Since arriving back on the Knepp Estate in late April, Knepp has been faithful to the site. During the last week or so he has been spending a lot of his time close to the village of Whitehall. Knepp was the first of our satellite tagged Cuckoos to arrive back in the UK on 25 April, in the past a few of our Cuckoos have headed back to Africa during the first week of June. Might Knepp be one of these? Watch this space.

Updates received early this morning brought the news that the first of our satellite-tagged Cuckoos had made it back to the UK. Cuckoo Knepp, tagged on the Knepp Estate in Sussex last May is back in Sussex! We last heard from Knepp on April 17 when he was on the northern edge of the Atlas mountains in eastern Morocco. He was in the northern Sahara, near the oasis settlement of Ain Bni Mathar. Since then he has flown 1,880 Km (1,170 miles) north to reach his breeding grounds on the Knepp Estate. We hope that this is the first complete migration loop of many which we will follow Knepp on.

A few days ago we wondered if Knepp might be preparing for his desert crossing and we now know that this was the case. late at night on 14 April Knepp popped up on the northern edge of the Atlas mountains in eastern Morocco. The area he is in is still part of the northern Sahara but he has found the oasis settlement of Ain Bni Mathar. He is around 115km (70 miles) from the Mediterranean coast.

Knepp has moved 321km (199 miles) north and west within Ivory Coast. We will have to wait until we hear from him again to see if this is the start of his push across the desert. He is currently in an area of farmland in the northwest of the country and just south of Tiorotierivogo.

During the last week Knepp has headed back east and is now close to the River Comoe in eastern Ivory Coast. He is 281km (175 miles) east of his last location in Ivory Coast. We are seeing a few of our tagged Cuckoos making interesting movements at the moment. Presumably this is in response to the intensity and location of the rains that are currently moving around the region.