Updates from our Cuckoos

We haven’t received any more transmissions from Mungo‘s tag since the 2 August, when he was close to Lake Chad – given the time that has elapsed, we can only assume that he has died, or that his tag failed, but there is no direct evidence for either scenario. 

We have received nothing further from Mungo since the 2 August.

 We have concerns about both of these Cuckoos. Mungo was last heard of on 2^nd August in the area north of Lake Chad that he arrived in on 26^th July, soon after completing his desert crossing.  The charge on his tag was very low at that time. Lyster has not been heard of since 8^th August, when he was still in sparse desert in Mauritania, having moved just a few kms in the preceding two days. His tag did not appear to be charging even though it was the middle of the day with very little cover in the area and the charge was very low when transmissions ceased. 

Wallace has flown 55km (35 miles) southwest within Germany and is now close to the village of Lauterbach in the Black Forest near Schramberg.  Mungo’s last transmission on 29 July locates him near Lake Chad but we haven’t received any further signals from him. BB is also in Chad and we last heard from him on 13 August.  

BB continued his movement south from Egypt and successfully completed his desert crossing during the early hours of Saturday 28 July, reaching south-western Sudan by the time his tag stopped transmitting, becoming the first of our tracked Cuckoos recorded in that country. By the morning of Monday 30 July he had moved 193km (120 miles) due W to a location just over the border in Chad. He is now at a very similar latitude to Chris and Mungo, who have remained just north of lake Chad, but he 764km (475 miles) to their east.

From Sicily, Mungo continued southwards, across the Mediterranean Sea to Libya where we received several unconfirmed locations. However, a confirmed signal, received yesterday afternoon, revealed that he had finished his desert crossing and is now north of Lake Chad. He has is only around 125km (77miles) north-west of where Chris is located.

Lake Chad is an important area for migrants and, it seems, our Cuckoos Mungo and Chris are no exception. It is a large inland freshwater lake that is under severe threat. It has shrunk by as much as 90% since the 1960s due to climate change and water extraction.

 A series of poor locations received on Sunday morning (22 July) indicate that Mungo has set off from northern Italy and is now in Sicily. We eagerly await his tag’s next ‘on’ period to confirm his location.

At just before 2100hrs GMT last night (19 July), Mungo had began moving away from his last transmission area in the Alpine pass to east of Mont Blanc. A series of locations tracked his progress as he migrated through the night over the north-western Italian regions of Piedmont and Liguria before stopping on the coast of Tuscany sometime before 0500 hrs GMT. Despite the lure of this location, we don’t expect Mungo to stay here long – he will probably press on and start his desert crossing in the next few days as we suspect he completed his preparations during the four weeks he spent in the Alps. Mungo progressed by 435km (270 miles) in a south-easterly direction during the night.

With the exception of Roy, there has been little recent movement by the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland - Wallace remains in Ayrshire; BB remains in north-eastern Italy; Mungo remains in Switzerland close to Mont Blanc; Chance remains just south of Berlin.