Updates from our Cuckoos

From Morocco, Derek had continued on a further 1000km (600 miles) to reach Spain, settling in an area north of the Sienna Morena Mountains, by 15 April. He was joined here on the same day by Stanley, who had travelled north-west from his location near Granada and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They are now only about 7km (4.5 miles) apart. 

During the early hours of the 13 April, Stanley transmitted from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in southern Spain. He is the second bird to reach Europe - how long will he stay before heding further north?

On 13 March, Stanley a transmission from Stanley showed that he had moved west and crossed into Ivory Coast. He is currently 230km (143 miles) west of his last location in Ghana.

Stanley has continued on from Nigeria and has travelled 1295km (805 miles) almost directly west to reach western Ghana. He is now further west than Dudley, also in Ghana, and very close to the border with Ivory Coast.  

Stanley is on the move! Since the 5 March, Stanley has covered 790km (490 miles) north-west across Cameroon and is now in Nigeria. He is the fourth tagged Cuckoo this year to  travel in to West Africa and make a start on his return migration . 

Stanley has made a huge movement of 740km ( 460 miles) and travelled to the northern edge of the Congo rainforest. This is the first step of his migration home and he is now around 250km (150 miles) further north than the nearest Cuckoo, Derek, and 1350km (845 miles) further north than the most southerly of our Cuckoos, Chris.  Our Cuckoos seem to move to the forest edge to feed up for a while before then heading into west africa. 

In previous years David has also made his move as early as the end of January to the forest edge while BB and Chris have moved in February and early March.  

Stanley is still settled in the swamp forest of the Tumba Lediima Natural Reserve, although he has moved 25km (15 miles) to the north and west.

Stanley has left the Congo and skipped over the border into the swamp forest within the Democratic Republic of Congo’ s Tumba Lediima Natural Reserve. 

Six of the tracked cuckoos (Peter, Dudley, Emsworthy, David, Livingstone and Stanley) are already within the Congo rainforest block. The first of these to arrive was Stanley on 16 September, the earliest of the tracked cuckoos ever to arrive there by 12 days! He was followed by Emsworthy on 19 and Livingstone and Dudley on 23. Previous to this year, the earliest Cuckoo had been Chris, who arrived there on 25 September in 2012.

Since then, David arrived on 24 and Peter on 28 September 2014. David was five and four days earlier than in 2012 and 2013 respectively whilst Livingstone was 13 days earlier than last year. It is very interesting to note that all four of the cuckoos who beat the previous earliest arrival date came from northern Cameroon and the adjacent part of Chad, a region that has received over 50mm less rainfall than usual over the past month and more than 100mm less over the past three months.