
Tagged : Wed, May 30, 2012 - 02:00
Age when found : Over one year
Tagging Location : Cors Caron, Ceredigion, Wales
Wing Length (mm) : 221
Sex : Male
Indy's journey from 30th May 2012 to 19th September 2012
Updates on Indy 's movements
Indy runs out of luck
There have been no further tranmissions from Indy since 21 September. Looking back at the temperature data of his final transmissions it indicates his body heat had dropped right down and we are now assuming that he has died in Cameroon. Mike McCarthy of The Independent talks about Indy's incredible journey in his latest article.
David still in DCR
Over the weekend we received transmissions from David's tag who is still settled in Democratic Republic of Congo. There has been nothing further from Indy since 21 September.
David and Indy settled
David transmitted yesterday and remains in the south of Sudan close to the border whilst Indy’s last transmission on the 21 September indicated he was still in the north of Cameroon.
Indy heads east towards Chad
Indy was still in the same area of tiger bush on 14 September. By the afternoon of Sunday 16 September, however, he had moved 180km (112 miles) E to a position 24km (15 miles) east of Damboa in Borno region. At dusk that evening, however, he moved on again and by the time the last two locations were received around midnight, he was another 50km (31 miles) to the east. These placed him 35km (22 miles) WNW of Gwoza and about 45km (28 miles) from the border with Cameroon. Indy appears to be heading for southern Chad, where several of the tracked Cuckoos have been recently and where several of last year’s birds passed through before heading south to the Congo basin.
All quiet on the Cuckoo front
There have been no movements of note from our Cuckoos in the last few days. Transmissions have been received from Indy and Chance today and Lloyd, David, Wallace, Roy, BB and Chris in the last few days. Hopefully there will be more to report after the weekend!
Indy continues south
From his position just inside the Nigerian Border, Indy had moved 204km (127 miles) SE into the Yobe state by the evening of 9 September. His current location is 35km (22 miles) east of Potiskum, in what appears to be an area of what is known as tiger bush, where scrubby woodland is interspersed with bands of un-vegetated rock . As expected, he is moving slowly into areas of higher annual rainfall, following the band of rains that is moving south as autumn progresses.
Update on Welsh birds
Locations received from Lloyd’s tag on 31 Aug still place him in west Italy. There has been no further information on Iolo but both Indy and Davids’ tags have transmitted in the last few days. David is still in Chad whilst Indy remains in northern Nigeria.
Indy moves into Nigeria
Indy has continued to move SE through the Sahel into areas with higher annual rainfall. On the evening of 31 August, he was still at hid location NE of Zinder in Niger but by early this morning (3 August) he had moved 128km (78 miles) SE. He is now 20km (12 miles) inside Nigeria and is 43km (27 miles) WNW of Nguru. Immediately to his south are Nguru Hadejia wetlands, a Ramsar Site which is very important for migratory waterbirds.
Indy moves south
Indy has moved south within Niger since the 24 August. He travelled around 180 km (113 miles) and on the morning of the 27 August was 70km (43miles) north-east of Zinder, the second largest city in Niger.
Indy almost across...
Indy has made good progress with his desert crossing. We have received several locations for his tag today that place him in southern Niger, close to the northern border of Zinder region, about 260km (162 miles) N of the border with. He doesn’t appear to be actively migrating during the day today - his location is still at least 200km (125 miles) further north than we would expect him to stay for any length of time, based on what we have seen from the Cuckoos last year and so far this year, so hopefully he will continue migrating tonight.
Indy in the midst of crossing the Sahara!
At the time of writing (early afternoon, Monday 20th August) Indy is in the midst of his desert crossing. Over the preceding ten hours, we have received a series of locations that tracked his progress as he moved almost due south from Tunisia into eastern Algeria. Prior to today, we last heard from his tag on 15th August, when he was still in northern Italy. We hope Indy is fully fuelled and that, when his tag starts transmitting again (due Wednesday afternoon), he will be in hospitable country on the south side of the Sahara.
