Updates from our Cuckoos

PJ hasn't moved far since arriving in Cameroon but information from his tag received during the last couple of days show he is alive and well. In previous years he has started the second leg of his journey around the end of February, so he could move west any day now.

Over the last few days PJ has flown 269 km (167 miles) north west from Central African Republic into Cameroon. He is now in the mountainous Adamawa region of central Cameroon. In previous years PJ as stayed in Cameroon until the end of February/early March so we expect him to stay put for a few weeks before heading west to Ivory Coast. 

An update from PJ's tag yesterday morning shows that he has flown a further 432 km (268 miles) north-west from Gabon to a new location in the Nana-Mambéré region of The Central African Republic. He is close to the border with Cameroon and just south of the area he stopped in during his migration north in 2017. From here he is likely to move west into Cameroon and then continue through west Africa towards Ivory Coast where he stopped off in 2017, 2018 and 2019.  

Between 22nd and 25th December, PJ flew 745 km (463 miles) north from his last location in northern Angola to his new location in eastern Gabon. This movement is similar in timing and direction to PJ's movements in 2017 when he moved to Gabon on 8th January and in 2018 when he moved to Gabon on 27th December. In previous years he has stayed in this area of Gabon until the end of January before moving further north, into Cameroon. 

Since our last update PJ has flown further south as expected and is now in northern Angola, where he wintered in 2016, 2017 & 2018. He is just north-east of the capital Luanda and we expect him to remain here for a month or so, before beginning the first stage of his migration north again. 

After a week in Cameroon, PJ has flown 687 km (427 miles) south to his current location in western Republic of the Congo. He is on the southern edge of the 13,500 Km2 Odzala National Park, one of Africa's oldest national parks, in the heart of the Congo Basin. We don't expect PJ to stay here for more than a week or two before progressing on to his wintering grounds in northern Angola. 

Over the last few days PJ has left Nigeria and flown 1,288 km (800 miles) south east into Cameroon. He stopped briefly en-route just south of the Nigerian capital Abuja, before pressing on across the border into Cameroon. He is now in the Adamawa region of Cameroon and just north of the large Mbam Djerem National Park. He stopped in exactly the same area between 3 October and 20 November 2018 and visited close by on his spring migration earlier this year. We expect him to visit Congo next on his way to Angola where he usually over winters. 

PJ has been in northern Nigeria since early August and, looking back at previous years data, could be on the move shortly to Cameroon. In the last couple of years he has arrived there in the first week of October,  later making his way south to winter in Angola. Keep watching this space!  

The last few weeks have been quiet and for those who had not yet completed their desert crossings, it looks like the challenging conditions have claimed more of our tagged Cuckoos.

Unfortunately no further signals have been received from Knepp. From the temperature data and movements at the time, he was alive on 12 July, when we last heard from his tag. Though the battery charge had been low for a few days, there is no evidence of long term battery decline so we can't be sure what has happened to him - either he, or the tag, appear to have died suddenly. 

Lambert, who was still in France, has not moved on south and signals on 21 August showed high temperature fluctuations across the day, indicating the bird's body temperature and behaviour were not regulating it. We've heard nothing since then, and his tags battery charge had suddenly dipped, all of which leads us to believe he has likely died.

Unfortunately the challenging conditions have also impacted on Nussey who has already attempted two trips to Africa and retreated to Europe.  Abnormally low temperatures were received at the time of the last messages (16 August), having previously been fine. He was not migrating at that time, so the low temperatures were not due to high altitude, and the battery was also much lower than previously, further suggesting he was dead.

The droughts and exceptionally high temperatures in Europe appear to have proved difficult for our Cuckoos this year, however the five south of the Sahara are still regularly transmitting. Valentine, PJ, Carlton II and Tennysons' tags have all sent signals during September and the last signals received from Senan's tag were at the end of August and show him still in Burkina Faso.

Since arriving on 5 August, PJ has stayed in the far north western corner of Nigeria, in Sokoto state. He is currently approximately 38 km (23 miles) south east of the city of Sokoto. This is an area which PJ also spent a couple of weeks in on his way south in 2017.