Updates from our Cuckoos

KP has been rather dormant of late, but he's now on the move again. He's finally left northern Italy, departing on Saturday night at around 10pm and progressing south-east through Italy.

By 6:45 on Sunday morning he had reached the foot of Italy but pressed on across the Mediterranean and by 16:25 yesterday afternoon he had reached Tobruk on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt.

He has since progressed onwards south into the Sahara and by the time the last update reached us at 09:17 this morning he had flown 772 km (480 miles) from Tobruk. At that time he was over the desert, straddling the border between Libya and Egypt, approximately 215 km (134 miles) north-east of the Libyan town of Al Jawf.  

KP has flown 2,750 km (1,708 miles) since leaving Northern Italy on Saturday night. Hopefully he has enough energy reserves to take him the rest of the way across the desert, despite the long journey he has already undertaken. 

Having moved north in Spain, Michael has now flown a further 65 km (40 miles) north, taking him back over the border into France.

He is now a few miles north of the town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

Since crossing back into France from Italy, Cuach Cores has flown 270 km (168 miles) west and is now in the Lozère department in southern France.

He is currently 8 km (5 miles) north of the town of Marvejols and very close to The Wolves of Gevaudan wildlife park.  

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.