Updates from our Cuckoos

Selborne has been in his current location for around a month and doesn't seem to be moving far. He is moving around an area no more than a kilometer square. 

Since leaving Benin Selborne hasn't hung around. After a short stopover in Northern Gabon, close to the border with Equatorial Guinea, he has moved further south and east into Gabon. He is in an area of rainforest to the east of the Ogooue River, south of the town of Ndjole.

Having reported on 19 October that Selborne was in southwest Nigeria, he popped-up the vey next day in Equatorial Guinea, almost 400km (250 miles) to the southeast. During the last week of October he moved south and crossed the border with Gabon and has since moved further south and east. He is currently in eastern central Gabon in an area of fairly dense rainforest.

Having spent a couple of weeks in Ghana, Selborne moved east on 7 October, flying back across Togo and Benin. During the next two days he moved south and east within Nigeria and is currently on the coast of the Bight of Bonny in the south-eastern corner of the country, to the north of James Town. Since leaving Ghana he has flown just over 1,200km (just under 700 miles).

During the last few days Selborne has moved back west and into Ghana, overflying Togo on the way. He has flown 207km (128 miles) during this movement and is currently just north of the town of Kukpoku.

During the weekned Selborne set off east, moving through Ghana and Togo and onwards into Benin. During this time he has flown 487km (303 miles). He is currently in the Parc National de la Pandjari in northwestern Benin.

Selborne has been at his stopover site in Burkina Faso for a month now. In 2016 he moved east from here on 26 August and on 20 August in 2017. so, we expect him to move east any day now.

In 2017 Selborne moved east from his post-desert crossing stopover site on 23 July, this year he made the same move on 22 July. He is now 570km (354 miles) east of his last location and has crossed the border into Burkina Faso.

Selborne left Spain on 11 July this year, heading almost due south into Morocco before drifting east into Algeria and then heading  west and on to southeastern Mali. He his in the same location, north of the capital, Bamoko, that he used as his post-desert stopover site in 2016. He moved west from this location on 23 July in 2016 but had arrived there six days earlier than this year. It will be interesting to see how long he remains here this year.

Selborne is currently our most southerly Cuckoo. He only stayed four days in western France before he was off again, flying around the western end of the Pyrenees and into Spain. He is 495km (308 miles) southwest of the mountains and in a straight line, 1,200km (746 miles) from the New Forest, Hampshire. Selborne is following the route he has taken in the last two years and is currently just to the south of Salamanca. In 2016 he left Spain on 9 July but lingered until 23 July in 2017, his next stop is on the southern edge of the Sahara in Mali. It will be interesting to see when he leaves this year.