We last heard from Bowie's tag when he was near the Algerian town of Hammam Righa on the Oued Djer River. On examining the data it looks like Bowie was struggling in the latter part of his northward desert crossing and spent at least six hours on the desert floor on the morning of 11 April. The temperature data recorded by his tag suggest he died on 13 April, soon after his arrival at the final location.  Bowie has gien us useful information about his southward migration, wintering areas and northwards migration as far as north Africa, all of which helps extend our knowledge of Cuckoo migration. We are grateful to all of Bowie's sponsors and supporters. 

Several poor quality locations from Bowies tag show that he has successfully crossed the desert and is in northern Algeria. He is south of the town of Hadjout in an area of cultivated hills and around 25km (15 miles) from the Mediterranean coast. We will have to wait for good quality locations for this to show on his map.

A series of locations received from Bowies's tag mid-morning on 11 April showed that he was in the Grand Erg Oriental Desert, central Algeria, and around three-quarters of the way across the Sahara. This will automatically update on his map overnight. He is 2,571km (1,598 miles) north and east of his last location in Ghana. We will have to wait until his tag powers up again, around mid morning on 13 April, to see if he has successfully crossed the desert. Currently the wind is fairly light and from the north-west in this part of the desert. We have three other Cuckoos that are currently crossing the desert and, along with Bowie, these birds are also heading north-east, possibly being drifted by the north-westerly winds. We will have to wait and see if they have corrected their direction of travel when we next hear from them to help confirm this.

Since our last update Bowie has backtracked East, flying 411 Km (255 miles) from Ivory Coast over the border into Ghana. He is now 122 Km (75 miles) west of the city of Kumasi in south west Ghana.

Over the weekend Bowie moved south and west within Ivory Coast. Having spent a couple of weeks in eastern Ivory Coast he is now close to the western border and Liberia. He has flown 231km (143 miles) to get to his current location, an area of palm plantations close to the village of Niapoyo.

Bowie has left Ghana and is now in Ivory Coast, 545km (339 miles) from his last stopover location. It does look like he had a short stopover close to the western border of Ghana before crossing over into Ivory Coast. He is currently in forest on the outskirts of Ntopadrikro

During the last couple of days Bowie has undertaken a huge journey. On the evening of 23 February his tag began sending locations from Ghana, 1,400km (900 miles) from his stopover site in Gabon. He is currently between Lake Volta and the border with Togo. The fact that he didn’t do a stopover on the northern edge of the rainforest leads us to believe that he might have undertaken a sea crossing over the Gulf of Guinea. However, it is impossible to tell for sure as we received no locations from the tag over the sea.

Bowie has been close to the Niara river for a month but by breakfast on 19 February he had moved 340km (212 miles) north and west. He is still in Gabon and is on the north western edge of the Waka National Park.

Bowie is still to the south of the Niari River in southwest Congo. The last location we received from his tag was just before 9pm on 12 February and it showed a movement to the north of the patch of forest he has been settled in. This may well be the start of the second leg of his journey back and it will be interesting to see where he is when we next hear from his tag.

Since arriving in southwest Congo, Bowie has settled in an area to the south of the Niari River and to the east of the town of Makabara. We are receiving lots of locations from his tag that show he is moving around an area of dense forest and areas of more open forest. We last heard from him at 9.00am on February 6.

During the last week locations received from Bowie's tag show that he has left Angola and headed north. He is now in southwest Congo, 2813km (176 miles) north of his mid-winter location. Bowie is on his way back.

Having not heard from Bowie for a few weeks it was a relief when we began to receive locations from his tag in the last few days of December. His body temperature is spot-on, however, the battery charge is still a little low, hopefully this will get better when and if his tag gets more sunlight. He is still settled in the northwest corner of Angola, around 20km (13 miles) southeast of the coastal town of Santo do Zaire Soyo.

We haven't heard from Bowie's tag for a couple of weeks, however, the information we received at the time showed that the battery charge was low. Since arriving in Angola he has been in dense forest, so it is not surprising that his battery charge is low. Fingers crossed we will get some more information when his tag gets some sun.

Since arriving in northern Angola in early November, Bowie hasn't moved much. He is moving around the area of forest he arrived in and we are recieving locations from his tag quite frequently but it seems like he won't move very far now until he begins to head north again, probably some time in late January or early February. He is just over 6,500km (4,000 miles) from his New Forest breeding site.

Locations received from Bowie's tag around breakfast time on 18 November show that he is still settled in forest in northwest Angola. He has been here since early November and it could be that this is his main winter location.

A few days ago we received a series of locations that showed Bowie had left Gabon and was in the north-west corner of Angola, 714km (444 miles) south of his stopover site in Gabon. He is currently in an area of forest 58km (36 miles) from the Atlantic Coast.

Bowie is settled in Gabon for the time being and we are receiving locations from his tag; we last heard from him during the early evening on 16 October. He is frequenting an area of dense rainforest in eastern central Gabon.

Bowie is still to the north of the Teke Plateau, however, we haven't heard from his tag since 20 September. The temperature reading showed that he was alive but the battery charge was quite low. He is in an area of dense rainforest and the solar panel on the tag is probably not getting enough sunlight to properly charge the battery. Fingers crossed this will change if and when he moves further south.

Bowie is in the Congo rainforest. He arrived there during the early hours of 12 September. He is just to the northwest of the Teke Plateau, an area that has served as an overwinter site for several of our satellite tagged Cuckoos in the past. He is currently 5,804km (3,606 miles) from his New Forest breeding site as the crow flies.

We are still receiving lots of information from Bowie's tag that shows he is still settled in an area of forest to the northwest of Manda National Park in southern Chad. In the next couple of weeks we could well see him move south into the Congo basin and closer to his winter location. At this stage we don't know where this will be as this is the first year that we have followed Bowie.

During the last couple of days Bowie has moved south and east and is now in Chad and just to the northwest of Manda National Park. Since leaving the New Forest on 12 June he has flown 4,893km (3,040 miles). He has averaged 139km (86 miles) per day during his travels so far.

The poor locations received during the last few days were right, Bowie was crossing the desert. Yesterday evening his tag showed that he had successfully crossed the Sahara and was in northern Cameroon close to the Waza National Park. The park is largely open savannah forest with the yaere floodplain to the north. It will be interesting to see how long Bowie remains here, recuperating after the 2,800km (1,700 miles) flight over the desert.

We received a series of locations during the early hours of 9 July that suggest Bowie is in Algeria, North Africa. However, they don't stop there and it seems that he might have set out on his desert crossing. If this is the case, we will know more in a couple of days, it will see him cross the Sahara at its widest point, a journey of around 2,500km (1,500 miles).

Having spent 9 days in woodland just to the south of Orleans, Bowie has moved again. On 19 June we recieved locations from his tag that put him in woodland 175km (108 miles) further south and east, a few kilometers southeast of Louroux-Hodement. He is now over 600km from his tagging site.

During the early evening on Sunday we received a series of poor locations from Bowie's tag that suggested he had left the New Forest and was in France. Just before 10pm on the same day we received a good qulaity location that showed he had done just that, and was in woodland just to the south of Orleans, 433km (269 miles) southeast of his tagging location.

Bowie was tagged on 22 May at Bolderwood in the New Forest, Hampshire. He has been in the area most of the time since but is currently on the western edge of the forest close to Ringwood.