It looks likely that either Ken has perished in Ivory Coast or the tag is no longer attached. The tag temperature is now fluctuating with the day and night time temperatures, rather than remaining consistant with body temperature as it should. It looks like we will not be following Ken across the desert and back to the UK. 

Ken had moved 100km (600 miles) by the 14 March and was just inside Ivory Coast. Waller and Derek are also in Ivory Coast, but further to the west.  

Ken has moved a further 380km (235 miles) north-west within Nigeria but is some way behind Derek, the third Cuckoo to move in to West Africa, who is now in Ghana.  

Ken has moved 200km (120 miles) from his last position in Cameroon and into Nigeria over the weekend. He is now officially in West Africa and is the second Cuckoo to move this far west this year.  

Ken is still close to Mount Cameroon, the area he arrived in on 13 February. As he is currently our most westerly Cuckoo, will he be the first to head into West Africa?

On 1st February, the last time we heard from Ken, he was in South East Gabon, close to the border with Congo and one of our most southerly Cuckoos. As of mid-afternoon on 13 February he became our most northerly bird, having moved 812km (504 miles) north-west. He is now just north of Mount Cameroon in south-west Cameroon, having just completed his first leg back to the UK.

Ken has moved directly north within Gabon, heading towards Patch's current location. He has travelled around 110km (67 miles) which means that only 12km (8 miles) separates him and Patch now. 

Ken is still in the same area in Gabon, on the edge of the Téké plateau, that he has frequented since the 25 October. His tag last transmitted from there on 13 January.

The latest transmissions from Ken's tag show that he remains in Gabon, having arrived here on 25 October, and it's likely he will spend Christmas here.

This is also the last country from which we received a transmission from Scottish Cuckoo, Chance, in early December.  We haven't heard from him since but, there could be a number of reasons for this, including the fact that the dense cover of vegetation could be stopping the solar-powered tag from receiving enough light to charge up and transmit a signal.

Interestingly, Tor, one of our Devon Cuckoos also last transmitted from this area at the end of November, although from slightly further south within Congo, and his tag has also yet to beam another signal to us. Many of our Cuckoos have had periods where they have 'dissapeared' for a period of time before reappearing, often having moved quite substantial distances as part of their migration, having spent time feeding up beforehand. We will have to wait and see whether further transmissions reveal more information.  

Up until 20 October, Ken remained in the same area in Central African Republic he had been in since the 25 September but signals received on the 22 October revealed he was on the move. Throughout that evening and the early morning hours of 23 October he headed in a south-westerly direction and by the morning of 25 October he has arrived in eastern Gabon, having covered almost 930km (580 miles) and joining our more southerly Cuckoos in the others in the depths of the Congo rainforest. 

Ken had moved a further 200km (125 miles) across the Ouham region by the evening of the 24 September.  His new location is only 50km (30 miles) from Sussex's location. 

From his position in the west Nigeria, Ken has continued to move slowly eastwards. By the morning of the 15 September, Ken had travelled 730km (450 miles) and was just north of Gombe.  A couple of days later, he had covered a further 760km ( 470 miles) and, having headed off from Gombe in a more southerly direction, by the afternoon of 22 September was in the Ouham region in the north-west of the Central African Republic.  Sussex the Cuckoo is also in this region and only about 210km (130 miles) separates them.

From Burkino Faso on the 27 August, Ken continued eastwards and, by lunchtime on 29 August, he was in Nigeria, joining both Skinner and Derek in the west of the country and Tor, who is further east. Ken is now about 120km (75 miles) from both Skinner and Derek's positions, although in slightly different directions. It’s really interesting to see how similar the timings of these Norfolk Cuckoos’ eastwards movements are within Africa.  

In the last few days both Ken and Derek have moved around 100km (60 miles) eastwards, although they still remain in Burkina Faso and Nigeria respectively. Meanwhile Skinner has moved out of Niger and headed 305 km (190 miles) east to Nigeria. He is about 90km (50 miles) north-east of the town of Gummi. This echoes Nicks (much bigger) movement last week from Nigeria to Cameroon.

Ken has travelled 330km (210 miles) east within Burkina Faso and is now the only remaining tagged Cuckoo in the country. Both Skinner and Nick have left and continued eastwards. 

Ken has continued on from his location on and has covered 330km (205 miles), just enough to take him 25km (15 miles) within the border of Burkina Faso, where fellow Norfolk Cuckoo, Derek, has also recently arrived after completing his desert crossing. He is now north-est of Mawé, a town in the Banwa Province. It's amazing to see that Nick, Derek and Ken are all now on a very similar longitude to each other, and that it's not dissimilar to those Cuckoos which travelled further east.  

From his position within Mauritania, near the Senegal border, Ken has travelled a further 385km (240 miles) to Mali and close to the Baoul National Park. This new location is only 10 miles from the position Nick was in on 28 July.  

Signals received mid-morning on 25 July show that Ken had left Spain and was in Morocco, 153km (95 miles) south-west of Marrakesh. From here he then headed across the desert, and by the evening of 27 July he was past the Akchar desert in the middle of Mauritania.  By early morning on 30 July, Ken had reached the very south of Mauritania, and was close to the border with Senegal.  He is the fifth tagged Cuckoo to transmit from Africa, closely followed by Tor.

Despite being almost the last Cuckoo to leave the UK, only Patch departed after him, he has already crossed the desert, while many others remain in mainland Europe.  Since he first transmitted from France, on the 20 July, he has travelled 3410km (2120 miles)! 

Ken has made rapid progress since leaving Sussex sometime after the 18 July. By the evening of 20 July he had made it as far as the west coast of southern France, and by the early hours of 23 July he was in southern Spain! His last position was 70km (45 miles) south-east of Seville.  This means he covered 1,850km (1150 miles) in around 8 days. He is the fourth East Anglian Cuckoo to take the Spanish route this year. Chris, tagged in year 1 of the project, is the only East Anglian Cuckoo so far this year to take the Italian route. Nelson,  tagged this spring in East Anglia, remains in France and we are waiting to see which way he goes next.  

Having surprised us by leaving his tagging location in a north-westerly direction and heading to Lincolnshire, Ken has now finally begun his long journey south. A series of locations received during the day on 18 July show that he is now in East Sussex, north-west of Arlington Reservoir.

...but he has not gone far, skipping over to nearby lincolnshire transmissions on the 6 July transmissions reveal. He is in the area close to Holbeach St Mark, just north of Holbeach and slightly inland from the coast. He has moved around 105km (65 miles) west from his previous location on the coast nearby Sea Palling in Norfolk. 

Apart from Skinner, the other three of our Cuckoos tagged in the Norfolk Broads remain in their tagging locations and have yet to move despite 12 out of 18 of our tagged Cuckoos having left the UK.  Lyster, one of the Cuckoos tagged in the broads in year 1 of the project was the last to leave that year on 22 July (while the other four all left in June) and earned himself the nickname ‘Lyster the Laggard’. Will our Broads Cuckoos be last to leave in year 3? 

Ken remains around Burgh Common, 1.5km (1 mile) WSW of Filby Broad, where he was tagged early on 12 May. He was the first bird tagged in East Anglia this year and one of four that we tagged in the Norfolk Broads. 

Cuckoo 128296 has received a name from Essex and Suffolk Water, who have made a generous contribution to the project. Staff voted for Ken, after Ken Saul, a volunteer at Burgh Common, the site where the cuckoo was caught, for over 30 years.