Chris is the most recent Cuckoo to have joined the five others in Ivory Coast! Having been in Ghana until at least the 18 March, he then flew 215km (130 miles) which took him over the border and into Ivory Coast by the 21 March. He is now only 75km (45 miles) from Skinner's location and 70km ( 42 miles) from Ken's location.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Chris in Ivory Coast
24 Mar 2014
Livingstone moves into West Africa
20 Mar 2014
Livingstone had moved further north within Cameroon but the last signal received from this more northerly location was on 12 March. After this we received several low quality signals that revealed he was on the move. His new location popped up on the map yesterday, 19 March, when a good quality signal was finally received, and revealed that he was in Ivory Coast, close to border with Guinea. From the previous signals we can see that he has been in the area since around the 16 March, making him the fourth Cuckoo to move into West Africa. He is now just 20km (12 miles) north-east of Derek.
Ken in Ivory Coast
19 Mar 2014
Ken had moved 100km (600 miles) by the 14 March and was just inside Ivory Coast. Waller and Derek are also in Ivory Coast, but further to the west.
Skinner is on his way – over the sea!
19 Mar 2014
Skinner is the sixth of our tagged Cuckoos this spring to undertake the second leg of the journey back to the UK, however, his route to West Africa is a very interesting one. At 3am on 17 March he was in Cameroon, the battery voltage of his tag was low but the recorded temperature was high, c. 36 degrees which pointed to him being stationary at this time.
The tag sprang into life on 18 March, between 10am-4pm, this time the temperature was low – 12-20 degrees, so he was in active migration. He was still in migration mode at 5pm but by 6.18pm he was presumably on the ground as the temperature had increased to 30 degrees.
During his transmission cycle he travelled 500km in 9.75 hours, so was flying at a speed of 51kmph. It is difficult to say exactly what time he left Cameroon to begin his journey into West Africa but we suspect it was at dusk (around 6pm) on the 17 March.
After leaving Cameroon, we picked him up again over the sea in the Gulf of Guinea. To make it to this point he would have been flying for 16-17 hours and so was in active migration during daylight hours- not something we've seen before, except when flying over desert! From here he carried on for another 520km, making landfall in Togo around 6pm on the evening of the 18 March.
We have had many instances of cuckoos migrating over the Sahara by day but none before of them properly migrating by day at other points on the annual cycle (except one which moved across northern Ghana by day, but not in one movement at altitude in this case, and therefore more accurately described as searching for suitable areas than migrating). We guess that Skinner found himself over the sea at daybreak, having started his flight from unusually far south in Cameroon, and decided to carry on towards his target area.
Patch close to BB
19 Mar 2014
By 15 March, Patch had travelled 435km (270 miles) further north within Cameroon. This new location means that he is now only 20km (12 miles) from fellow tagged Cuckoo, BB. David is also relatively close, just 80km (50 miles) further south from Patch’s location.
Derek continues west
17 Mar 2014
Derek has continued 350km (218 miles) on from his last location and is now in the north-west of Ivory Coast, very close to it's border with Guinea. As for two of his fellow Norfolk Cuckoos, Ken, has also made it to Ivory Coast, while Chris has recently arrived in Ghana.
Chris is in Ghana
17 Mar 2014
By the early hours of 14 March, Chris had left Central African Republic and signals showed he was in the south of Nigeria. The next signals received on 16 March revealed he had contined on and was in Ghana. He had travelled a total of 1900km (1180 miles) from his location within Central African Republic to Ghana in no more than five days at most! In previous years he has arrived in Ghana between the 13-17 March, so once again he is on schedule!
Derek in Ivory Coast
11 Mar 2014
From his last position to the west of Lake Volta, Derek continued a further 445km (275 miles) in a north-westerly direction, across the border and in to Ivory Coast. He is now just north of Bouaké (or Bwake), the second largest city in Ivory Coast. Waller is a further 400km (250 miles) to the south-west.
Waller continues
07 Mar 2014
Waller has continued a further 515km (320 miles) west and is now in the west of Ivory Coast, close to the borders with Guinea and Liberia.
Ken moves further west
07 Mar 2014
Ken has moved a further 380km (235 miles) north-west within Nigeria but is some way behind Derek, the third Cuckoo to move in to West Africa, who is now in Ghana.
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