We regret to announce the death of Clement the Cuckoo, last heard from in Cameroon on 25 February. Temperature data transmitted at the time via satellite suggested that he was no longer alive and we must now assume that he will not be returning to Norfolk for the summer. The other four Cuckoos are in The Ivory Coast and Ghana.

It is amazingly fortunate that all five Cuckoos survived as long as they did. Interestingly, the only information we had about a ringed Cuckoo in Africa, prior to this winter, was of a bird of exactly the same age as Clement that was killed by man (presumably for the pot) in Lembe in Cameroon (just 100 miles due north of Clement's last position) on 30th January 1930. Read more about how Clement has helped to advance our knowledge of Cuckoo migration.

Still no transmissions from Clement's tag.

 It has now been 23 days since we last heard from Clement, and whilst we are getting concerned about him, this is still not the longest gap that we have had between transmissions from our cuckoos.

We haven't received any signals from Clement's tag since 22 February when he ventured in to Cameroon. He was the second Cuckoo to leave Congo but has since been left behind by all of the others as they moved west– he is the only one still in the eastern hemisphere! We have of course had many periods longer than this when we have not received transmissions from some of the Cuckoo’s tags but we are now concerned for Clement as we would have expected him to continue his movement westwards, towards where the other Cuckoos are, by now.

We have received no recent signals from Clement. His last position in Cameroon was further south and east than any of the other Cuckoos currently are - we expect him to move off in a north-westerly direction soon, when his tag should spring to life....

 We haven't heard from Clement for over ten days and must assume that he is still in southern Cameroon, feeding in deep cover in preparation for his next push north.

A transmission on 22 Feb at 19.55 shows that Clement remains in the same location in the south of Cameroon.

No longer the most southerly Cuckoo, we received a transmission from Clement's tag at 9.35 today that showed that he had moved 450km north-west and is now in Cameroon. This is the second large northwards movement that we have seen from one of our Cuckoos, with Kasper having moved north-west into Nigeria. It is an exciting time as the birds start their migration back to Europe.

The cloud cleared and we received a good location for Clement on 22 January which showed no change from his previous location in Congo.

 A transmission from Clement on 3 January at 07.53 showed that he is still on the Teke Plateau and still close to Lyster and Martin. Yesterday, the weather there was sticky and wet, with 80% cloud cover, 78% humidity and 11.2mm of rainfall.

Clement is one of three Cuckoos on the Teke Plateau in Congo, and has been there since 23 November. The plateau is covered in grassland interspersed with humid closed-canopy forest. Climatically, it is within the humid closed-canopy tropical forest zone but the sandy soils combined with frequent fires mean this habitat restricted mostly to the river courses. This seems to provide ideal conditions for Cuckoos – the satellite photos show how Clement is using forest patches with lots of edges in the northern part of the plateau.

At 12.44 on 15 December, Clement was still around 80km (50 miles) north-east of Lyster and around 100km (60 miles) north-west of Martin's new position in Congo. Will these birds get any closer? Watch this space.

Having been last to arrive in the rainforest, a message from Clement received at 03.06 on Thursday 8 December shows him settled just north of Lyster in Congo.

On 23rd November we received a transmission from Clement showing that he had moved 224km (134miles) south-east into Congo. This movement puts him just 82km (51miles) north of Lyster. Both Clement and Lyster took the western route through Spain to North Africa, and then flew down the western edge of the Sahara before heading east and then finally south east to get to Congo.
When the tags were fitted in the UK, Clement and Lyster were 76km (48miles) apart.
By 26th November he had moved a further 25km (15 miles) ESE to an area of forest along a river.
 

It was beginning to look like Clement was settled in Nigeria and that he might not head further south. However, at 19.42 on Friday evening (18 November) he transmitted from the northern edge of Minkebe National Park, Gabon, and by 09.00 this morning was just north of the Equator, between the Ivindo and Mwagne National Parks. Since leaving Nigeria on Friday he has travelled 1,215km. He was the first tagged cuckoo to leave the UK but the last to reach the vast Congo Rainforest.

