Updates from our Cuckoos

We enjoyed following Cuckoo George from Norfolk down through northern Italy and across the Sahara to Chad. From there he progressed via Central African Republic to the Congo Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We lost contact with him in November while he was progressing south in the Mai-Ndombe province of DRC.

The tag's battery was very low when we last received a signal and we know he had recently moved, so it seems the low charge is likely the reason we lost contact with the tag. What happened after that - continued degradation of the battery / tag or a problem for George, we don't know, and will now never know, unless he is seen or caught again, or his ring or tag are recovered.

We last heard from George on 9 November, when he was approaching the Lukenie River, approximately 20 miles upstream of the community of Oshwe, in the Mai-Ndombe province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A new update received this morning (6 October) from George's tag showed that he has flown 673km (419 miles) south from his last location in Central African Republic and has reached the Congo Basin.

At 9am this morning he was half way between Cuckoo Joe to his north and Trent to his south.

George is the first of our tagged birds to begin the final leg of his journey towards his wintering grounds in the Congo Basin.

He has flown 770 km (479 miles) south, taking him out of Chad and into the Central African Republic (CAR). He is now in dense rainforest in south west CAR, approximately 190 km (118 miles) west of the capital Bangui. 

We are pleased to report that further updates from George's tag last night show that he has safely completed his crossing of the Sahara.

By 18:30 last night he had reached the northern edge of the Guéra region of Chad. Further updates suggest that he has carried on south towards the mountains of Mont Mourgue and Mont Ouala.  

Since our last update, George has flown 266 km (166 miles) south east through Italy and is now just edging Sayaan and Cuach Torc as our most southerly Cuckoo.

He is currently a few miles west of the town of Canino in northern Lazio. 

New updates received last night show that George has flown 477 km (296 miles) south east from France to northern Italy.

He spent at least a couple of hours yesterday evening in the wooded hills around Varese Ligure, in the Province of La Spezia, in the Italian region of Liguria. 

New updates received from Cuckoo George’s tag show that by 11 a.m. yesterday morning (Sunday 2 June), George had flown 615 km (382 miles) south, crossing the English Channel and heading into Eastern France.

He is now in an area of mixed farmland and woodland a few miles west of Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse in the Haute-Saône department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.