Updates from our Cuckoos

Ellis has continued his journey south through Italy, and by 22:30 on Saturday night was passing Pisa. Last year he only made a very brief stop in Italy before pressing on to Libya, arriving there on 8 July. He had completed his crossing of the Sahara to Nigeria by 12 July last year so he is running a little later this year. 

By 21:00 last night JAC had flown a further 280km (174 miles) south over the border from Algeria into eastern Mali. He is now 50km south of the desert town of Kidal and within 200km of the River Niger. 

Since our last update JAC has flown 1,600km (995 miles) south over the Algerian Sahara. By 21:15 last night he was close to the border between Algeria and Mali, juts outside the town of Timiaouine. He passed over Timiaouine last year on his way south so is following a very similar path. Last year he flew to Burkina Faso and then on to Nigeria, will his destination be the same this year?

Having spent the last ten days in Niger, Cooper has flown 573km (356 miles) south east into Nigeria. He is now on some farmland 50km (31 miles) south east of Zaria City in north central Nigeria.

Ellis has left the Nurburgring behind and flown 700km (435 miles) south from Germany into Italy. By 18:17 this evening he was just outside the town of Brugnato in Liguria, approximately 14km (9 miles) north west of La Spezia. 

Victor II is currently on the slopes below the Rötspitze, a 3,495 m (11,467 ft) peak in the Hohe Tauern mountain range on the border between Austria and Italy.

Over the last few days JAC has made a significant move south. By Tuesday evening he was close to L'escala on Spain's Costa Brava. But he didn't hang around for long as further update received close to midnight that evening showed him crossing the Mediterranean on a bearing for Mallorca. The next updates arrived between 04:55 and 08:35 this morning by which time he had reached northern Algeria. His most recent location showed him approximately 200km south of Algiers, and just south of the vast Zehrez Chergui salt lake in the high steppes between the Tell Atlas and Saharan Atlas mountains.  

After a few weeks in the Netherlands, new updates received from Ellis' tag this morning show that he has flown 341km (212 miles) south into western Germany. By 10:13 this morning he was just south of the Nurburgring motor racing circuit. If he follows last year's timetable he will now move quickly through Germany and Italy before crossing into Libya and on across the Sahara to Niger. 

Bluey has continued his journey south, flying 429km (267 miles) south from his last location in Mauritania, crossing briefly over Mali and arriving in Senegal. By 06:21 this morning he was in the south eastern corner of Senegal, approaching Niokolo-Koba National Park. Hopefully he will now find some good places to rest and recover from his desert crossing. At the moment 3,174km (1,972 miles) separate Bluey in west Africa from Joe in Chad. 

Over the last few days Ripple has flown approximately 55km (34 miles) east along the river Po and is now close to the city of Piacenza in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.