Updates from our Cuckoos

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.