Updates from our Cuckoos

Signals received from Carlton II's tag at 8:30 am on Friday 2 August showed that he was over the desert in northern Mauritania. By 18:47 on Sunday 4 August he had covered a total of 2,218 km (1,378 miles), crossing the Sahara and arriving in southern Senegal, close to the border with Guinea-Bissau. Carlton II stopped off in Senegal last year too but his stop over location was north of the Gambia. 

Since the last update Senan has flown another 514 km (319 miles) south in Mali, towards the border with Niger. He appears to be on an island in the river Niger, close to Ansongo, a rural commune and small town in the Gao Region of eastern Mali.

By 6pm on Friday 2 August, Nussey had flown 744 km (462 miles) south and was near Oria, a municipality of Almería province, in Andalusia, Spain. He didn't stay there long however and by 10:10 am on the morning of Saturday 3 August he had flown a further 406 km (252 miles) south, crossing the Mediterranean and landing in northern Morocco, just south of Guercif. A series of poor quality locations received since suggest that he set out across the desert before turning back so we'll need to await some better data before we can be sure of his new location.  

Carton II has completed his sea crossing, travelling 715km (445 miles) from his last location in southern Spain to reach the high Atlas mountains in north Africa. He is currently 82km (50 miles) east of Marrakesh, the fourth largest city in the country. He is just 80km (50 miles) south-west of Raymond, who recently arrived in the High Atlas mountains too. 

New signals on the morning of 30 July show that Senan had indeed made landfall in Africa and that his location at that time was in northern Mali. Senan was tagged on the BTO reserve headquarters at Thetford, and interestingly, he is now just 240km (150 miles) north of PJ who was also tagged local to the BTO in Suffolk, and is in Mali. 

Signals received on the morning of 30 July show that Raymond had successfully made it to northern Africa from the south of Spain. He's currently located 95km (60 miles) to the south-east of Fes, Morocco after a journey of 595km (370 miles).   

PJ has continued on his desert crossing - not quite as far as 1000km as mentioned in the previous blog entry - but he did cover a further 635km (395 miles) on 29 July, which has taken him into eastern Mali. He is now close to the border with Niger, and just north of Reserve Partielle De Faune D'ansongo-Menaka.

Over the last few days Valentine has flown 322 km (200 miles) south west into south-western Burkina Faso. He is now in the Hauts-Bassins region, 55 km (34 miles) north-east of the region capital, Bobo Dioulasso. 

Some low quality locations transmitted by Senan's tag suggest that during the evening of 27th and early morning of 28th he was crossing the Mediterranean with the last location pointing to his destination being north-east Morocco or north-west Algeria. We will hopefully receive some better quality locations soon which will clarify where he has made landfall. 

Raymond has flown 370 km (230 miles) south and is now just north of Huescar in Granada, Spain.