Updates from our Cuckoos

Cuckoo 161319 has spent five weeks at his chosen stopover site in the Italian Alps but during the evening of 2 August we received a series of signals that showed he had upped sticks and headed south; he was 608km (378 miles) further south in the Lazio region south of Rome, close to the west coast. On the 4 August he begun heading east, and by the early hours of 5 August he had crossed to the east coast. Two days later he crossed the Adriatic heading back north and stopped in Bosnia Herzegovina, only to move north again two days later into Croatia. A series of low quality signals received on 11 August suggest that he didn't stop in Croatia and is actually back in the Italian Alps, around 79km (49 miles) from where he set off a week or so earlier. It would seem that he hadn't sufficient resources to head south and cross the desert, and, after searching around for food has headed back to an area he knows well and where the feeding was good.

Welsh Cuckoo David has now been in Montenegro for almost a month. This is David's fifth tracked migration south and so we know that it's not unusual for him to spend a good chunk of time here. In previous years he stayed in Montenegro until 15th August (2012), 22nd August (2013), 8th August (2014) and 28th August (2015), so he may stay for a few more weeks yet. 

Since arriving in France on 10th July, Hampshire Cuckoo Jack has been taking things very easy. He has covered just 200 miles, travelling south to his current location which is 50 miles north west of Lyon. 

Data received from 161322's tag at 4 am this morning showed that he had flown 200 miles south and was on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain. 

A signal received from Larry's tag at 7:20pm on 31st July placed him in southern Libya, on the northern edge of the Tibesti mountains. He seems to be taking a very similar route to last year when his crossing took him to Chad. Hopefully the next transmission from Larry's tag will show that he has successfully crossed the Sahara. 

Having made it to Africa and turned back to Spain, 161323 spent almost two weeks in southern Spain. He departed Spain on 30th July and covered 200 miles to Morrocco. Since then he has continued south-west and will hopefully have completed his desert crossing by the time his map next updates. 

Since leaving France on 22nd July, Norfolk Cuckoo PJ has taken a very direct route south, travelling 1,600 miles due South into Algeria and the pressing on for another 660 miles to arrive at his current location in eastern Mali. He is the third tagged Cuckoo to successfully cross the desert and is currently near the D'ansongo-Menaka nature reserve close to the border with Niger. This is an area previously visited by Whortle. 

Since crossing the Sahara and arriving in Mali on 12th July, Hampshire Cuckoo 161321 has started to push east, travelling 350 miles over the past few days. He is currently in Burkina Faso 80 miles west of the capital Ouagadougou, in the Sorobouli Forest.

On 22nd July 161324 left Spain and flew 300 miles south into northern Algeria. He only stopped there for a few hours before pushing on south, flying 1,500 miles to cross the Sahara and arrive at his current location in Mali.

On 12 July, Cuckoo Bill was in south-central France, west of Vichy, but by lunchtime on 14 July he had flown south, crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Africa. A couple of locations received from him on showed that he was in Tunisia, near to the Table de Jugurtha. Having made North Africa we thought that he might stay here for a little while before attempting the crossing of the desert, but he surprised us by heading west into Algeria and then north-west across the Mediterranean again before arriving in southern Spain on 17 July, settling in the Sierra Nevada mountains, just north of Almeria. It seems that the urge to get to a stopover site in Spain, one that this bird has probably used on previous migrations, was so strong that it overruled the fact that he had made it to Africa.