Updates from our Cuckoos

Having been so quick off the mark and being the first of our tagged Cuckoos to leave, we might have expected Cuach Cores to be well on his way south by now. But instead, he has spent the past five weeks or so in north-western Italy. He has remained close to the River Elvo, between Salussola and Carisio in the Province of Vercelli.

New updates received from Cores' tag between midnight and 7 am this morning (4 August) show that he has flown 212 km (132 miles) south-west, back over the Alps into south-eastern France. He is currently a few km east of the town of Digne in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department of France. Could this be the start of Cuach Cores' next major leg of his journey south?

After almost two weeks on the edge of the Tinença de Benifassà Natural Park, in the autonomous community of Valencia in eastern Spain, Michael has turned north.

Over the last few days he has flown 265 km (165 miles) north through Spain and is now on the northern shores of the Yesa Resevoir on the Aragon River in the province of Zaragoza.

We have seen our tagged Cuckoos circle back north before. It may well be that Michael felt the need to move to try to find richer feeding grounds before embarking on the next stage of his journey. 

After several weeks in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Cuckoo Trent has finally embarked on the next stage of his journey south, taking on the mighty Sahara.

He set off on Sunday evening (30 July) and 24 hours later he had covered 1,150 km (714 miles) and was over the desert of Western Mauritania.

He pressed on and appears to have stopped for 36 hours or so in the desert on the eastern edge of the Banc d'Arguin National Park. I must confess to having been a little worried about him during this stop but thankfully, further updates received this morning show that he has flown a further 400 km (248 miles) south, towards Mauritania's border with Senegal. 

Since departing his last location in Morocco on Sunday evening, Trent has flown a total of around 1,960 km (1,218 miles) across some of the most remote and desolate terrain on the planet.

He is now some 40 km (24 miles) east of the town of Aleg and 20 km (12.4 miles) north of a large lake, in south-western Mauritania. Hopefully he is able to find some food here to help him on the rest of his journey south into Senegal or Mali. 

Bluey has departed Mali and flown 1,025 km (637 miles) east, taking him across Burkina Faso and into Nigeria.

He has spent the last few days 63 km (40 miles) north-west of the town of Zuru in Kebbi State.

Over the last few days Cuach Torc has made excellent progress south. By Saturday evening (29 July) he had departed Greece, crossed the Mediterranean and reached northern Libya.

He carried on south and by late on Monday (31 July) he was over the Sahara in eastern Chad.

By early this morning (3 August) he had reached the Marrah Mountains in Darfur, Sudan. He is currently 40 km (25 miles) west of the town of Kutum.

It'll be interesting to see whether Torc remains in the area or continues further south into the Sahel.

We are pleased to report that further updates from George's tag last night show that he has safely completed his crossing of the Sahara.

By 18:30 last night he had reached the northern edge of the Guéra region of Chad. Further updates suggest that he has carried on south towards the mountains of Mont Mourgue and Mont Ouala.  

After a bit of a hiatus, Cuach Torc is on the move again. He has flown 773 km (480 miles) south from Bosnia & Herzegovina to southern Greece.

He has spent the last couple of days in the countryside around the town of Gytheio on the eastern shore of the Mani Peninsula.

Since our last update George has departed Italy, crossed the Mediterranean and Libya, and reached Chad.

As of 20:48 last night he was still over the Sahara but was only a few hundred km from reaching the other side.

Hopefully by the time we receive the next update he will have successfully completed his crossing. 

We are pleased to report that Sayaan has made it across the Sahara. New updates from his tag this morning show that he has flown 1,225 km (761 miles) from the Tibesti mountains in southern Libya to his new location in the south-eastern corner of Chad.

He is now in the wetter and greener environs of the Sahel where he will hopefully be able to find plenty of food to help him recover from his long journey.

Sayaan has left Italy and by Sunday afternoon he had crossed the Mediterranean and reached northern Libya.

By the time of his last transmission just after 19:30 last night (Monday 24 July) he had flown 843 km (524 miles) south through the Libyan Sahara and reached the northern edge of the remote and very inaccessible Tibesti mountain range.

He is close to Bette Peak, the highest mountain in Libya at 2,266 metres (7,434 ft).  

Hopefully when we next hear from him, he will have completed his desert crossing and will be refuelling in the Sahel.