Updates from our Cuckoos

Chester has continued on east from Ghana, over Togo and Benin, to make it to Nigeria by the morning of the 16 November. He is now close to Lokoja, a city which lies at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers, and is moving closer to the Congo rainforest in which all our other active tagged Cuckoos are in.

Early yesterday evening we received signals from Chester's tag to show that he had moved further east and south, leaving Ivory Coast and crossing over into Ghana. He is now close to Lake Volta, an area we have seen the Cuckoos use before, although previously this is normally on their spring migration as they head north to return to the UK. 

Yesterday evening and early this morning we received signals from Fred's tag showing that he was on the move and was finally travelling south towards the Congo rainforest. The last location received shows he stopped in Cameroon, having travelled 1030km (640 miles).

Jake has left Cameroon and made it to the Congo rainforest in Democratic Republic of Congo a further 1650km (1020 miles) south-east. He is now in the swamp forests close to Lake Tumba. 

Chris is once again in Congo in the swamp forests in which he has spent previous winters. He made the journey over the 15 and 16 October to reach the Central African Republic, continuing on to Congo and reaching his current location, close to the Site Lac Tele- Likouala Aux Herbes, on 18 October.  Last year, he left the area at the beginning of December, having only spent one month there, and travelled even further south to reach Angola, where Skinner also spent the winter. Skinner has recently returned to Angola this year and we will have to wait and see whether Chris stays in the swamp forests or once again moves further south to join him. 

By the 12 October Skinner had moved south to Congo and by the 17 he was in Angola, close to the area he spent last winter. He is slightly further east than last year and is just north of the Reserva Especial do Milando. It waits to be seen whether Chris or any of the other Cuckoos will join him here this year.

Stanley has left the Congo and skipped over the border into the swamp forest within the Democratic Republic of Congo’ s Tumba Lediima Natural Reserve. 

In the last few days, Chester has moved 445km (275 miles) south from his location in the north of Burkina Faso and he is now in Ivory Coast. He is still very far west of all the other Cuckoos so it is perhaps a little surprising that he has chosen to move south rather than east. He has, however, moved to Comoé National Park , a World Heritage Site due to the diversity of plant life present around the Comoé River including pristine patches of tropical rain forest that are usually only found further south. 

Having been in Central African Republic until 4 October, by the 6 Ash was 340 km (210 miles) further south in the north-east of Democratic Republic of Congo. He is now just 40km (25 miles) to the east of Dudley's location.  

From Chad, Hennah appears to have moved south to Central African Republic by early on the morning of the 1 October. Several poor quality locations were received which aren't shown on the map. Since then he has travelled 990km (615 miles) further to Democratic Republic of Congo, south of the equator, and is one of the most southerly Cuckoos. Hopefully good quality signals will be received shortly to show this new location on the maps.