Updates from our Cuckoos

Over the past ten days, Lloyd left the Alpine foothills of western Italy for Provence and then left for an area close to the borders of France and Spain, west of Perpignan - apparently confirming that he was taking the western route in to Africa. Locations received on the afternoon of 26 August, however, showed he had returned east to Provence whilst further locations showed that by the afternoon of 28 August he was back in Italy, a few km from the position he held ten days ago! It seems likely that this reverse movement is related to food availability – perhaps Lloyd had difficulty finding suitable foraging areas towards the south-west? It is notable that of the three tracked Cuckoos that have headed to Africa in that direction this autumn, we have not heard from John or Reacher for some time and Lyster is missing in southern Mauritania, possibly having failed to deposit enough fuel for his desert crossing at his stop-over in Catalonia. 

A series of locations received early yesterday (29 August) showed that Roy had indeed initiated his migration two days previously and that he was moving south over eastern Libya – the location on the map shows where he had reached by 1030hrs. This suggests that he had moved SSE through Albania and Greece before crossing over the Mediterranean Sea and into Libya. His tag should resume transmissions tomorrow afternoon, at which time we hope he will have joined the other four Cuckoos that are currently in southern Chad.

We believe that the transmission depicted to the east is incorrect and that Chance remained in the area east of Lake Chad. Further transmissions on 22, 23, 25 and 27 August show him 155km (95 miles) southeast of the Lake, and his previous position.

Chris continued eastwards around 90km (50 miles) from his position on 21 August. He moved to the Guera region of Chad and we have received recent locations this morning indicating he is still there. He is now just 30 miles west of where he was a year ago.

Transmissions show that David has travelled only a small distance within Chad from his previous location on 20 August. He is, however, no longer the most southerly Cuckoo.

Signals received on August 24 and 26 show that BB remains in the same area within Chad, close to the border with Sudan. 

Indy has moved south within Niger since the 24 August.  He travelled around 180 km (113 miles) and on the morning of the 27 August  was 70km (43miles) north-east of Zinder, the second largest city in Niger.

From the area of Danilovgrad, Montenegro, a series of unconfirmed transmissions show that on the evening of August 26, Roy was moving in a southeasterly direction. The last transmission received shows him over the middle of Lake Scutari, just inside the border of Albania. Is he making his move south? We expect further transmissions tomorrow morning. 

Wallace remains in Switzerland but appears to have moved south a small distance. Transmissions from his tag on August 27 show that he is around 10km (6 miles) south from Lake Brienz.

We had thought that as Lloyd was in Italy, he would travel south and make the crossing to Africa from Sicily or the coast, like previous Cuckoos who staged in Italy have. However, Lloyd seems to have changed direction.  The last transmissions showed him travelling south along the French coast before the transmission period then finished as he neared Fréjus. Transmissions resumed yesterday evening (23 August) and located him in the very south of France, 60km (37 miles) west of Perpignan. It looks very likely that he will now cross to Africa from Spain. He has taken a very roundabout route to get here. Perhaps availability of food has had something to do with this?