During the evening of 2 April we received a couple of locatrions that showed Victor has begun to move west and has crossed the border in to Ivory Coast. It will be interesting to see where he is when we next hear from him. Will he haved moved further west or begun his desert crossing?
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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Victor heading west
06 Apr 2018
No further news from Samson
06 Apr 2018
Unfortunately, we have received no further locations for Samson. We are unable to draw any conclusions as to what might have happened. The new 2g tags have not worked well on the Cuckoos and his loss could well be down to tag failure but we don't really know. We are unlikely to hear from him again, even though we have occasionally lost Cuckoos for several months for them to pop-up again when they begin to move. Samson should now be in an area where the tag should be getting plenty of sunlight to charge the battery. If the tag was going to burst into life it really should have done by now.
PJ has crossed the desert
06 Apr 2018
Around lunctime on 6 April we received locations from PJ's tag that showed he had successfully crossed the Sahara. He is currently in Morocco just west of Meknes. It will be interesting to see how long he stays here, it could only be a few days and by early next week he may well be in Spain, resting before he completes the final leg of his journey back to the UK.
Peckham hasn't moved far
06 Apr 2018
Peckham has left Gabon but has only moved into Cameroon. We last heard from in on 1 April and things look to be OK with him. If all is well we would expect him to start heading west any day now. He is currently in the Dja Faunal Reserve, one of the most undisturbed pieces of African rainforest.
No further news from Mr Conkers
06 Apr 2018
Unfortunately, we have received no further locations for Mr Conkers. We are unable to draw any conclusions as to what might have happened. The new 2g tags have not worked well on the Cuckoos and his loss could well be down to tag failure but we don't really know. We are unlikely to hear from him again, even though we have occasionally lost Cuckoos for several months for them to pop-up again when they begin to move. Mr Conkers should now be in an area where the tag should be getting plenty of sunlight to charge the battery. If the tag was going to burst into life it really should have done by now.
Larry in Ivory Coast
06 Apr 2018
Larry has moved west and is currently in Ivory Coast, close to the border with Ghana. Looking at previous years we have no idea where Larry will launch his desert crossing from, two years ago he crossed from Nigeria and last year from Guinea. With any luck we should find out in the next week or so. Watch this space.
No further news from Boris
06 Apr 2018
Unfortunately, we have received no further locations for Boris. We are unable to draw any conclusions as to what might have happened. The new 2g tags have not worked well on the Cuckoos and his loss could well be down to tag failure but we don't really know. We are unlikely to hear from him again, even though we have occasionally lost Cuckoos for several months for them to pop-up again when they begin to move. Boris should now be in an area where the tag should be getting plenty of sunlight to charge the battery. If the tag was going to burst into life it really should have done by now.
Selborne in Spain
04 Apr 2018
Selborne is the first of our Cuckoos to return to Europe this year. Having successfully crossed the desert he spent a few days resting north of Morocco, but was on the move again in the early hours of 3 April. By lunchtime he had crossed the ocean and was in southern Spain, just north of Linares. He is on the edge of the Sierra de Andújar Natural Park, part of the immense Sierra Morena mountain range which stretches for 400 kilometres east-west across southern Spain. It's heavily covered by Mediterranean forest and scrubland and is home to endangered species such as the lynx, wolf, black vulture and imperial eagle.
Selborne completes desert crossing
28 Mar 2018
By 23 March, Selborne was on his way north and embarking on his desert crossing, having flown over Mali and into Mauritania. Signals on 25 March show he headed northwest slightly, towards the west coast of Morocco and the latest signal, received yesterday, revealed he had sucessfully completed the crossing and was north of Marrakesh.
He has taken a much more westerly route this year compared to his route through Mali and Algeria last year, though the timing is very similar. By 28 March 2017 he had left Africa and was in Spain, arriving back in the UK by 12 April 2017.
Could Selborne become the first tagged Cuckoo back to the UK this year? And if so, let's hope he brings the spring with him!
Victor in Ghana
13 Mar 2018
Victor has made a big movement westwards and is now in Ghana, West Africa. By 8 March he had covered 1790km (1100 miles) from his previous location in Central African Republic, from where his tag last transmitted on 3 March, and was west of Lake Volta. He's a little bit ahead of where he was at this time last year, when he moved to Ghana in early April and had crossed the desert to northern Africa by 23 April. Will he spend longer preparing for his crossing or take on the challenge earlier than in 2017?
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