Updates from our Cuckoos

David was still in Chad on 21 September but by the evening of the 23 September he had travelled 1085km (675 miles) south to the Congo rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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.

Stanley left his location in Cameroon, likely because of drier conditions that also seem to have seen other Cuckoos leave the area, and headed south. By the 16 September he had travelled 660km (410 miles) south-east and was in central Congo, making him our most southerly tagged Cuckoo. He didn't stop there though and is now south of the equator! He travelled another 185km (115 miles) south-east, and is around 70km from the Congo river and Congo's border with Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Cuckoo 134597 has moved south, travelling 485km (300 miles) from Mali to Nigeria. He is now only 100km (60 miles) away from Skinner's location.

By the 18 September, Emsworthy had left his location on the border of Nigeria/Cameroon and travelled south-east 640km (400 miles) and was in the Central African Republic (CAR). Since then he has travelled 280km (175 miles) south-west and is on the border between CAR and Cameroon. Poor conditions in the north of Cameroon may have led to him moving on so we hope that he has found better foraging here. 

Derek has moved 175km (110 miles) east and is now in the Central African Republic. As suggested in a previous blog this may be down to it being slightly drier than average in Northern Cameroon as Dudley and Emsworthy have also left that area.  

The last transmission from Gilbert's tag was on 16 July and everything appeared fine with respect to tag charge and temperature. His last known location was in Spain, and now that all our other Cuckoos have completed their desert crossing and are safely in Africa, we presume that Gilbert has been unable to continue his journey and has probably perished there. 

There have been no further signals since 19 July from Meavy. Given this it is possible that we may have lost him and will not receive further news of his journey. 

Signals received on 13 September show BB had continued across the desert and was in Chad, roughly 380 miles north-east of Chris, who was settled around Lake Chad after completing his desert crossing.  A further signal on 15 September shows that BB had travelled 105km (65 miles) south-east. This new position means he still has roughly the same distance to travel again before he is on the same latitude as Whortle, the most northerly of the other Cuckoos