Updates from our Cuckoos

It looks as if Valentine has completed his desert crossing as an update from his tag placed him in northern Morocco at 4am this morning. His journey over the Sahara took him from Ivory Coast, over Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria to his current location. We have only received low quality locations from Valentine so will have to await further updates before being sure of his exact route and location.  

New updates from Valentine's tag received at around 9pm last night (Sunday 5th April), show that over the last few days he has flown 2,170 km (1,348 miles) west from his last location in Central African Republic to Ivory Coast. He is now in eastern Ivory Coast, 173 km (107 miles) east of the capital Yamoussoukro. Valentine joins two other Cuckoos in Ivory Coast as PJ and Carlton II are also here. Tennyson is just over the border in Liberia. We expect the first Cuckoos to be crossing the Sahara any day now, and usually they will have spent several weeks in west Africa before attempting the crossing so it'll be intresting to see what Valentine does next. 

An update received from Valentine's tag late last night shows that he has flown 847 km (526 miles) North from his wintering area in Gabon to a new location in dense rainforest in central Republic of the Congo. He is now just 100 km (62 miles) south-west of another Thetford Cuckoo, Tennyson. 

A very poor location from Valentine's tag in the last few days suggests that he is in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea, around 1,400km (890 miles) offshore. We don't believe this to be the case but it could be an indication that he is on the move. It will be interesting to see where he pops-up, fingers crossed it will be somewhere north of Angola and not out to sea. Watch this space.

Valentine only stayed in Cameroon for a few days before pressing on to his current location in northern Angola. Valentine is now 228 Km (142 miles) north-east of the capital Luanda and just 167 km (104 miles) separates him from Suffolk Cuckoo PJ.

Valentine left Burkina Faso on 16th November, flying 495 km (307 miles) south-east over the border into Ghana where he stayed for a week. On 23rd November he departed Ghana and flew 836 km (520 miles) east to Nigeria where he stopped for around a week near Benin City in southern Nigeria. The latest update shows that by 5:45 pm on Saturday evening (November 30) Valentine had flown a further 416 km (258 miles) south east to his current location in western Cameroon. 

The last few weeks have been quiet and for those who had not yet completed their desert crossings, it looks like the challenging conditions have claimed more of our tagged Cuckoos.

Unfortunately no further signals have been received from Knepp. From the temperature data and movements at the time, he was alive on 12 July, when we last heard from his tag. Though the battery charge had been low for a few days, there is no evidence of long term battery decline so we can't be sure what has happened to him - either he, or the tag, appear to have died suddenly. 

Lambert, who was still in France, has not moved on south and signals on 21 August showed high temperature fluctuations across the day, indicating the bird's body temperature and behaviour were not regulating it. We've heard nothing since then, and his tags battery charge had suddenly dipped, all of which leads us to believe he has likely died.

Unfortunately the challenging conditions have also impacted on Nussey who has already attempted two trips to Africa and retreated to Europe.  Abnormally low temperatures were received at the time of the last messages (16 August), having previously been fine. He was not migrating at that time, so the low temperatures were not due to high altitude, and the battery was also much lower than previously, further suggesting he was dead.

The droughts and exceptionally high temperatures in Europe appear to have proved difficult for our Cuckoos this year, however the five south of the Sahara are still regularly transmitting. Valentine, PJ, Carlton II and Tennysons' tags have all sent signals during September and the last signals received from Senan's tag were at the end of August and show him still in Burkina Faso.

In the last couple of days Valentine has flown 74 km (46 miles) north west from his last location towards the border with Mali. He is now close to the city of Solenzo in the far west of Burkina Faso.

So far this year, five Cuckoos have made it successfully across the desert. Carlton II, PJ, Senan, Tennyson and Valentine are all south of the Sahara and still sending regular tag transmissions. They still have a little further to go south before reaching their final wintering destinations.  

Over the last few days Valentine has flown 322 km (200 miles) south west into south-western Burkina Faso. He is now in the Hauts-Bassins region, 55 km (34 miles) north-east of the region capital, Bobo Dioulasso.