Updates from our Cuckoos

We now believe that Chester, tagged in spring 2014, died whilst still in the UK this summer. The last signal was received on the 4 June and none have been received since.  Chester dying on the breeding grounds is unusual and this is the first time that we have seen this for a bird that has already been tracked on one migration. It could perhaps be a knock on effect of the cold wet summer we have experienced. In 2012 we saw a similar effect.  

The last signal received from Chester was on 4 June from Ashdown Forest but nothing has been received since. In 2014 he left the UK on 19 June and by the 7 July was in Spain. Without signals we do not know whether he is still in the UK or has already begun his journey. Hopefully further signals in the future will reveal his location. 

By the 11 May Chester had covered the 1500km (930 miles) from his last location in Spain and returned to his breeding grounds at Ashdown Forest in Sussex, becoming the ninth of our tagged Cuckoos to make it back to the UK.

Chester has continued on from north Africa and by 1 May was in southern Spain, just north of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

From Nigeria on 12 April, Chester has travelled north-west around 3100km (1940 miles), crossing the Sahara desert, and making it to a location close to the Algeria/Morocco border in north Africa by 22 April.   

We hadn't heard from Chester for several weeks but the latest signal received shows he is still in the same area of southern Nigeria and has yet to move further west. 

A signal received on 24 March showed that Chester was still in Nigeria but has left the Cross River area. He has moved 245km (152 miles) south and west and is now on the edge of the Niger Delta.

Chester has left his location in Gabon and travelled 745km (460 miles) north-west to  Nigeria, where he appears to be on the outskirts of the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Cross River area.  

Chester and Dudley are the only two Cuckoos, from who we are receiving regular transmissions, who are currently within the Congo rainforest. We expect them to move north to the forest edge shortly as other Cuckoos have done.

Since arriving in Gabon Chester has settled in an area of rainforest in the north west of the country, close to the border with Equatorial Guinea. His last location signal was at 06.30 on 19 December.