Clement transmitted at 08.21 this morning and is still in the same location within Nigeria.

We heard from Clement on 2 November at 09:11. He is still in the same area in Nigeria but has been making lots of short feeding flights. Could he be getting ready to join the others further south?

Clement started transmitting a strong signal today and is still in the area between the Lame Burra Game Reserve and the Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria. Although the first to leave the UK, he is now the most northerly of our five Cuckoos. How long will it be before Clement joins the other four Cuckoos in the Congo Rainforest?

Clement is still transmitting from the Lame Burra Game Reserve.

On Wednesday Clement remained close to the Yankari Game Reserve. Ulf Ottosson and colleagues from the AP Leventis Ornithological Institute in Jos, 130km to the south west, looked for Clement in the field on Wednesday. They managed to get to within 8km of his current location but then had to give up as access became very difficult due to the tall, dense, wet grass that grows under the trees in the savannah habitat at this time of year. 

The ornithological institute at Jos is funded by the Tasso Leventis Conservation Foundation, which also supports the BTO’s capacity building work in West Africa.

Clement remains at the Lame Burra Game Reserve. 

Clement is still in the Lame Burra Game Reserve, north-west of the Yankari Game Reserve, about 130km NE of Jos in central Nigeria, where he has been since the end of August. With the two Cuckoos, that were to the east of here, having now moved south into southern Central African Republic, we are waiting to see when he will move on. The area has slightly higher rainfall than where Martin and Chris were in Chad but it is possible Clement will move on now the wet season is at an end. On the other hand, having taken the western route to get here, perhaps he will do something totally different...

A transmission from Clement on 26 September put him still in the area to the north-west of the Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria.

Signals received from Clement show that he is alive and well, and still in the area to the north-west of the Yankari Game Reserve.

Clement is continuing on his flight eastwards. It looks as though he left his last position near Kaduna on the evening of 28th August and headed eastwards for another 275km just to the NW of the Yankari Game Reserve. He is again in an area of farmland with scattered bushes. Interestingly his flight has taken him within 60km of the A P Leventis Ornithological Institute based in Jos.

One week after apparently settling in Burkina Faso, Clement had been on the move again and popped up in Togo! On Friday 19 August we received a series of positions for him just inside the extreme north of Togo, close to the border with Benin. By yesterday evening (Sunday 21 August), however, he had continued his journey to the east and was in western Nigeria, having travelled 500km (312 miles) ESE since Friday and 1025km (640 miles) almost due east since Wednesday.

Clement is now our most southerly Cuckoo, having reached 9.5 degrees N. His rapid easterly movement over the past two weeks mean that the four Cuckoos that have crossed the Sahara are now separated by about 1,500km, compared to the 3,500km soon after they had crossed the desert. It is fascinating that they have taken quite different routes to end up in very similar positions!
 

Clement has continued making his way east. On Friday morning (12 August) he had reached southern Burkina Faso and was 30km ESE of Bobo-Dioulasso. He was still at the same location at midday on Wednesday (17 August). This is the first British Cuckoo to be recorded in Burkina Faso and he is in an area of scattered bushes near the village of Houet (see the picture here taken only 200m from our last fix!).

Since 2009, BTO has been working on migrant birds in Burkina Faso and Ghana as part of its Out of Africa project with RSPB and the two BirdLife International partners, the Ghana Wildlife Society and Naturama. BTO research has shown that migrants wintering in the humid zones of West Africa are in rapid decline. Our field project, spanning habitats from the arid Sahel in Burkina Faso to the humid rainforests in Ghana, is looking to understand the wintering and stop-over ecology of migrants and how changes in land use and climate are impacting their populations.

The migrant team works closely with partners in Burkina Faso and Ghana. More information and news from the project can be found at www.migrantbirdsinafrica.blogspot.com.
 

Locations received yesterday early morning (10 August) revealed that Clement had left his residency in Senegal and was heading ESE over the south-western corner of Mali! He was still actively migrating when transmissions began at 0200hrs and appeared to have been migrating throughout the night. He had stopped by 0600hrs when had travelled 450km ESE from Foret Diambour. Although just inside the north-eastern tip of Guinea, Clement is only 200km (122 miles) form Bamako, the capital of Mali.

