Updates from our Cuckoos

Ash and Hennah have recently left Lake Mai. Hennah travelled 520km (325 miles) to the west, and in doing so moved to Gabon, while Ash moved 310km (195 miles) north-east. This may be due to slightly dryer conditions during November. Gabon appears to be experiencing wetter  conditions so Hennah may have made a good move.  

Derek and Emsworthy have recently moved westwards and are now south-west of  the Site Lac Tele-Likouala Aux Herbes area. Chris had also been in the area before moving south to Angola, possibly due to dryer conditions in that area this year. 

Derek has moved south to Congo and is now deep in the swamp forests where fellow East Anglian Cuckoo Chris has previously spent some of the winter months. 

We are concerned about whether we will receive further transmissions from Peter and Waller. They were in the same area and just 5km apart from each other, close to the Congo river in Democratic Republic of Congo, when signals were last received. Looking at the map, they seem to be in an area of unbroken canopy so the solar-powered tags may not be able to charge as they are not receiving light. The worry when batteries cannot charge over several months is that they may start to degrade and are not then able to switch on again when they do receive light. We will have to wait and see whether we receive further signals from the tags in future. 

As of the evening of 14 December Hennah was no longer on the shores of Lac Mai-Ndombe in DRC. He had moved 530km (329 miles) west and was in Gabon, close to the southern border with Congo. We now have two Cuckoos in Gabon. Chester is in north east Gabon, close to the border with Equatorial Guinea.

Having previously wintered in the swamp forests in Congo during the first two years of the project (2011/12 and 2012/13), Chris surprised us last year with his movement to Angola. We were intrigued to see whether he would stay in the swamp forests again this year or head further south to where he spent the later part of last winter. Now we have our answer! Signals received yesterdy afternoon revealed that he was once again in Angola, having travelled 685km (425 miles). Both he and Skinner are currently a bit further north-east of the locations they chose last year. 

Dudley first arrived in the Congo rainforest on 23 September, choosing a location just within the Democratic Republic of Congo and close to the Congo river. Since then he has remained in the area, moving just once, from north of the river to just south of it and closer to a triburary of the Congo river. 

By 30 November, Chester was on the move again, having spent roughly 14 days in his previous location in Nigeria he then headed south-east to a location close to the border of Cameroon. From here he has travelled 640km (400 miles) to Gabon, and finally arrived in the Congo rainforest area on 2 December. he is the last of all the tagged Cuckoos to arrive there.  In 2013, BB was the last of the Cuckoos to arrive in the rainforest, arrving on 7 December. 

Signals on 22 November show BB has moved a little further south-east and is now close to the border with Congo.

BB has travelled south and is now in the Congo rainforest. He has moved over 840km (520 miles) from his last location in Chad and is now in the south-east of Cameroon.  Despite being so much later than many of our other Cuckoos, he is in fact earlier than last year, when he moved to the rainforest on 9 December, travelling slightly further south and into Congo itself.