Updates from our Cuckoos

During the last week PJ has moved a little further south in Angola. He is currently on the northern edge of the Coutada do Ambriz Reserve, and further south than any of our other tagged cuckoos. As the crow flies he is almost 7,000km (just over 4,000 miles) from his East Anglian breeding site. This is the third time since he was fitted with his tag that he has wintered in Angola. 

For the fourth time since his tag was fitted, Larry has made it to his winter location in Angola. He is currently just under 200km (just over 100 miles) northeast of Luanda and in an area of forest he has used several times before. He is one of five of our tagged Cuckoos that are currently in Angola. During his time wearing a tag he has travelled in excess of 56,000km (35,000 miles).

Lambert has moves south from the very northeast corner of Angola and is now in an area of forest 130km (81 miles) southeast of Santo Antonio do Zaire.

Carlton II seems settled in the area of rainforest he has been in for just over a month now. He might move further south, or equally he could remain in this location for the rest of his winter stopover, only time will tell.

As far as we can tell Cameron was alive when the most recent positions were received in early October, when he had just moved from Nigeria to southern Chad, adjacent to the border with CAR. His battery was very low then and it had been declining gradually over a period of months. We think that something is preventing it from charging well - it could be feathers or dirt. This could ultimately damage his tag's battery but equally, we might see him pop up again if the problem is resolved (rain washing off dirt or feathers moulting).

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.

The last location we have for Raymond in Togo was on 16 November. On 21 November we received nine locations from his tag between 04.30am and 08.55am that showed he was in central western Cameroon. On the 23 November he had moved to northeastern Gabon before moving further south. He is currently very close to the border with Congo in the very southern tip of the Mwagne National Park.

After leaving Cameroon, PJ spent around a week in eastern Gabon before moving south again, arriving at his mid-winter location in Angola on 30 November at just after 4.00am our time. During this period he has covered over 1,500km (900 miles). His map will update automatically during the day. This year he arrived here 13 days later than in 2016 and 7 days later than in 2017. He is now one of four of our tagged Cuckoos that are using the same area of northwest Angola.

Larry is still settled in the DRC, in the rainforest to the east of Lake Mai. He is in particularly dense rainforest and not moving very far between fixes. In 2015 he left the rainforest for his mid-winter site in Angola on 6 November. In 2016 and 2017 he did the same on 13 October and 12 November respectively. With this in mind he could move south and west any day.