Updates from our Cuckoos

Transmissions on 26 July still place Skinner in Spain, to the east of Checa in the Guadalajara region. 

From his last position, Nick appears to have changed direction and headed in a south-westerly direction to finish his desert crossing in the south-west corner of Mali on the evening of 25 July and early hours of 26 July. He is now 190km (120 miles) north-west of Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali.

Nick and Ken, two of our East Anglian Cuckoos, are currently separated by around 380km (235 miles).    

The last good signal for Nelson was received on 16 July but poor quality transmissions on 29 July indicate he is still in the same area of south France. 

No further signals were received to confirm Tor’s position in Corsica but further poor quality signals indicate that by the afternoon of 25 July, Tor was crossing the Tibesti Mountain area in northern Chad. By the evening of the 27 July he had finished his desert crossing and was in Nigeria, 195km (120 miles) south of Lake Chad. He is the sixth tagged Cuckoo to transmit from Africa. He has taken an almost parallel route to BB, who transmitted from Africa on the same day, through Libya and Chad, with BB's route being slightly further to the east.

From south of the Lake, Tor’s next movement took him 208km (125 miles) south-west and further into Nigeria. Since the last transmission on Corsica, he had covered at least 3450km (2140 miles). 

Signals received mid-morning on 25 July show that Ken had left Spain and was in Morocco, 153km (95 miles) south-west of Marrakesh. From here he then headed across the desert, and by the evening of 27 July he was past the Akchar desert in the middle of Mauritania.  By early morning on 30 July, Ken had reached the very south of Mauritania, and was close to the border with Senegal.  He is the fifth tagged Cuckoo to transmit from Africa, closely followed by Tor.

Despite being almost the last Cuckoo to leave the UK, only Patch departed after him, he has already crossed the desert, while many others remain in mainland Europe.  Since he first transmitted from France, on the 20 July, he has travelled 3410km (2120 miles)! 

Signals on the 23 July show that from north-east Italy, BB journeyed south to the Calabria area in the foot of Italy but, just two days later on the morning of 25 July,  poor quality signals indicate he was crossing the Libyan desert becoming the fourth tagged Cuckoo to transmit from Africa. By the evening of 27 July he was in south-west Sudan and had completed his desert crossing.

From here he then moved west a further 355km (220 miles), into the Guera region of Chad.  He is 65km (41 miles) north-west of Mongo, the capital of the region.

Chris has made his leap to Africa too, heading from his location in Sicily straight across the Sahara to Chad. This makes him the third Cuckoo this year to reach Africa and the first that we can confirm to have successfully crossed the Sahara Desert.  Positions received early this morning show that he is 440km (275 km) south-east of Lake Chad. 

Since the last location received at 4pm on 21 July near Sicily, Chris had covered 3035km (1885 miles) in as little as three and a half days, arriving in Chad on 24 July.

Last year, Chris crossed the desert and arrived just north of Lake Chad on 19 July. In 2011 he arrived in Chad on 25 July so the timings are really similar. In both cases he remained in Chad until mid September/early October before then moving into Central African Republic. 

Nick is the second Cuckoo to make it to Africa! ! Signals put him in Algeria near the boder with Mali and he seemed to be in active migration. His tag has new programming which turns the tag on when the battery is full and we hope to hear form him later today. It looks like he  has covered at least 2050km (1270 miles) in the last four days. 

We can now confirm that 128303 has a name and will be called Patch. He has been named on behalf of the Patchwork Challenge and Meopta and Forest Optics, who have sponsored participants in the challenge. It looks like this comes just in time too, while three of our tagged Cuckoos have made it to Africa, signals from Patch’s tag show that he is finally on the move, heading south within England. Transmissions this morning show he is moving around close to the border between south Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire, around 16km (10 miles) south-east of Doncaster.