Updates from our Cuckoos

From Montenegro it appears that David then travelled down to Greece and made his crossing to Libya, Africa from here. Poor quality signals on the 4 August show him travelling through the Libyan desert and by the early hours of 9 August he had completed his crossing and made it safely to southern Chad. 

By the 2 August, Waller had moved south into Tuscany and it was from here that he decided to cross to Africa, transmitting from Libya around midday on 6 August! He is the second Scottish Cuckoo to make it to Africa this summer. The last signal received showed he had made some progress south within Libya but still had a way to go to complete his crossing of the desert. 

In previous years, we've seen Chris be one of the first tagged Cuckoos in Africa but this year he seems to be on a much more relaxed schedule. His previous arrival dates in Africa were 23 July, 16 July and 24 July but right now he is still currently in Italy! It will be interesting to see whether this affects the rest of his journey or whether he just does the same route in a more leisurely fashion.  

Livingstone arrived in Africa on time this year, in fact a few days earlier than last year when he arrived on 31 July. This time he transmitted from Libya on 27 July before heading south through Niger and then heading east into Chad, in a very similar fashion to last year. 

The first indication Ash was on his way was late on 31 July when a location was received just off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic sea. A few days later, on the 2 August, he was in Libya. From here he went south to Chad and signals received today show him close to the locations of Livingstone, Hennah and Peter. 

Stanley has made it across the desert. It appears that he left his location in western Italy and flew across the Mediterrannean sea to reach Libya on 29 July. Signals received on the afternoon of 31 July show him in southern Niger, where he has remained since. 

Skinner has embarked on his desert crossing. He has made good progress, having left Spain late on 30 July and travelling over the Atlas mountains in the early hours of the 31, he made his way south over Algeria and by the 2 August he was in Mali. However he appears to have grounded here and signals received today show him still in the same location, which from the satellite images, may not be as barren as other parts. Hopefully he will continue onwards shortly and make it safely across. 

This year, because there are so many Cuckoos and routes to view on the map, individual birds only show by default if there has been a signal in the last 10 days.

Currently Gowk, Gilbert, Meavy, Waller and BB have all stopped being shown by default as we haven't heard from them in this period. Don't worry, it doesn't necessarily mean anything bad has happened. There are often periods where the Cuckoos are in dense undergrowth, where the tags don't receive enough light to charge or send signals to the satellites, often just before and after big movements.

You can still view these Cuckoos on the map by ticking the box underneath their pictures. Once we receive a signal, they will automatically reappear on the main map. 

Cuckoo 134955 has finally crosed the desert. He remained in Morroco until around 28 July but by 1 August he he was on his way south. Signals received on 2 August show he had made it safely across the expanse and was in Senegal. 

We are still following twenty-two birds. Currently two cuckoos are in France – Walpole and unnamed cuckoo 134957.

Five birds are in and around the Po Valley in northern Italy – BB, Chris, Stanley, Waller and Livingstone.

Six birds are in Spain – Two of these are big movers this week. After finally leaving the UK, Derek hasn’t hung around. After a brief stop in central-western France, he is now in central-northern Spain, just south of Tolbanos de Abajo. It is Maji that has provided the biggest surprise though. He seems to be taking a tour of the European mountain ranges. Having spent a time in the Austrian Alps, he is now in the central Pyrenees!

David is still in Montenegro and Ash is still in Croatia; both of these birds could make the move to Africa any day now.

We now have seven birds in Africa, six of them south of the Sahara. Emsworthy is the latest to arrive here and he is currently just south of Lake Chad, in an area that Chris also favours. Three other Cuckoos – Peter, Hennah and Dudley – are also close to Lake Chad.