Updates from our Cuckoos

PJ has travelled  250km (160 miles) from Niger and is now in northern Nigeria. 

The last signal we received from Carlton was on June 9 when everything appeared fine with both him and the tag's battery, however, there have been no transmissions since.

We're aware that increased feather coverage, due to the smaller size of the solar panel, means we are getting fewer signals from some of the new tags but we're concerned that we've had nothing for two months. Carlton should have been moving around and thus the tag would have been exposed to daylight during this time. It may be that something has happened to either Carlton, such as predation, or to his tag in this period. The tag's battery can degrade if they don't receive enough light and are then unable to switch back on.

We really don't know what has happened at the moment but we hope he may surprise us and pop up again in a new location in the next few weeks when we would have expected him to have left the country.

Samson has travelled eastwards from Mali during the last week, covering around 1165km (725 miles) across Burkina Faso and northern Benin, to reach Nigeria. He is just west of the Kwiambana Game Reserve and north of the Kamuku National Park. 

Boris has travelled 1350km (840 miles) from his last location in Spain to reach a new location in western Algeria. Mr Conkers is just slightly further west in Morocco and from here they look set to make their desert crossings. 

We've seen several of our birds back track to previous stopover sites when conditions haven't been perfect for onward travel, but Larry has undertaken a journey from Italy northwards to Poland, a country in which he hasn't transmitted from since we've been tracking him. In fact none of our Cuckoos, since the project began in 2011, have ever sent signals from Poland.  This is much further northeast within Europe than normal and almost puts him on the same latitude as Peckham who is still in the UK!

We think this is in response to the very hot conditions in the Mediterranean region and is an escape flight rather than a return to last stopover site. We're surprised to have seen him travel so far north. Tracking these Cuckoos still continues to throw new light upon their migration! 

Mr Conkers tag has recently signals from the Anti Atlas Mountains in Central Morocco. Will he be the next Cuckoo to make the desert crossing? 

No signals have been received from Carlton for sometime. We know that Carlton was alive when his tag last transmitted but that it hasn't had enough charge to transmit since. 

PJ hasn't moved far but he seems to have found a river delta, where presumably there is water and vegetation at this time of year.

Victor is in Burkina Faso. Having only stayed for only a couple of days in Algeria before continuing south, Victor traveled 2190km (1360 miles), reaching south eastern Mauritania during the evening of 18 July, and continuing to fly east to Mali during the early hours of the 19 July. By the 23 he had moved east again to Burkina Faso adding on another 605 km (375 miles).