Clement appears to be skirting the closed forested zone to the south, and the area he is in is still just inside the semi-arid zone. It is, however, criss-crossed with watercourses which drain water from the high rainfall zone to the south and south-west. Many of these flow into the headwaters of the River Niger, which flows north-eastwards through Mali and into the southern Sahara Desert before turning east then back south in a huge arc into Nigeria. This massive flow of water from the humid south-western corner of West Africa forms a verdant strip in the otherwise barren desert, and is vital both for the humans who farm the Inner Niger Delta and other seasonally-flooded parts of Mali, and the millions of migrating birds who either winter there or use it on passage. For an account of the area and its importance to migratory birds, check out ‘Living on the Edge – Wetlands and birds in a changing Sahel’ by Leo Swarts, Rob Bijlsma, Jan van der Kamp and Eddy Wymenga.
 

Yesterday evening (8 August) Clement was still in the Foret de Diambour, Senegal. Today’s weather should suit him, it is 25° C, dry and overcast.

Clement has continued his slow but steady movement SE. He has moved another 100km (61 miles) in this direction and is now 76km east of the eastern tip of Gambia. Although he is still moving obliquely, relative to the rainfall gradients, he is now in a heavily wooded area called Foret Diambour. The weather today is a pleasant 29 degrees there with broken high cloud. Annual rainfall increases very rapidly to the south and southwest of here, and the comparatively lush forests of Niokolo-Koba National Park adjoin the Foret to the south. Conditions for Clement in this area should be very good at this time of year.

Clement has settled in an area for the past few days and with the good light conditions, the solar-powered tag is performing well. We have had a number of fixes but these are not of sufficient accuracy to be sure whether he is moving about the area or not.

We really don't know exactly how important the Sahel is for migrating Cuckoos. This is the area just below the Sahara desert that has a three month period of rainfall starting in June/July. By September the area is green but, in our spring when migrants start to return, it is dry and arid and conditions are tough.

We the Cuckoos to winter further south in the humid zone of central Africa and they could spend from only a few days to maybe 2-3 months in the Sahel. With the rains having just started, this area is going to be lush and green if rainfall is good, so they may well stick around for some time. Satellite tagging is really giving some new and very valuable insights into Cuckoos' behaviour.

New positions received today (22 July), show that Clement has moved 93km (56 miles) SE along the Ferlo river system since Wednesday (20 July). Having gone so far west initially, it will be interesting to see how much he compensates with an easterly movement.

Clement continued his south-westerly flight into Mauritania on Friday afternoon (15 July), advancing his position by 340km (210 miles) during the course of the day. This provides evidence that at least some Cuckoos migrate across the Sahara by day and night - previously we had thought they would rest in any shade that could be found by day to avoid dehydration. Perhaps by flying at altitude Clement was able to avoid the searing desert heat?

On Sunday evening (17 July) new locations placed him in northern Senegal, on the Ferlo River 140km (88 miles) ESE from St Louis – he had safely crossed the desert! Although towards the southern edge of the arid Sahel region, the area will be green by now having received the first rains of the wet season. Over the coming month, the Ferlo will swell under heavy rainfall – the outline of seasonal pools at Clement’s current location can clearly be seen on the google earth map. He has arrived at just the right time to take advantage of the pulse of productivity the rains will bring.

Clement has moved 3,100km (1,940 miles) SSW from his stopover in Valencia to his current position in Senegal in a maximum of seven days. From the Algerian coast, he took a constant south-westerly heading all the way to Senegal. This is the first information we have demonstrating a south-westerly migration into Africa for a UK Cuckoo – we were expecting them to migrate east of south given the information we had from ringing recoveries.
 

