Updates from our Cuckoos

When David’s tag resumed transmissions yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 17 April) we were delighted to see that he had completed his desert crossing and was in Extremadura, Spain! He has stopped in an area of open olive woodland, about 27km (17 miles) due N of the town of Cáceres.

David had travelled an additional 1885km (1171 miles)slightly east of due N since he was in the Mauritania desert two days previously. He appears to have taken the short route across the desert, west of the High Atlas and along the Moroccan coast, as we had thought he and BB might do. We don’t know why he had stopped in the desert at the time of the last transmissions, but we guess that it may have been due to adverse conditions, possibly wind or dust-related.

Locations received from Lloyd mid-morning of 23 April show him in central Algeria and about two thirds into his desert crossing. The next time we hear from him should be early on Friday, when, fingers crossed he will have completed the Saharan leg of his journey. His map will update tomorrow morning.

David has been in central Spain for six days now. He is currently 120km (75 miles) south-west of BB, and we are due to hear from him in the early morning of 24 April - might he have moved north?

BB is still south-west of Madrid but could push north any day now. We last heard from him on 22 April so could well get an update early evening on 24 April. He has been in this general area for five days now so could make his move further north anytime soon.

A location received at lunchtime on 23 April showed that Chance in in France. He is around 50km (30 miles) south-east of the port city of St Malo. He is now closer to the UK than Chris, and could be the first tagged Cuckoo back. He has travelled almost 700km (400 miles) from his last location south of the Pyrenees. His map will update tomorrow morning.

It seems that Chris is in no hurry to get back to the UK, in fact, he has begun to head south again. Yesterday he was close to the French town of Suippes, and around 80km (50 miles) south of the Belgian border. Having been as close as 210km (130 miles) to the English coast, he is now 100km (60 miles) further south. It is beginning to look like he might well stay in France this year. However, there is still plenty of time for him to change his mind.

Locations received this morning show that Chance remains in the foothills of the Pyrenees. He has now been there for three days, despite conditions having been good for onward migration. He may need to rest and refuel before continuing his migration – it will be interesting to see how long he stays here before moving on. Currently, three of our tracked cuckoos are in Spain, with David and BB both further west than any of the other tracked cuckoos have been recorded in Europe. 

The duty cycle of Chris’ tag has been resetting, possibly due to him perching on power lines. Consequently, we received unexpected additional locations throughout Tuesday and Wednesday (16 and 17 April) which showed he moved from Belgium into France, to the west of the Ardennes Mountains. Although it’s not possible to be precise, he appears to have been in the Parc Naturel Régional de l’Avesnois in Nord Pas-de-Calais region. The area is characterised by the ‘bocage’ landscape – small pastures surrounded by hedges and interspersed by blocks of woodland of various sizes. As we have seen elsewhere including in Africa, areas with mixtures of woodland and grassland make excellent cuckoo habitat. Will Chris find this area more to his liking than the Thetford Forest area and stay here through the breeding season? 

A location received this morning (18 April) showed that he remains in Ivory Coast and that the charge on his tag is still low. 

A series of locations received yesterday evening (Monday 15 April) showed that BB was heading across the desert in northern Mauritania, about 460km (286 miles) E of David’s last position. Over the course of 5 hours he travelled approximately 160km (100 miles) more or less due N. If he follows a similar route to Chance, around the eastern end of the High Atlas, BB would have another 1,000km (620 miles) to travel before reaching the Atlas Mountains and 1,400km (870 miles) to the Mediterranean coast. If he went to the west of the High Atlas, he would come to hospitable conditions at Agadir on the Moroccan coast in 700km (435 miles). One possible advantage  of stopping over so far west in Africa would have been to reduce the desert crossing by 25% or so (from around 1,900km to around 1,400km) by taking a route west of the High Atlas and along the Moroccan coast, so we had wondered whether David & BB would  do this.