Updates from our Cuckoos

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.

At 04.28 on 22 March David was still in Cameroon but by 14.59 on 24 March he had moved 1923km (1195 miles) west, and was in Ivory Coast, just north of Bouake. He covered this distance in 45.5 hours, averaging a speed of 42km per hour (26 mph). It will be interesting to see how long he stays where he is to allow him to recover after such a mammoth journey.

Derek's continued west and covered another 550km (340 miles) to reach his new location in Ivory Coast. He is about 60km (35 miles) north-east of Ash and 105km (65 miles) north of David's new location. All in all there are six Cuckoos in Ivory Coast currently. 

From the northern edge of the forest in Cameroon, Derek had moved to Ghana by 19 March, travelling 1400km (915 miles).

Chester has left his location in Gabon and travelled 745km (460 miles) north-west to  Nigeria, where he appears to be on the outskirts of the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Cross River area.  

By 16 March, Emsworthy had left Central African Republic and made it to Ghana. He covered 2070km (1285 miles). He continued on into Ivory Coast by the 19 March, joining Ash, Stanley and Livingstone there. 

We suspected Livingstone might rest up near Lake Volta to recover from his  journey but instead he continued 790km (490 miles) west fairly quickly to make it to Ivory Coast by 17 March.  Since the 12 March he has flown over 2500km (1,600 miles) over 8 days.  He is now the second most westerly Cuckoo, taking into account Hennah who is not shown on the map.