Updates from our Cuckoos

We hadn't received transmissions from Tor's tag since 10 October when he moved to south Gabon and we were starting to get worried. Early this morning, however, we received some poor quality signals which reveal that he may have moved west and may now be in the Crystal Mountain area of south-western Congo. We will have to wait for better signals to confirm whether this is a real movement but we are relieved to have some received some news. 

Patch didn't pause for long in Cameroon and from his location on 11 October he travelled 1240km (770 miles) south-west to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has remained until now. He is in the Bandundu region, close to Lake Mai-Ndombe, a large freshwater lake within the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe area and the largest Wetland of International Importance recognized by the Ramsar Convention in the world. 

David is still in the area of the Salonga National Park from which his tag transmitted from on 5 October. On 24 October last year he was slightly further south, en route to his most southerly location a further 100miles south, where he spent December 2012.  

Currently David, Tor and Patch are all at a similar latitude and our the most southerly of the tagged Cuckoos. 

Whortle has also moved south a further 730km (450 miles) within Nigeria and yesterday morning was in the Cross River region of southern Nigeria. He is close to the border with Cameroon. 

We were surprised to see that further signals received on 9 October showed that Patch had moved from DRC to Cameroon, a distance of over 1000km (620 miles), in less than an hour! These signals continued and it's clear to see now that the location pinpointed in DRC was an error location and that Patch is most definitely in Cameroon. He will have moved here directly from Chad, a distance of over 1000km (600 miles).

Patch is the latest Cuckoo to make a big movement southwards. From Chad, where he remained until at least 4 October, he travelled around 1000km (600 miles) and by the early hours of 9 October was in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is currently just over the border from the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui.

From the shores of Lake Chad on 2 October, Chance moved south-west and by 7 October was 330km (200 miles) from the lake. He is 90km (55 miles) from the city of Maiduguri which is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. 

A week after Livingstone moved south, so too did Waller and Chris, overtaking him in the race south. However from his location in the Central African Republic, Livingstone headed directly south and by 6 October he was catching up and was in Congo, in a location near to the Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

A further poor quality signal today shows that he has travelled even further south and is at a similar longitude to David, our most southerly Cuckoo, who made a big movement south on 7 October to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new movement will mean that he is one of only a number of tagged Cuckoos which have flown that far south, including David in 2012 and 2013 and Kasper in 2011. 

By the 28 September, Tor had left the Kano region and was in the Yobe region of Nigeria, 350km (200 miles) to the east. The next (poor quality) signal we received from his tag was 975km (600 miles) further south in Cameroon on 7 October. By the early hours of this morning he had completed a further 700km (430 miles) and was in Gabon, close to the south-eastern border with Congo.  This new position puts him as far south as David.