Updates from our Cuckoos

During the last few days Knepp has moved further south in Angola. He is now just to the northeast of the coastal town of N'zeto and currently further south than any of our other tagged Cuckoos. He is 6,606km (4,105 miles), as the crow flies, from the Knepp Estate in Sussex; his summer location.

During the last few days Knepp has moved further south into Angola and is currently just a little further south than Bowie, one of our other tagged Cuckoos - 31km (19 miles) separates them.

Locations received from Knepp's tag on 5 November showed that he had moved out of Gabon and was in Angola, flying through Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo on the way. He is currently in the northeast corner of Angola and 50km north of Bowie, another of our satellite tagged Cuckoos. During this movement Bowie has flown 610km (379 miles). He is to the south of Booue and the Ogooue River.

Two weeks ago Knepp made his move east and south out of Nigeria. During this time he has covered a distance of over 1,300km (800 miles) to reach Gabon, where he has joined three more of our tagged Cuckoos, Victor, Bowie and Robinson. All four Cuckoos are within a 20 mile radius of each other in an area of dense rainforest.

Knepp is still settled in central Nigeria close to Robinson. Both are still in the Kaduna region. It is still pretty wet and thunderstormy in this area.

During the last two weeks Knepp has flown over 1,000km (600 miles) east, through Ghana, Togo and Benin and on into Nigeria. He is currently in the Kaduna region and only 15km (9 miles) from Robinson, a fellow Knepp Estate Cuckoo. Even though it is currently around 30 degrees, they have both just experienced a large thunderstorm and heavy rain.

Along with all of our other satellite tagged Cuckoos, Knepp is resting and refuelling after his desert crossing. He has been settled in Burkina Faso for the last twenty days. At some stage soon we expect him to begin heading further east towards the Congo Basin.

Knepp successfully crossed the Sahara on the evening of 2 August but having arrived in southerwestern Mali he didn't hang around. He has since moved east and crossed into Burkina Faso, joining Victor, Selborne and PJ, who are all also in Burkina Faso. There has been quite a bit of rain during the last week in this area and the temperature has mostly been in the low to mid 20's, which sounds perfect for the invertebrates that these Cuckoos will need to fill up on after their mammoth desert journey.

Having spent 19 days in Spain, close to the Portuguese border, Knepp has now headed south. On the evening of 28 July his tag showed that he had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and was in Morocco. He is currently in the Rif Mountains to the east of Chefchaouen.

Knepp is very close to the Portuguese border. Another 5km (3 miles) and he would have crossed the border into Portugal and added a new country to those that our tagged Cuckoos have visited so far. He is currently close to the Spanish town of Trabazos.