Updates from our Cuckoos

Still no news from Chance. However, despite not hearing from him since early December we haven’t given up on him. The last transmission showed that the tag temperature was as expected if he was alive; however, the battery charge was extremely low, so low that the tag must have stopped transmitting immediately afterwards. 

BB has begun the first stage of his journey back to the UK. On 11 January he was 250km north of his mid-winter location. He is still in the southern part of the Congo Rainforest, just to the north of the Téké plateau and just south-west of the settlement of Makoua. We have seen in previous years that around this time British Cuckoos begin to make their way to north of the Rainforest, before heading to West Africa.

Since his 90km north-easterly movement from Lake Mai, Whortle has headed a further 76km (47 miles) in a north-westerly direction and is now 154km (96 miles) north of the lake, and just 10km from Mbandaka on the banks of the Congo River.

We still haven’t heard from Tor since his tag transmitted on 4 December. As that signal carried no diagnostic data we were unable to check his body temperature or the state of the tag’s battery. 

Skinner has moved again but this time he has really gone for it, moving 1283km (795 miles) from his location close to Cuckoo Chris. After a short stopover in Gabon, following a northward movement of 757km (470 miles), he carried on north-west and as of 10pm on 13 January was in south-west Cameroon, 43km (27 miles) north of the border with Equatorial Guinea.  He has gone from being our most southerly Cuckoo to our most northerly, leapfrogging all of the other cuckoos since the beginning of the year.

Ken is still in the same area in Gabon, on the edge of the Téké plateau, that he has frequented since the 25 October. His tag last transmitted from there on 13 January.

Chris is still at his mid-winter location in Angola and, as a consequence of Skinner’s move north, is now our most southerly Cuckoo. We last heard from Chris at 09.30 on 13 January.

Derek has started to move north. At 08.30 on 14 January he had moved 120km (74 miles) north-east from his mid-winter location. He is now just 9km (6 miles) from Scottish Cuckoo Waller.

By the 28 December, Skinner had travelled a short distance south but stayed in that location only briefly, heading north-west 130km (80 miles) towards the coast, and by 30 December was in Quiçama National Park. Due to war and poaching much of the wildlife, including the Elephant population, in this park was decimated but a rehabilitation programme during 2000 and 2001 saw two successful relocations of elephant from over populated parks in Botswana. 

The next signals received were on 6 January and revealed he had again moved on, 110km (65km) north. His new location means that he is now just 65km (40 miles) west of Chris, another of our East Anglian Cuckoos.  

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.