Updates from our Cuckoos

BB has surprised us by moving quickly onwards and transmitting from the centre of Guinea! The last signals received show him in the National Park of the Upper Niger on the afternoon of the 6 April after covering 685km (425 miles) from his last position in Ivory Coast. This is the furthest west that any of the tagged Cuckoos has ventured on their northward migration and has come as a surprise given last year's Cuckoos from England have staged in Ghana or Ivory Coast. 

Although he rested in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria during the day of 4 April after completing his desert crossing, Chris must have moved on that night because when the tag’s next transmission period began two days later he had travelled a further 937km (582 miles) almost due N, having crossed the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy! He is currently on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy and is just 33km (20 miles) from the border with France and 42km (26 miles) from Monaco.  Last year he hit land about 185 km (115 miles) further east in Sarzana.

Having remained in Nigeria, close to the border with Benin, for two weeks until at least 1 April, the latest transmissions on the morning of 4 April show that BB has moved west, over Benin, Togo and Ghana and into Ivory Coast. He has moved around 790km (490 miles) west in two days and is currently in the Zanzan region, about 84km (52 miles) south-east of Chance's last transmitted location within the Ivory Coast and about 50km (31 miles) NNE of where Martin stopped over in March 2012. BB's previous stop over in Nigeria was the furthest east we have seen one of the tracked cuckoos fuel for the Sahara crossing - his current position is much more typical but other than re-fuelling from his latest movement, we wonder how much more fattening he needs to do before heading out north?

Lloyd has now left David well behind, in Cameroon. It is now ten days since we heard from David’s tag so we hope to hear from it soon. When the last message was received, the temperature indicated that all was well with David but his tags’ charge was extremely low – it has been since early September, including in periods when it should have been exposed to plenty of sunlight, and the tag has apparently been having charging less well than the tags on other cuckoos. We hope that it will spring into life once David moves to a bright, sunny location but it is possible that the battery has degraded to a point beyond which this is possible. We will have to wait and see….

Lloyd has again continued to move west. Having been in southern Nigeria on Monday morning (1 April), by yesterday afternoon he was in south-western Ghana, just 20km (12 miles) south of the site at Nsuatre where BTO have been studying Nightingales as part of the Migrants in Africa project.  This is a movement due W of 870km (540 miles) in two days and 2,625km (1,631miles) since he was in north-western DRC ten days ago. If Lloyd can find suitable conditions, we would expect him to undertake his desert crossing preparations close to where he is now, or possibly to move a little further west into Ivory Coast. 

None of the Cuckoos began crossing the Sahara, as anticipated, over the Easter weekend but we still expect them to make a move soon. Stay tuned for further updates when we get news of any movements. 

From his position in Central Cameroon on 27 March, Lloyd continued onwards and by the late evening of 29 March he was in the Southwest region of Cameroon. Several hours later, and just minutes after the clocks ticked in to 30 March, he crossed the border and entered Nigeria. He had travelled 330km (205 miles). The next transmission was received early yesterday morning ( 1 April) and showed he had travelled a further  395km (245 miles) across Nigeria and was in the Ondo Region.  The closest Cuckoo to Lloyd’s new position is BB who is 300km (180 miles) to the east.

Chris has now been in the Digya National Park for 10 days preparing for his next move. Will he do this from Ghana or Ivory Coast, as last year? We do know that he didn't use the same stop-overs on his southward journey as he did the previous year so we will have to wait and see where he will attempt his crossing of the Sahara Desert from this time.

David is still in the Central Region of Cameroon. He is currently 57km (35 miles) north-west of Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, the second largest city in the country with a population of approximately 2.5 million.