Updates from our Cuckoos

It looks like Larry began his desert crossing on 10 April from Nigeria, crossing the Sahara at its widest point, around 2,600km (1,600 miles). A poor location received during the morning of 15 April put him in the Grand Erg Oriental Desert in northern Algeria. Several good quality locations received during the evening of 17 April showed that he had made it across the desert and was on Sardinia, northeast of Paulilatino.

We 'lost' Disco Tony on 13 March, and whilst we were not too concerned we do get a little anxious when this happens. So, it is good to be able to report that Disco Tony is back and on his way home. A series of locations received around breakfast on 17 April show him western Algeria, around 100km (60 miles) south of the Moroccan border. We don't expect him to hang around here as he hasn't quite finished crossing the desert.

It looks like David left Guinea on 12 April and headed north across the western edge of the Sahara. Several poor quality locations received on 14 April placed him in northern Mauritania, pretty much in the middle of his Saharan crossing. During the early morning of 17 April, we received confirmation via a good quality location, that he had successfully crossed the desert, and the western Mediterranean, and was in the Sierra Morena Mountains in southern Spain.

Coo is on his way back! Locations recieved during the evening of 16 April showed him close to a large lake, Hassi el Morra Tahtania, in the northeastern Algerian desert. However, since then we have received three poor quality locations that show he didn't stay here long. The poor locations place him close to Los Menas in southern Spain. We will have to wait for good quality locations to confirm this but it does look like he has crossed the desert and the Mediterranean.

Having rested in the Ivory Coast and been overtaken by Coo and David, Stanley has suddenly sprung back into action, with his latest signals trasmitting from northern Algeria. Stanley is now in second position in the Cuckoo race back to the UK. Will he catch Vigilamus?

Stanley has been settled in Ivory Coast for over ten days now. Locations received from him during the morning of 1 April show that he has been overtaken by Coo and David and is now lagging behind four other Cuckoos in the race to get back to the UK.

Locations received from Peckham on 29 March show that he has been in the same area of Ivory Coast for 21 days. It will remain to be seen how much longer he stays there. It could be that he will be the next Cuckoo to cross the desert, only time will tell.

Locations received from Larry on 26 March showed that he had left Cameroon and headed west into Nigeria. More locations from the early morning of 5 April show that he is still in the area of Nigeria he arrived in ten days earlier. He is currently just south of Old Oyo National Park and just over 100km (70 miles) from the border with Benin.

We haven't heard from Disco Tony since 13 March, however, at this stage we are not too concerned. Our tagged Cuckoos can often disappear at this stage in the journey, only to pop-up again at a later date. It might be that Disco Tony moved into deep cover to prepare for his journey west. He could well reappear in the next week in West Africa and we have our fingers crossed that he does.

On the face of it, it looks like David is still in Nigeria, but a series of poor locations received between 1 and 3 April show that he is most likely in Sierra Leone, 2,282km (1,418 miles) west of his location shown on the map. We will have to wait for a good quality location to confirm this but we think it will show him in northern Sierra Leone, close to the border with Guinea. This will put him further west than any of our other tagged Cuckoos.