Updates from our Cuckoos

Raymond is still settled on the northern edge of the Teke Plateau, between the rivers Ngoko and Alima. Locations received from his tag on 10 February show that he is moving around in the gallery forest between these two rivers.

Raymond hasn't moved far since he arrived on the Teke Plateau but he has been providing lots of information. His largest movements have been around 2km at most, with the majority around 500 metres. The battery charge on his tag is at the lower limit of what we would like but the tag still appears to be working well. The current weather is showers and the temperature is 30 degrees.

During the last couple of weeks Raymond hasn't moved very far and is confining his flights to the edge of forest blocks on the plateau, no further and a few hundred metres or so in distance.

During the last few days we have received a series of locations from Raymond's tag that show he has crossed the border from Gabon and is in Congo, on the Teke Plateau. During the project we have seen a few of our Cuckoos spend the mid-winter on the plateau, however, this year Raymond is currently the only one. The weather on the plateau is a pleasant 28 degrees with light showers. It will be interesting to see if Raymond remains here or joins our other Cuckoos in Angola.

The last location we have for Raymond in Togo was on 16 November. On 21 November we received nine locations from his tag between 04.30am and 08.55am that showed he was in central western Cameroon. On the 23 November he had moved to northeastern Gabon before moving further south. He is currently very close to the border with Congo in the very southern tip of the Mwagne National Park.

During the last week or so Raymond has slowly moved east and south out of Burkina Faso. He is currently in Togo, very close to the border with Ghana, and in the Assouakoko Forest. During this time he has flown 580km (360 miles).

Raymond has now been in Burkina Faso for over two months. During the last few days we have received a number of locations from his tag that show he is alive and well and still to the north of the Po Forest.

Raymond is currently our most westerly Cuckoo, and although he has moved north he is still in Burkina Faso, just to the north of the Po Forest in an area of fairly open country scattered with small trees. It is currently 30 degrees C with light south-westerly winds, which should be ideal if he decides to begin his journey east.

Since crossing the desert, Raymond has headed east through Mali and into Burkina Faso. He is one of five of our satellite tagged Cuckoos that are currently in Burkina Faso. He arrived in Burkina Faso on 21 August and is now just to the south of a town called Boudiedara.

At 04:05am on 8 August we received a series of good quality locations from Raymond's tag that showed he had successfully completed his desert crossing and was on the eastern edge of the Reserve de Faune du Ferlo Nord. He is the last of our Cuckoos to cross the desert this year.