No change from Iolo, Lloyd and Indy
No further transmissions have been received from Iolo in Libya or Lloyd in Italy since the 9 August. Indy also remains in northern Italy and we last heard from him on the 13 August.
After a 3,000km round trip, Indy returns to base!
Having had the opportunity to scrutinise the data from the past few days, we can confirm that Indy does indeed appear to have been over the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily and only 154km (95 miles) from the coast of Libya, early in the morning of Monday 23 July. Locations received in the first few hours after dawn suggest that he was heading ENE and then due N – back towards Italy – at that time. We know Indy would have encountered a strong headwind if he was originally heading south at this time, so he may turned north in reaction to this when finding himself over the sea and out of sight of land at dawn, presumably having assessed his body fuel reserves as being inadequate. However, we can’t rule out the possibility he may have been returning north having previously made landfall in Libya or Tunisia. Certainly at this time of year there will be few re-fuelling opportunities in North Africa east of the Atlas Mountains.
Confusing signals from Indy
Over the past few days we have received a confusing series of locations for Indy, which are difficult to make sense of because the large potential errors associated with them. Having received locations on Monday 23 July suggesting that Indy was over the Mediterranean, south-east of Sicily, we then received locations for him on Wednesday 25 July that suggested he was on the west coast of Italy, northwest of Rome. It is not clear whether Indy has really flown south and then re-traced his steps but we should be able to find out later today when his tag starts transmitting again.
Indy making a bid for Africa
Having spent most of July in northern Italy, Indy is on the move. Several poor locations received this morning indicate that he is over the Mediterranean Sea, 240km (140 miles) south east of the southern tip of Sicily.
No change from David, Iolo and Indy
There has been no movement for three of the Cuckoos tagged in Wales over the past week, with David still stopping over in Montenegro and Iolo and Indy doing likewise in the Po watershed. Lloyd, however, has been up to some very odd movements – see his blog for further details.
A brief pause for Welsh Cuckoos
In common with the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland and England, over the past week there has been little movement form those tagged in Wales. The exception was Indy who, as reported in his blog last week, moved from France into Italy, joining Iolo and becoming the second Cuckoo to be staging in the Po watershed (Reacher passed though the region very briefly but is now staging close to the border between France and Spain). 115597 is still close to Marseille in France.
Indy travels through France to Italy
Indy was in the Pircadie region on 20 June and has slowly made his way south before heading east to Italy.
On the 22 June he had moved to the Champagne-Ardenne region and was 16km (10 miles) south of Reims. Transmitting on the 25 June he had continued on another 244km (151 miles) to the region of Burgundy. Indy then settled for several days in an area 30 miles north of Lyon, in the Rhone-Alpes region, 70km south-west of the southern most tip of Lake Geneva, before heading in a south-easterly direction 308km (191 miles) in to the Piedmont region of Italy. He is 14 km (9 miles) from Alessandria.
Indy in France
Indy has followed the other three Welsh male Cuckoos out of the country. New locations received on the morning of 20 June showed he has moved approximately 275km (170 miles) SE from his previous position in Surrey and was now in the Picardie region of France.
Indy arrives in Surrey
Following in the footsteps of the other three male Cuckoos tagged in Wales, Indy has made a huge leap east in recent days. As late as Friday evening (15 June) we received data from his tag to show him north of Tregaron in Wales. This morning (18 June) we received data from Indy's tag in Surrey, half way between Farnborough and Woking, having travelled 245km (153 miles) ESE over the weekend. This means that all of the Welsh males have made an initial movement east from the tagging area - it will be interesting to see if this continues or whether any turn south and take the westerly route in Africa used by Clement and Martin last year.
Indy tagged 30 May
Indy was tagged at Cors Caron, Ceredigion, Wales. and is at least one year old. Since being caught on 30 May 2012 he has remained in the area.