Updates from our Cuckoos

Dudley remained in the area of the Pyranees until at least the 13 April and was crossing over France during the 15.  Signals received around lunchtime on the 16 revealed he had made it back to the UK and was close to his breeding grounds in Sherwood Forest, where he was originally tagged. He becomes the second of our tagged Cuckoos to make it back to the UK.  

We last received a signal from Hennah's tag in late Februay from Sierra Leone, from where he had moved to on the 10 February. No further signals were received and we could tell the tag was not charging well so imagine our surprise when on the 15 April Hennah reappeared in the UK, north-east of Bournemouth, becoming the first Cuckoo to return home!

BTO scientist in charge of the project, Chris Hewson, explained that this lack of signals over the desert, when we might expect good exposure to the sun,  could be down to the Sahara dust on the solar panels which meant the tag was unable to charge and send a signal. Exposure to rain later would then have washed this off and allowed the tag to transmit his recent location.  

New signals from Ash's tag show that he is still in Ivory Coast. Having moved north-west of  Bouake he then back-tracked south-east to his previous location. 

Jake reappeared in mid-March and was in Benin but it has now been several weeks since we heard anything from his tag. Could he be on the move?

We hadn't heard from Chester for several weeks but the latest signal received shows he is still in the same area of southern Nigeria and has yet to move further west. 

After a number of poor quality signals from Fred's tag indicating he was in  Nigeria we're pleased to see that a good quality location has recently been received placing him in westen Nigeria, just south of the River Moshi Forestry Reserve. 

During the early hours of 13 April we received a location from Derek that showed him in Morocco, on the northern edge of the Sahara, the third of our tagged Cuckoos to successfully make it across.

During the early hours of the 13 April, Stanley transmitted from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in southern Spain. He is the second bird to reach Europe - how long will he stay before heding further north?

Dudley transmitted from south-west France, close to the Pyrenees, on 11 April. He is well ahead of the other tagged birds but could now spend time recovering from his 500km flight from central Spain. Will he be the fisrt back to the UK?

It looks like Dudley's move to southern Mali on the morning of 6 April was indeed the start of his migration! Between then and around 10am on 8 April he flew 2360km (1470 miles) crossing Mali and Algeria to reach northern Morocco. He didn't stop there though and crossed over into southern Spain by late afternoon of the same day becoming the first of this year's tagged Cuckoos to return to Europe. Further low quality signals indicate he has continued north 330km (205 miles) and was south of Madrid just after midnight this morning.