close to the border with Mali. It might just be that Selborne has continued on this trajectory and is now on his way across the Sahara Desert. In 2017 he started his crossing on 25 March and in 2018 he departed on 22nd March. We will have to await the next transmission to find out if he will be the first to tackle the mighty Sahara. Last year Selborne was the first of our tagged Cuckoos to make it back to the UK, arriving on 14th April.

An update received from Raymond's tag at 02:55 yesterday morning suggests that he has departed Cameroon and has flown 515 Km (320 miles) west and crossed the border into Nigeria. We will have to await another update to learn whether Raymond has stayed in Nigeria or was en-route to another destination further west.

Since our last update Bowie has backtracked East, flying 411 Km (255 miles) from Ivory Coast over the border into Ghana. He is now 122 Km (75 miles) west of the city of Kumasi in south west Ghana.