So far this year, five Cuckoos have made it successfully across the desert. Carlton II, PJ, Senan, Tennyson and Valentine are all south of the Sahara and still sending regular tag transmissions. They still have a little further to go south before reaching their final wintering destinations.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Five across the desert
14 Aug 2019
Senan crosses into Niger
13 Aug 2019
An update received from Senan's tag late last night showed that he has flown 481 km (300 miles) south from Mali into Niger. He is now in the far south western corner of Niger, close to the borders with Burkina Faso and Benin.
Senan in the Niger
05 Aug 2019
Since the last update Senan has flown another 514 km (319 miles) south in Mali, towards the border with Niger. He appears to be on an island in the river Niger, close to Ansongo, a rural commune and small town in the Gao Region of eastern Mali.
Signals clarify Senan's African location
31 Jul 2019
New signals on the morning of 30 July show that Senan had indeed made landfall in Africa and that his location at that time was in northern Mali. Senan was tagged on the BTO reserve headquarters at Thetford, and interestingly, he is now just 240km (150 miles) north of PJ who was also tagged local to the BTO in Suffolk, and is in Mali.
Senan heading for Africa?
29 Jul 2019
Some low quality locations transmitted by Senan's tag suggest that during the evening of 27th and early morning of 28th he was crossing the Mediterranean with the last location pointing to his destination being north-east Morocco or north-west Algeria. We will hopefully receive some better quality locations soon which will clarify where he has made landfall.
Senan in Spain
09 Jul 2019
Since our last update Senan has flown 445 Km (276 miles) south and is now in Spain. He is currently 130 Km (80 miles) east of Madrid near Villanueva de Alcorón in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha.
Senan crosses into France
03 Jul 2019
During the late afternoon of 30 June we received transmissions showing that Senan had left the UK and completed his crossing of the English Channel. Locations revealed that he was in northern France, just south of Wierre-Effroy and around 10km (6 miles) inland from the west coast, 190km (116 miles) from Norfolk. Further locations yesterday show that he is now 790km (490 miles) further south, near Marmande, to the south-east of Bordeaux.
Meet the 2019 Cuckoos
25 Jun 2019
We’re delighted to introduce some new faces to the project! Catching the birds has been challenging this year with seemingly less competition for females and so less interest in the female lure used, but thanks to the persistence of our super tagging team, we do have four new male Cuckoos to introduce to you.
Three of these newly-tagged birds are already on the way, crossing the Channel and moving into France within the last few days. Take a look at the individual blogs to find out more.
Senan yet to leave
25 Jun 2019
One of two birds tagged on the BTO reserve in early June, Senan has yet to move far from his breeding site.
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