Updates from our Cuckoos

Tor has once again gone silent. The last signal received was on 12 March, just after he moved north to Central African Republic. Before that there was a silence of 3 months. It could be that the tag is not transmitting properly so we will have to wait and see whether he receive any further locations in the future. 

Patch is also on the move and embarking on his desert crossing, with the most recent signals revealing he has made it to eastern Senegal. David is also in Senegal but is much further west than Patch, and they are both much further west than any of the other Cuckoos. 

David has headed 650km (410 miles) north-west and is now close to Dakar in Western Senegal.  Last year he embarked on his desert crossing from his location on the border of Guinea/Sierra-Leone but, despite having headed to the same spot on the border again this year, he has instead travelled west rather than north. On 15 April last year he was crossing the desert and was over Mauritania so he seems a little delayed this year. It will be interesting to see where he heads to next.

If David does cross the desert from his current location, he will be over 1780km (1100 miles) further west than the point at which BB made his desert crossing from! 

Yesterday at around midday we received signals which showed that Livingstone was in the south of Mauritania, having flown over Mali. Further signals have meant that we have been able to follow his progress over the desert and the latest signals, received this morning, show that he was north of the Akchar Desert. Despite having travelled over 1500km (950 miles) from Ivory Coast he still has a long way to go, having taken a very westerly route to reach Mauritania, he is probably only about half way. 

Signals on 13 April showed that BB had moved northward but over the next few hours he appeared to move very little. We were a bit worried about this and so were relieved to see that further signals were received yesterday which showed that he had continued onwards and had crossed the desert successfully! They weren't of adequate quality to automatically update the map but given the number of signals received it looks as if these are accurate. They place him in the north of Algeria, near the city of Oran on the northwestern Mediterranean coast. 

Skinner is the first tagged Cuckoo to make it back to Europe! From the tip of Morroco he flew almost directly north for 770km (480 miles), settling just south of the Cantabrian Mountains, to the east of Leon. Will he be the first to make it back to the UK? 

The title of first tagged Cuckoo back to the UK is still up for grabs, and Chris is close on the heels of the two leading Cuckoos. From his location in Morroco on 14 April he has flown 810km (500 miles), across the Alboran Sea and the Sieraa Nevada Mountains to a location south of Valladolid, Spain.

This is surprising, as during the 3 years we have been following him, this is the first time he has ventured to Spain, previously preferring to travel through Italy and France.  

Skinner is currently the most northerly Cuckoo, but only just further than Waller. Skinner is about 140km (90 miles) directly north of Chris while Waller is 170km (100 miles) to the north-west.

48 hours after the last signal, Waller had made it to Europe and was in north-western Spain, just west of the city of Valladolid, having travelled 680km (420 miles). He continued for another 90km (60 miles) and is now north-west of Leon and almost as far north as Skinner, who is about 85km (55 miles) to the north-east. Chris is also not far behind! Who will be first back to the UK?  

We hadn't received transmissions from Whortle's tag since 26 March so we were surprised to check the map this morning and find that Whortle had crossed the desert!  From Ivory Coast, he travelled 2400km (1490 miles) to Algeria, and were able to follow him heading north to Morocco through the night of 14 and early morning of 15 April. His last location was just north of Fez, close to Skinners Moroccan location.  

Chris remained in the east of Ivory Coast until at least 6 April.  In the late afternoon of the 11 April, a series of transmissions revealed he was on the move and was in Mauritania, flying over the El Djouf Desert at the western edge of the Sahara, having already covered 1525km (950 miles) from his previous location.

Just north of the El Djouf Desert, he then changed course to head north-east, arriving in northern Morocco in the early hours of the 14 April, shortly after Waller also arrived in Morrocco having completed his crossing. This makes Chris the third of our Cuckoos to cross the desert successfully and is the third return desert crossing over which we have eagerly followed his progress. This year, he seems to have ended up much further west than after any previous crossings. He was tagged in the first year of the project and is the only remaining bird from the original five tagged. Over the three years, he has helped us to learn amazing new things about Cuckoo Migration and we hope that he continues to do so!