Updates from our Cuckoos

Chris remained in the east of Ivory Coast until at least 6 April.  In the late afternoon of the 11 April, a series of transmissions revealed he was on the move and was in Mauritania, flying over the El Djouf Desert at the western edge of the Sahara, having already covered 1525km (950 miles) from his previous location.

Just north of the El Djouf Desert, he then changed course to head north-east, arriving in northern Morocco in the early hours of the 14 April, shortly after Waller also arrived in Morrocco having completed his crossing. This makes Chris the third of our Cuckoos to cross the desert successfully and is the third return desert crossing over which we have eagerly followed his progress. This year, he seems to have ended up much further west than after any previous crossings. He was tagged in the first year of the project and is the only remaining bird from the original five tagged. Over the three years, he has helped us to learn amazing new things about Cuckoo Migration and we hope that he continues to do so! 

Chris is the most recent Cuckoo to have joined the five others in Ivory Coast! Having been in Ghana until at least the 18 March, he then flew 215km (130 miles) which took him over the border and into Ivory Coast by the 21 March. He is now only 75km (45 miles) from Skinner's location and 70km ( 42 miles) from Ken's location. 

By the early hours of 14 March, Chris had left Central African Republic and signals showed he was in the south of Nigeria. The next signals received on 16 March revealed he had contined on and was in Ghana. He had travelled a total of 1900km (1180 miles) from his location within Central African Republic to Ghana in no more than five days at most! In previous years he has arrived in Ghana between the 13-17 March, so once again he is on schedule!  

On the afternoon of the 20 February, Chris's tag sent tranmissions from southern Congo but, by early morning on 25 February, he had travelled 930km (580 miles) to reach a location in the  south-west of the Central African Republic. He has now flown right over the block of Congo rainforest, and is very close to it's northern edge. Its the first time we have seen him do this, largely because in previous winters he hasn't travelled so far south, instead choosing the swamp forests of eastern Congo.  He is just 80km (50 miles) south of David, the most northerly tagged Cuckoo, who moved to the edge of the forest at the very end of January. 

It's amazing that we are still gathering data for Chris having first tagged him in spring 2011. We now have three southward autumn migrations and two northward spring migrations for him.  Having taken up a different wintering location this year, it will be really interesting to see whether this changes his return strategy. We are keeping our fingers crossed for his safe return once again to the UK.  

On the 17 Janaury a series of poor quality locations indicated Chris had left his previous position and was heading NNE. A signal on the 20 January revealed he had crossed the border into Congo and had traveled 550km (345 miles) almost due N to a location in the region of Pool, about 80km ( 50 miles) north-west of the capital of Brazzaville.

This is likely to be the first stage of his northward migration. Having wintered so far south this year in Angola, it will be interesting to see if he continues to the north of the Congo Rainforest, as we have seen our British Cuckoos do each winter or whether he will remain to its south for a while, like the Scandinavian birds have after wintering in Angola. 

Chris is still at his mid-winter location in Angola and, as a consequence of Skinner’s move north, is now our most southerly Cuckoo. We last heard from Chris at 09.30 on 13 January.

Chris and Skinner look set to spend Christmas in Angola, having spent several weeks in the area. Skinner first transmitted from Angola on 18 November, while Chris joined him at the beginning of December. 

Angola is a new country for the project, visited by the Cuckoos for the first time this year. In the past two years of the project, Chris has spent Christmas in the Congolian swamp forests but has opted for a change this year. We aren't entirely sure why, but it is likely conditions weren't as good this year, as other Cuckoos using this area have also moved away.

When we first started the tracking project it was estimated that the satellite-tags fitted to the Cuckoos would last for between 2-3 years. So far we have 2.5 years of data for Chris on his migration and, fingers crossed, we are really hoping to complete a third year to see whether this different wintering location has any affect on his return migration to the UK.   It will also be interesting to see whether Angola is a place that Skinner may return to, as this is the first year we have tracked his migration and so do not have data to indicate this may be different from previous years. 

Since the 3 December, Chris has moved 270 km (170 miles) further south into Angola. He is now close to Skinner's original location within Angola, although he has subsequently also moved slightly further south. 

On 26 November, transmissions from Chris's tag revealed that he had moved from his position in the Western Congolian Swamp forests and become the second of all our tagged Cuckoos to travel as far south as Angola! He had covered almost 800km (500 miles) and was just inside the border, in the region of Uige.

What's even more interesting than this movement south is that we have been tracking Chris for two and a half years and so know that he has spent the two previous winters in the swamp forest from which he recently moved. So what has prompted him to move? We know that rainfall has been a bit higher than usual over the past month in the area that he came from but we aren't sure whether that will have impacted conditions for him. Could food be more scarce in the area this year? If so, we may well see Derek who is in the swamp forests move on too. Keep an eye on the blog to see whether Chris decides to spend the winter in his new location or whether he returns to the swamp.  

Chris remains in the same area in Congo in which he arrived on 26 September. He has now been joined by fellow East Anglian Cuckoo, Derek. This is interesting as, previously, all of the birds tagged in the region have wintered further south and west in central Congo, with Chris being an exception. It looks like he may have company this winter.