Updates from our Cuckoos

Sometime between 17 March and the early hours of this morning (22 March) Lyster moved 20km (12 miles) SSW. This took him over an arm of the Volta and into Digya National Park, a short movement took place at the same time as Kasper’s jump to Côte d’Ivoire. Both of these Cuckoos moved towards higher rainfall areas, albeit in different directions and for different distances. Lyster’s shorter movement was directly towards where more heavily wooded habitat could be found.

Locations received for Lyster on the 17 March showed that he is still settled on the north-west shore of Lake Volta, Ghana.  

 On 14 March at 21.04, Lyster was still on the western shore of Lake Volta, Ghana, and still close to Kasper.

On the 12 March we received a transmission from Lyster's tag which showed that he has remained  on the north-west shore of Lake Volta, just north of Digya National Park, around 25km (16 miles) south of Kasper.

A series of locations received for Lyster yesterday afternoon (7 March) showed that he had continued moving rapidly west and is now just north of Digya National Park in Ghana. He is currently 30km (18 miles) SSW of Kasper's latest location.

Since his last transmission on 16 February, Lyster has travelled 1,190km (740miles) from his last known position in Congo. He is now in Nigeria! A transmission from him at 00.49 on 5 March shows that he is currently in the Niger delta. Lyster is the fourth cuckoo to have begun his long journey back to the UK.

It's now been 13 days since we heard from Lyster and 18 days since we heard from Martin. They may be deep under cover feeding up, as Kasper did, which  makes it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries.   Kasper travelled 350 miles during the month in which we received no signals, check back for further updates and to see where they turn up next!  

We received a signal from Lyster on the 16 Feb which showed that he has made no further movements northwards as of yet. With both Kasper and Clement having travelled hundreds of miles north, could Lyster be on the move soon too?

Between a transmission received on the 30 Jan and another on the 1 Feb Lyster had moved 75km (46 miles) north-east and then a further 46km (29m) north-west. At 17.57 on the 1 Feb at he was near Ndzakou having moved a total of around 121km (75miles). He is now 86km (53 miles) from Martin and 47km (30 miles) from Clement.
 

Is this the start of migration or not? Watch this space!