Updates from our Cuckoos

Skinner is the first tagged Cuckoo to make it back to Europe! From the tip of Morroco he flew almost directly north for 770km (480 miles), settling just south of the Cantabrian Mountains, to the east of Leon. Will he be the first to make it back to the UK? 

The title of first tagged Cuckoo back to the UK is still up for grabs, and Chris is close on the heels of the two leading Cuckoos. From his location in Morroco on 14 April he has flown 810km (500 miles), across the Alboran Sea and the Sieraa Nevada Mountains to a location south of Valladolid, Spain.

This is surprising, as during the 3 years we have been following him, this is the first time he has ventured to Spain, previously preferring to travel through Italy and France.  

Skinner is currently the most northerly Cuckoo, but only just further than Waller. Skinner is about 140km (90 miles) directly north of Chris while Waller is 170km (100 miles) to the north-west.

48 hours after the last signal, Waller had made it to Europe and was in north-western Spain, just west of the city of Valladolid, having travelled 680km (420 miles). He continued for another 90km (60 miles) and is now north-west of Leon and almost as far north as Skinner, who is about 85km (55 miles) to the north-east. Chris is also not far behind! Who will be first back to the UK?  

We hadn't received transmissions from Whortle's tag since 26 March so we were surprised to check the map this morning and find that Whortle had crossed the desert!  From Ivory Coast, he travelled 2400km (1490 miles) to Algeria, and were able to follow him heading north to Morocco through the night of 14 and early morning of 15 April. His last location was just north of Fez, close to Skinners Moroccan location.  

Chris remained in the east of Ivory Coast until at least 6 April.  In the late afternoon of the 11 April, a series of transmissions revealed he was on the move and was in Mauritania, flying over the El Djouf Desert at the western edge of the Sahara, having already covered 1525km (950 miles) from his previous location.

Just north of the El Djouf Desert, he then changed course to head north-east, arriving in northern Morocco in the early hours of the 14 April, shortly after Waller also arrived in Morrocco having completed his crossing. This makes Chris the third of our Cuckoos to cross the desert successfully and is the third return desert crossing over which we have eagerly followed his progress. This year, he seems to have ended up much further west than after any previous crossings. He was tagged in the first year of the project and is the only remaining bird from the original five tagged. Over the three years, he has helped us to learn amazing new things about Cuckoo Migration and we hope that he continues to do so! 

Waller has certainly had a  busy weekend!  By midday on Friday 11 April he had moved 590km (365 miles) to southern Mali , just south of the desert.  The next signal received was late on the 13 April which showed him in 2265km (1410 miles) further north, just inside the border of Morocco, having successfully crossed the desert! He continued moving onwards through the late evening and early morning of the 14 April, overflying the High Atlas mountains and covering another 450km (280 miles). By 3am he was just east of the northern city of Tangier (this point is not yet shown on the map). He is the second of our Cuckoos to have crossed the desert, but Chris was a close third! 

By the 9 April, BB had left Nigeria and travelled 1000k (620 miles) in a north-westerly direction to reach Burkina Faso. He's remained there for the last couple of days.

We are really pleased that Skinner has completed one of the most hazardous elements the Cuckoos face on their migration! We were a little worried about him over the weekend as signals showed that he was stationary in Algeria, in the middle of the desert, all day during Saturday. His decision to ground may have been due to winds from the north-west pushing him in the wrong direction or making it hard going. On the morning of the 5 April however, further signals were received which showed he had pressed on northwards a further 530km (335 miles).

New locations received today (which will update on the map tomorrow) reveal he continued to Morocco, clearing the desert and the High Atlas Mountains, and is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to successfully cross the desert this year. Well done Skinner!   

Skinner is the first of our tagged Cuckoos this year to embark on the desert crossing! After a gap of 9 days, Skinner came back online on 3 April and transmissions placed him in Mauritania, close to the border with Mali. From the low tag temperature, between 7 and 18 degrees, we could tell he was high in the air and mid-migration. He had travelled around 1050km (750 miles) from his previous location in Ivory Coast since the 26 March.

He continued his journey overnight in the same direction and on the morning of the 4 April his tag came on again, some 800 km further on, in northern Mali, close to the Algerian border.  

Skinner made his southward migration via Spain and then down through Mali and Algeria and it looks like he may be heading back the same way.

If Skinner is successful in returning to the UK, this will be only the second full migration we will have captured from any of the birds who took the south-westerly route through Spain. Due to bad conditions in previous years many of the others perished before completing the journey.

Despite Patch's recent westerly movement to Guinea, David may still be the most westerly Cuckoo. Poor quality signals suggest that David continued on from Mali and could be in either Sierra Leone or Guinea. Last year, he was in a very similar location, almost on the Guinea/Sierra Leone border by the 8 April. This was preceeded by a couple of weeks of silence so we can't tell whether he is on schedule or ahead of last year.  We will have to await further signals to confirm his current location and update the map positions.