Clement's flight continues! After arriving in Africa on the 13 July and settling in what from Google Earth satellite photos looked like the last bush before the Sahara desert, he has pushed forward. We wondered a week ago what route he would take – east through Italy or west into West Africa and he is definitely taking the westerly route. He changed course again and headed about 1,000km in a south-west direction to a location near the Algeria/Mauritania border. His last position at 11.23 GMT put him squarely in the middle of the Sahara desert in area that seems devoid of any vegetation at all. His next position is expected at around noon on Sunday – watch this space to see if he has successfully crossed the desert!

After surprising us by moving into Spain over the weekend, Clement has provided even more excitement overnight. Shortly before midnight (our time) he was located over the western arm of the Mediterrranean Sea, 25km (15 miles) SSE of Cabo de Gata, the south-easternmost point of Iberia. Three hours later, the next position put him 180km (112 miles) to the south-east - 45km south-east of the Algerian coast. Clement had become our first Cuckoo to make it into Africa! As of this morning (0900 BST 13 July), Clement had settled in a scrub-covered northern slope of the Atlas mountains in the Sidi-bel-Abbes region of north-western Algeria – one of the very last vegetated locations before the vast sandy and rocky expanses of the Sahara…..

Diana de Palacio (BTO Ringing Office) reports that her mother, Maria Elena, flew to visit her from Almeria Airport, just 20km (12 miles) from Cabo de Gata, last night. She took off in the opposite direction from Clement just one hour before him and reports that weather conditions were very hot, humid and cloudy at that time.
 

We have received no further positions for Clement since last Sunday (3 July), and have now had two ‘on’ periods for his tag in which no transmissions have been received. Given our recent experience with Chris we are not unduly worried but it will be a relief when we do receive some new positions for him. The charge on his tag had dropped to a very low level when we last heard from him on 3 July.

Clement is another cuckoo where we are having battery charging issues. We received a good series of high-quality fixes on 30 June but only one low accuracy fix on 3 July. We suspect he has not moved as this was in exactly the same place as the fixes a few days before.

On Tuesday (28 June) morning Clement was still in the same area just east of Collobrieres.

Clement remains in the wooded hills east of Toulon – the habitat here (zoom in and drag the yellow man in the top left hand corner of the map for a streetview photo of the area) is structurally reminiscent of the wooded savannas we expect him to live in once he returns to Africa. Presumably he is feeding himself up in the warm weather before continuing his journey to the south…

By early Sunday morning Clement appeared to have moved east back towards his previous location but the accuracy of this position is low so it is difficult to be sure.

On Thursday (16 June) afternoon Clement was 12km (7 miles) east of Toulon, very close to the southern tip of the south coast of France.

Clement has continued to move south in France – by midday on Tuesday (14 June) he had almost reached the southern coast and was located in a range of wooded hills 30km (18 miles) ENE of Toulon.

At 0210 hrs on the morning of Sunday 12 June, Clement was located 300km (188 miles) south of his previous location is Burgundy – another movement due to south over the course of a weekend! Although the locations received were not very precise, by 0500 hrs he was approximately a further 65 km (40 miles) further south, 30km (18 miles) NNE of Aix-en-Provence. As first suspected when he moved due south to France, he appears to be heading to northern Italy whilst avoiding the Alps.

Clement has remained in the same area of central Burgundy that he was last located in, a couple of accurate fixes apparently identifying the particular woodland he has settled near to or in.

Clement is on the move again. By Tuesday morning, he had moved 140km east to Burgundy region. He appears to be homing in on forested landscapes, like the one around Thetford in which he was tagged.

Clement remained in the vicinity of the BTO’s Nunnery Lakes reserve for two weeks after being fitted with his transmitter. The last high-quality location we have shows he was still there in the evening of Thursday 2nd June.

Totally unexpected, a series of low-quality but seemingly reliable positions received on the morning of Sunday 5th June showed that Clement had already left the country and was c.160km (100 miles) south of Paris in Centre Region! This onset of migration is a full month earlier than we had expected full-grown Cuckoos to leave Britain. It may prove to be that one year old Cuckoos such as Clement leave earlier than older adult birds but this is a very surprisingly early start to his autumn migration.