By the 31 August, Sussex had left Chad and headed south, revealing his new position in the Central African Republic. The excitement at Whortle and Patch's movements over the weekend meant this new movement was slightly overshadowed but he has actually travelled 450km (280 miles) and is now further south than Nick, making him the most southerly of all our tagged Cuckoos! Only David is also in the Central African Republic, in the very north tip, about 550km (340 miles) away from Sussex's location.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Sussex is the most southerly Cuckoo
Derek moving south
From his location in the Zamfara region of Nigeria, Derek has flown more than 300km (190 miles) in a south-easterly direction and is now in the Kaduna region, 60km (37 miles) west of Jos in the middle belt of Nigeria.
Chance heading to Lake Chad?
Since the last positions received on 31 August, Chance has started to head east, in the direction of Lake Chad. By early evening of 2 September he had travelled 280km (175 miles) and was 115km (75 miles) from the edge of the lake. Will he continue onwards and spend some time here again this year?
Patch heads south
Signals from Patch’s tag this morning and lunchtime show he was also moving south and had travelled 890km (550 miles) to southern Italy! He is close to the town of Rizzuto and about 95km (59 miles) NE of the Straits of Messina. We expect he will stop here only briefly before continuing south to begin his desert crossing. When we next hear from his tag, he could be over Libya, Niger or Chad....
Whortle reaches Africa!
Whortle had spent 6 weeks in Spain but by 30 August he had began to move on. He had already moved 200km (136 miles) south, and spent the day 32km (20 miles) NW of Benidorm. From here he moved due south and by the morning of 1 September he was 1650km (1026 miles) further on in southern Algeria.
Over the next 18 hours he continued for a further 775km (482 miles) before stopping early in the morning of 2 September close to the Niger river in central Mali (not yet displayed on the map), an area that will be nice and greeen at this time of year. Whortle has crossed the desert in a more easterly direction than many of the other Cuckoos that took the south-westerly route through Spain and consequently will be further east when he completes his desert crossing – this will allow him to make up for lost time because if he continues in this direction he will not need to travel far east before catching the others up!
Waller heads south
Waller has moved 135km (84 miles) south within Chad. This move takes him closer to Chris’s location and only about 100km (60 miles) now separates the two of them. He is also just 85km (52 miles) north-west of Zakouma National Park, Chads first National Park, created in 1963, which includes many large mammals including Elephants and Lions.
Four Cuckoos in Nigeria
From Burkino Faso on the 27 August, Ken continued eastwards and, by lunchtime on 29 August, he was in Nigeria, joining both Skinner and Derek in the west of the country and Tor, who is further east. Ken is now about 120km (75 miles) from both Skinner and Derek's positions, although in slightly different directions. It’s really interesting to see how similar the timings of these Norfolk Cuckoos’ eastwards movements are within Africa.
Whortle and Patch yet to leave Europe
Norfolk birds moving east
In the last few days both Ken and Derek have moved around 100km (60 miles) eastwards, although they still remain in Burkina Faso and Nigeria respectively. Meanwhile Skinner has moved out of Niger and headed 305 km (190 miles) east to Nigeria. He is about 90km (50 miles) north-east of the town of Gummi. This echoes Nicks (much bigger) movement last week from Nigeria to Cameroon.
Tor moving west
Since the 24 August Tor has been gradually moving westwards. Signals received early this morning show he is now 410km (255 miles) further west than he was 5 days ago. He is now 50km (32 miles) from the city of Kano, the capital of the Kano region, which has the second largest population in Nigeria after Lagos.
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