Updates from our Cuckoos

After a short stop in Togo, Carlton II has pressed on east, covering a further 281 km (175 miles) and by Saturday morning (10 October) he was in eastern Benin. He has since repositioned, flying a further 39 km (24 miles) north to his current location in north-east Benin. He is now in the Foret de Goungoun, a protected area watered by the Sota, a tributary of the Niger, and containing forest and wooded savannah. 

It's been a quiet few weeks on the Cuckoo front but over the last 48 hours Carlton II has been on the move again. He has flown 920 km (572 miles) south east from his last location in Mali into Togo. He is now in the far north eastern corner of Togo, close to the borders with Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. He also stopped in Togo in 2018, spending a couple of days here in early September before pressing on to Cameroon and then Gabon where he overwintered. In 2019 he stopped in Benin for a couple of days at the end of September before moving into Nigeria in early November and reaching Gabon by November 11 where he again over wintered. So, if previous years are an indicator of the future, we should see Carlton II making a few more significant moves over the coming days/weeks. Stay tuned!

New updates received yesterday evening show that Carlton II has started the next leg of his journey which will take him east from his stop-over location in Senegal, towards Nigeria. By yesterday evening he had flown 748 km (465 miles) south east from his last location in Senegal, over the border into Mali and was 43 km (27 miles) north west of the capital of Bamako. It is the rainy season in southern Mali at the moment and today in Bamako it is approximately 30°C (86°F) with 60% probability of thunderstorms. 

New updates received yesterday morning show that Carlton II has continued south over the border from Mauritania into Senegal where he also stopped off in 2018 and 2019. He is now in northern Senegal, approximately 86 km (54 miles) south of the Mauritanian border, close to the Reserve Sylvo-Pastorale de Rhadar. In previous years his stop overs in Senegal have been a few hundred kilometers further south. On this day in 2018, Carlton II was already well on his way east and had reached Benin, almost 2,000km from his stop-over in Senegal. Last year he spent time in southern Mali, remaining here until late September before moving east. 

New updates received early this morning show that Carlton II has flown a further 1,173 km (730 miles) south, bringing him inland over Western Sahara. By 06:33 this morning he had reached the Trarza region of southwest Mauritania and was 223 km (139 miles) east of the capital Nouakchott. Given that Mauritania is largely desert we expect Carlton II to continue his journey south a few hundred kilometers more before stopping over, perhaps in Senegal. 

Carlton II has taken advantage of favourable winds to make rapid progress south from his last location off the coast of northern Portugal. Between 23:01 on Tuesday 1 September and 20:00 on Wednesday 2 September he flew 1,442 km (896 miles) south, staying out to sea the whole time and clocking up an impressive average speed of 69 kmh (43 mph). This journey has taken him to a new position off the coast of southern Morocco. The latest update showed him between Lanzarote and Morocco, approximately 150 km due east of Lanzarote and 87 km from the coast of south west Morocco. Will he now make landfall in Morocco or press on across the Sahara?  

Having been sitting in north western Spain since 8 August, it was a relief to log on this morning and see that Carlton II is finally on the move south. It looks as if he set off at around 20:30 yesterday evening (1 September), flew around Satiago de Compostela and by the time the last update came in at 23:01 last night, he was 14.5 km (9 miles) offshore from north western Portugal, approaching Viana do Castelo. In 2018 he left northern Spain on 6 August and last year he departed on 28 July. In both previous years he has stopped off in Senegal after crossing the Sahara. Will Carlton II be in Africa when we next hear from him? Stay tuned to find out...

Over the last few days PJ has flown 244 km (151 miles) east within southern Niger. He is now around 50 km north of the border with Nigeria and 67 km south east of the city of Tahoua. He visited the same location during his southern migration in 2017. Based on his behaviour in previous years his route to his wintering grounds in Angola are likely to take him through Nigeria and Cameroon. 

Since our last update, Valentine has flown 83 km (52 miles) south in Nigeria and is close to the Falgore Game Reserve in Kano State in northern Nigeria. Last year Valentine passed through southern Nigeria in late November/early December, some 670 km (416 miles) south of his current position.

Updates received at around 06:00 this morning, show that PJ has flown a further 570 km (354 miles) south-south west from the norther border of Niger into the south western corner of Niger, completing his crossing of the Sahara. He is now approximately 165 km (102 miles) north east of the capital Niamey. PJ has arrived here in the rainy season with most of the annual rainfall expected between May and mid-September. It'll be interesting to see whether he stays here or follows Valentine in moving further east.