Having spent the last few weeks on the border of Chad and Central African Republic, Ashok has made a move of almost 500 km (310 miles) south in recent days and is currently close to the northern border of Republic of the Congo. 

After a while recovering from his Saharan crossing, Ashok has moved further south into Chad. He is now close to the border with the Central African Republic, on the edge of the Réserve de Faune de la Nana Barya, which is home to African Elephants, Lions, Leopards and Giant Elands, among many other species.

The first of our tagged birds to reach North Africa, Ashok has ploughed on with zeal, flying across the Sahara and on into Chad, covering over 3,000 km (1,864 miles) in under three days! 

In that time Ashok covered the length of Libya, flew through eastern Niger, and as of 7.26 this morning was in the Sahel region of Chad, having cleared the vast expanse of the Sahara desert.

We’d not heard much from Ashok in recent days, and he seemed to be lingering in Suffolk. However, we suddenly received a signal telling us that he had not only left the UK, but had crossed mainland Europe, flown across the Mediterranean via Monaco and Sardinia, and made landfall in Tunisia over the weekend! 

Now in northern Libya, Ashok is the first of our tagged birds to start the next leg of the major migration journey – crossing the Sahara!

Ashok was tagged on May 31 at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Worlingham Marshes reserve in the Broads National Park. 

Ashok is sponsored by all at Xenolith Ltd and is named in memory of Ashok Kumar Kapur.