Updates from our Cuckoos

On the 18 August Skinner’s tag transmitted from Niger revealing that he had moved on from his last location in Burkina Faso. He is still close to the border between the two countries and around 100km (60 miles) from Niamey, the capital and largest city of Niger. Niamey lies on the Niger River and has an estimated population of over 780,000. 

From his position in Burkina Faso on the 18 August, Nick has completed the journey of 1050km (655 miles) to reach western Nigeria. He is now just north of Enagi. Derek is also in Nigeria, about 290km (180 miles) north of Nick’s position, while Tor is in eastern Nigeria. This new movement makes Nick the most southerly of all the tagged Cuckoos. 

BB, one of the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland in spring 2012 and Sussex the Cuckoo, tagged in spring 2013 are now only around 5km (3 miles) from each other within Chad – much closer than they are during their breeding season in the UK!  BB moved to a location just south of Dassik, having flown 250km (155 miles) by 8 August before Sussex also headed south, travelling 230km (140 miles), to just north of Dassik and BB’s location by 10 August.  They are so close together you can only see one icon unless you zoom in really close on the map! 

We were starting to get a bit worried about Ryder, who had made it to north Africa and attempted a desert crossing by 18 July which was aborted before he then returned north but had not attempted to cross the desert a second time. We received a poor quality signal from his tag on 8 August, but nothing since then until  2pm today. This single transmission shows him heading south over Mauritania. He has covered 1200km (750miles) from his previous location but he still has about the same distance to go before he reaches the other side of the desert and suitable feeding conditions. We are glad to see he is on the move and hope to receive transmissions in the next couple of days that confirm he has crossed the desert. 

It appears the conditions have been a lot more favourable for our tagged Cuckoos this year, with 12 Cuckoos already in Africa and 11 of them south of the Sahara. However, we are getting a little worried about Dart who has failed to move on from Mallorca and whose tag has not transmitted since 20 July. We would be expecting him to move on shortly, however, as mentioned in previous years, sometimes an absence of signals can mean a Cuckoo is feeding up in thick undergrowth and getting ready to make a big move. If so, the next tranmissions will show him popping up in the next location - let's hope so! 

David’s tag is still currently transmitting from a location in Montenegro where he has been since 15 July. In 2012, David arrived in Montenegro earlier, on 27 June, and remained in the area for around 6 weeks, before transmitting from Africa on 15 August.   It will be interesting to see whether he spends a similar amount of time in Montenegro this year, or whether he times his movement for a similar arrival date in Africa this year.  The last transmission received was a couple of days ago. Could he be on his way now?

Patch is making his way south and has travelled from Austria to northern Italy.  On 10 August he was still close to Schwaz, Austria but by the afternoon of 12 August he was 260km (160 miles) further south, near Remedello, in the province of Brescia, and just 28km (17 miles) south-west of Lake Garda. Despite this movement, he is still currently the most northerly Cuckoo of our tagged birds . 

Derek has moved quickly onwards from Burkina Faso, where he was on 8 August, and travelled east to the Kebbi region in north-western Nigeria, covering about 500km (310 miles) with this latest movement.

Nick has joined Ken in Burkina Faso, transmitting from a location in the protected Maro forest area, 105km (65 miles) south of Ken's position, early on 11 August.

A series of poor quality locations were received from Chance's tag on 8 August which revealed that Chance had left Germany and was crossing over Libya but it wasn't until 11 August that we received a good location for him to confirm that he had made it to Africa. From the location within Libya he had carried on another 1330km (830 miles), successfully completing his desert crossing and making it to the zinder region of south Niger.  

This is very similar to Chance's movements last year, with him transmitting from north Niger on 10 August 2012. After this he moved east to Chad and spent some time near Lake Chad. Will he do the same this year?