Updates from our Cuckoos

Now that BB has moved south, the five Cuckoos that we are still tracking all appear to be at, or close to, their final wintering locations. Although we can’t draw firm conclusions from such small numbers, the Scottish-tagged Cuckoos are wintering in the same area as the Cuckoos tagged in England (bar Chris) did last winter. The two Welsh Cuckoos are further to the east. This is really interesting but whether it reflects general differences in the wintering areas used by the different breeding populations will need to be confirmed by the results of further tracking work in the coming years.

Chris is still settled close to the Ubangi river, transmissions from yesterday afternoon indicate. He has been in this area for nearly two months now.

Chris has returned north after his short southwards movement, transmitting on the 9 November, from the same location he had been in previously. 

There are currently just five tagged Cuckoos from which we are still receiving regular transmissions. While BB, LLoyd and David have all transmitted in the last couple of days, none of them have moved from their previous positions. Chris's tag transmitted on 7 November and showed he had made a small movement south of about 34km (21 miles), taking him closer to the Ubangi river. Chance also seems to have made a small movement recently and is now south-west of the Faro Reserve and only 54km (34 miles) from the border with Nigeria. 

No big movements to report from our remaining English and Welsh Cuckoos. David’s last tag transmission was on 30 October from within Democratic Republic of Congo. He is still in the same position, to the west of southern part of Salonga National Park, Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. Meanwhile, Lloyd’s tag signal confirmed that, as of this morning, 1 November, he is still in Central African Republic.  He has shown some local movements, heading northwest a short distance from his position on the 24 October, before then heading back southeast about 60km (37 miles).  Our English Cuckoo, Chris, remains in Congo, his tag transmitting in the early hours of yesterday, 31 October.

Chris’s last transmission was on 14 October. He is still close to the  Likouala aux Herbes, the same area of Congo that he has been in since 28 September.

Having made it into Congo by the morning of Tuesday 25 September, Chris didn’t hang around and by yesterday afternoon (Thursday 27 September) he had progressed a further 300km (186 miles) further due S. He is now 56km (35 miles) due S of the location that he spent most of last winter in. He is in similarly wet swamp forest, close to the Likouala aux Herbes. 

In the early hours of this morning Chris transmitted from Congo. At lunchtime on the 20 September, Chris was still in Central African Republic, 378 km (235 miles) away from his previous position but from here he travelled almost directly south. His arrival there this year is around two weeks earlier than last year, when he first transmitted from Congo on the 10 October 2011. You can see where he has ‘overtaken himself’ by the overlap of the two pathways on the map. Chris is still to the north of where he spent much of last winter. He is currently the most southerly Cuckoo, although Roy, who is on the border between Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not far behind.  

By the early hours of this morning, Chris had moved 398km (246 miles) due S from the position he had held in southern Chad since 6 September. He is now in Ouam prefecture in western Central African Republic, and becomes the most southerly of the tracked Cuckoos. He is migrating along a very similar path to last year but, so far, he is not stopping at the same locations. This was also the case in Europe, although he then crossed the desert on a more westerly path, possibly having been drifted by the wind. 

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!