Having made it to Africa and turned back to Spain, 161323 spent almost two weeks in southern Spain. He departed Spain on 30th July and covered 200 miles to Morrocco. Since then he has continued south-west and will hopefully have completed his desert crossing by the time his map next updates. 

On 12 July, Cuckoo Bill was in south-central France, west of Vichy, but by lunchtime on 14 July he had flown south, crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Africa. A couple of locations received from him on showed that he was in Tunisia, near to the Table de Jugurtha. Having made North Africa we thought that he might stay here for a little while before attempting the crossing of the desert, but he surprised us by heading west into Algeria and then north-west across the Mediterranean again before arriving in southern Spain on 17 July, settling in the Sierra Nevada mountains, just north of Almeria. It seems that the urge to get to a stopover site in Spain, one that this bird has probably used on previous migrations, was so strong that it overruled the fact that he had made it to Africa.

We are getting concerned about Cuckoo Bill. Since arriving in Normandy a month ago he hasn't moved very far from La Trotterie. Shortly after arriving here he was subject to a heavy hailstorm and cool conditions. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news from him soon.