Updates from our Cuckoos

We have been waiting with baited breath to see what Cuach Cores' next move would be and thankfully we didn't have long to wait. New updates received between yesterday afternoon and this morning show that he has not only reached Africa but is making excellent progress across the Sahara.

His journey so far has taken him from Spain, across the Mediterranean to Algeria and on south into Niger. The latest update arrived at 10:15 this morning and showed that Cores had passed to the east of the Air Mountains of northern Niger. There are favourable north-easterly winds in this area at the moment which will hopefully give Cores some welcome assistance as he progresses south.  A few hundred kilometers more and he'll be safely across the desert. 

When we loaded the satellite data earlier today we were greeted by the welcome news that Cuach Cores is on the move again!

After progressing south through France and then east into Italy, he returned to eastern France and very nearly ventured into Switzerland before heading west again and spending the last few weeks near Bordeaux. 

He is a long way behind out other surviving tagged Cuckoos which are all south of the Sahara.

Having almost given up hope for him, we were delighted to find that we had received updates from his tag early this morning showing that he had flown 450km south into Spain and is now in the mountainous Serra de Llaberia natural park, Catalonia. 

Hopefully Cuach Cores is carrying sufficient fat reserves to fuel his onward journey into Africa and across the Sahara, fingers crossed!

Sadly Cuach Carran's tag stopped transmitting a few weeks after he was tagged and showed him still very close to his original tagging location. We can't be certain whether he perished or his tag failed. Attempts were made by our friends at the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Service to search the area for him but no trace of him or his tag could be found. 

We haven't received any updates from Michael's tag since 7 August, when he was in southern France.

At that time he was close to the town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

We are not certain whether Michael perished or his tag failed but sadly it is now very unlikely we will hear anything further from him. 

Worcestershire Cuckoo Trent was the third of our Cuckoos to reach the Congo Basin, arriving yesterday (5 October).

He is now in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, approximately 13km north west of the town of Kutu.

Sayaan has flown 350km (217 miles) south-west from Chad to Central African Republic (CAR).

He is now 13km north east of the town of N'Délé in CAR.

Earlier this week, Joe left southern Chad and flew 930km (578 miles) south to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He is currently 300km north-west of Torc, on the banks of the Busira river in the rainforest of the Congo Basin.

A new update received this morning (6 October) from George's tag showed that he has flown 673km (419 miles) south from his last location in Central African Republic and has reached the Congo Basin.

At 9am this morning he was half way between Cuckoo Joe to his north and Trent to his south.

Cuach Torc was the first of our tagged Cuckoos to reach the Congo wintering grounds this year, arriving on 20th September.

Since then has has remained in the same area, deep in the rainforest of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve, at 3,600,000 hectares it is more than half the size of Wales. This area is very isolated and only accessible by boat.

Cuach Cores' tag is still transmitting loud and clear from a location in the countryside south of the town of Arsac, just north of Bordeaux, France.

Although we don't have any conclusive evidence that Cuach Cores has perished, the fact that he has spent so long in the same location and is so far behind the tagged Cuckoos makes us fear the worst for him.