Transmissions were received from both our Welsh Cuckoos' tags on the evening of the 16 January but there have been no significant movements from David and Lloyd to report.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
- If you enjoy these updates, please consider sponsoring a Cuckoo. Sponsors receive special updates about their chosen Cuckoo in the Cuckoo e-newsletter.
Transmissions received from Welsh Cuckoos
Chris remains close
Transmissions from Chris’s tag were received yesterday evening, he is currently 100km (62 miles) to the northeast of Chance and BB.
Just two and a half miles in it!
Further signals in the last couple of days reveal that BB and Chance are now only 4km (2.5 miles) apart from each other – that’s closer than when they were first tagged at either end of Loch Katrine in The Trosssachs National Park in Scotland! From transmissions received yesterday, BB appears to have travelled 2km (just over a mile) to the west, while transmissions today show Chance has moved 2km north and then 1km east of his previous location. They are so close now that you have to really zoom in on the map to be able to see both markers.
BB heads north
A transmission on the evening of 10 January confirmed BB’s location as still being close to the river. A transmission in the early hours of 13 January showed he had moved 119 km (74 miles) almost directly north. He is now in the Cuvette-Ouest region. Chance is about 7.5km (5 miles) from this new position, his tag transmitting from this location a matter of hours after BB did so. Chance and BB have moved to the first block of continuous forest to the north of the grassland - gallery forest mosaics of the Teke Plateau and are now only 100km (62 miles) from Chris to their north-east.
Chance leaves Gabon
Transmissions on 11 January show that Chance was in Gabon but a new position from the afternoon of 13 January revealed that he had moved 130km (80 miles) NE and had hopped over the border to join BB, our other Scottish-tagged Cuckoo and Chris, our remaining English-tagged Cuckoo, in Congo.
BB had recently moved north of his previous position and with Chance’s new movement, this has brought them very close together, no further than 20km (12 miles) but possibly within 7.5km (5 miles) or even closer - unfortunately the accuracy of the locations wasn't great enough to know for sure.
Chance has travelled about 131km (81 miles) to the north-east of his location in Gabon. He is now on the border between the the Cuvette-Ouest and Cuvette regions of Congo. Chance and BB have moved to the first block of continuous forest to the north of the grassland - gallery forest mosaics of the Teke Plateau and are now only 100km (62 miles) from Chris to their north-east.
BB resumes transmissions
There have been some small sighs of relief as BB’s tag starting transmitting again yesterday, after a silence of 11 days, confirming that all was ok. He had probably emerged from dense cover where the tag had not able to charge or transmit. The transmissions at around 10pm show that his new location is about 30km (19 miles) north-east from the previous location, and that he has remained roughly 8km west of the winding river. It is good to be receiving signals from him again!
Four Cuckoos unchanged
Chance, Lloyd, David and Chris all remain in their previous positions according to locations received in the last two days.
2013 transmissions
So far in 2013, we have heard from four of the five remaining Cuckoos. We received tag transmissions from Chris and Chance today and from Lloyd and David yesterday showing there had been no substantial movements to report.
However, we haven’t heard from BB since the 30 December - at this stage this is nothing to worry about, though, as at this time last year we regularly went longer than this without hearing from the Cuckoos. A combination of poor charging conditions and a gradual decline in battery charge mean that they are transmitting less often, whilst as they are within the forest interference from trees reduces the chances of transmissions being picked up by satellites. Once they move on, or the weather at their current locations improves, we should start to receive positions more regularly again.
No change from David
David's tag last transmitted on the afternoon of 31 December indicating that he had remained in the same area. We hope to receive another transmission shortly.
Transmissions today from Lloyd
We received several signals from Lloyd's tag in the early hours of this morning. He is still in the same area but appears to be moving around.
Share this page