Updates from our Cuckoos

Since crossing into Nigeria from Benin a week ago, Hafren made a move towards the lush shores of the Niger River.  

Currently just north-east of Kainji Lake, he is following a section of the Sokoto, a tributary of the Niger, heading eastwards into the country.

Cuach Torc finally seems to have come to his senses after his lengthy, unscheduled visit to northern Germany, and now appears to be heading south once more.

In recent days he left an area just north of Leipzig, flew down past Frankfurt and entered French airspace through the North Vosges Regional National Park before proceeding to Dijon, covering some 768km (477 miles). Hopefully he is fully rested, fed, and in good shape to continue south to make a swift Mediterranean crossing.    

Torc has certainly had us scratching our heads a little in recent weeks. By mid July he looked poised to cross the Mediterranean from his position in southern Greece, but since then he has headed back north through the Balkans and into central Europe.

For some reason, he is now in Saxony, western Germany, approximately 53 km (32 miles) north of Leipzig. We just hope that he can find enough food to fatten himself up for a journey south soon.   

By this time last year Cuach Torc had already been on the other side of the Sahara for around six weeks, having crossed the Mediterranean in late July. What will he do next?   

For much of the last month, Hafren has been in Burkina Faso, but in recent days he has made a significant move to the east.

Since leaving Burkina Faso just two days ago, he has passed through northern Ghana, then Togo, and as of this morning he is in the Borgou Department of northern Benin. Our satellite signal currently shows him to be close to a stretch of the Bouli River, a few miles west of the Trois Rivières forest reserve.

After trying Croatia, Greece, Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovinia, new signals received from Torc's tag last night showed that he had flown 740 km (460 miles) north to the Czech Republic.

He is now near the town of Holýšov, in the Plzeň Region of western Czech Republic.

While most of our tagged Cuckoos have now crossed the Sahara, Torc is continuing his leisurely tour of south-eastern Europe.

He has moved north again in recent days, this time from Albania into Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Currently exploring the forested uplands less than 20 km (12 miles) north-east of the capital Sarajevo, he is hopefully finding plenty of food and getting into shape to continue his long journey south.

Having made steady progress down into Western Sahara, Cuthbert has progressed in earnest. Soon after our last update, he swiftly covered a further 1,125 km (700 miles) of open desert and made his way into southern Mauritania.

After a brief stop there, he continued his flight south and crossed into eastern Senegal just after 10.30pm on August 30. He has spent the last few days in the vegetated savannah of the Matam region and just to the east close to the Ferlo Sud Wildlife Reserve, which is home to a number of IUCN Red List species including Golden Nightjar and Arabian Bustard.      

Cuthbert is not hanging about now and has pressed straight on across the Gulf of Cadiz to Africa.

At 9am this morning he was in the Sahara, 42 km (26 miles) south east of the City of Samara in Western Sahara, having flown 1,791 km (1,113 miles) since leaving northern Spain!

Hopefully he has built up sufficient fat reserves to carry him safely across to the other side of the Sahara.  There were 30-40mph north-easterly winds in this area yesterday which should help Cuthbert along nicely to Senegal. Fingers crossed! 

We are pleased to report that further updates from Henry's tag show that he has succesfully completed his desert crossing and is now in the Sahel, where he should be able to refuel and recover.

His journey south across the Sahara took him to the west of the Tibesti Mountains of northern Chad to his current location in the Kanem region of south-western Chad.

He is close to one of the thousands of smaller water bodies associated with the massive Lake Chad wetland ecosystem. 

Cuthbert has finally left Spain. Over the last few days he has flown 300 miles south and is now just west of the village of Lousal in the Alentejo Province of southern Portugal.

It looks most likely that Cuthbert will cross to Morocco and proceed south across the Sahara along the western edge.