Updates from our Cuckoos

Yesterday at around midday we received signals which showed that Livingstone was in the south of Mauritania, having flown over Mali. Further signals have meant that we have been able to follow his progress over the desert and the latest signals, received this morning, show that he was north of the Akchar Desert. Despite having travelled over 1500km (950 miles) from Ivory Coast he still has a long way to go, having taken a very westerly route to reach Mauritania, he is probably only about half way. 

Livingstone had moved further north within Cameroon but the last signal received from this more northerly location was on 12 March. After this we received several low quality signals that revealed he was on the move. His new location popped up on the map yesterday, 19 March, when a good quality signal was finally received, and revealed that he was in Ivory Coast, close to border with Guinea. From the previous signals we can see that he has been in the area since around the 16 March, making him the fourth Cuckoo to move into West Africa. He is now just 20km (12 miles) north-east of Derek. 

Livingstone has made a move north. As of 21 February, he was 276km (171 miles) north of his mid-winter site in Gabon and is now in south Cameroon.

Livingstone is still in the area of Gabon in which he arrived on 30 December.  We last heard from him on 11 January.

Since the 23 December, Livingstone has moved 400km (250 miles), transmitting from the Woleu-Ntem region of Gabon on 30 December. He is now in a location further west than any of the other tagged Cuckoos. 

Livingstone has returned to the area he was in during October and early November, leaving eastern Congo and returning to the Cuvette-Ouest region to the west. 

Over a series of days, Livingstone has travelled 415km (260 miles) north-east, leaving his position in the Teke Plateau and heading to  northern Congo. Signals received today show that he is close to the border with the Central African Republic in the Noubale-Ndoki National Park.   

Of the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland this year, Livingstone is still on the edge of the Téké Plateau, whilst Patch is in an area of closed canopy forest with seasonally flooded grassland west of Lac Mai in DRC. Waller is in the swamp forests about 120km (75 miles) ESE of Chris and Derek. All three of these birds could be in their final mid-winter locations, although we might well see Waller at least move further south towards the gallery forest / savannah mosaics.

By 1 November, Livingstone had moved north-west from his position in Congo to eastern Gabon, just inside it's border with Congo.