Updates from our Cuckoos

Transmissions on 11 January show that Chance was in Gabon but a new position from the afternoon of 13 January revealed that he had moved 130km (80 miles) NE and had hopped over the border to join BB, our other Scottish-tagged Cuckoo and Chris, our remaining English-tagged Cuckoo, in Congo.

BB had recently moved north of his previous position and with Chance’s new movement, this has brought them very close together, no further than 20km (12 miles) but possibly within 7.5km (5 miles) or even closer - unfortunately the accuracy of the locations wasn't great enough to know for sure. 

Chance has travelled about 131km (81 miles) to the north-east of his location in Gabon. He is now on the border between the the Cuvette-Ouest and Cuvette regions of Congo. Chance and BB have moved to the first block of continuous forest to the north of the grassland - gallery forest mosaics of the Teke Plateau and are now only 100km (62 miles) from Chris to their north-east.

There have been some small sighs of relief as BB’s tag starting transmitting again yesterday, after a silence of 11 days, confirming that all was ok. He had probably emerged from dense cover where the tag had not able to charge or transmit. The transmissions at around 10pm show that his new location is about 30km (19 miles) north-east from the previous location, and that he has remained roughly 8km west of the winding river. It is good to be receiving signals from him again! 

Chance, Lloyd, David and Chris all remain in their previous positions according to locations received in the last two days.  

So far in 2013, we have heard from four of the five remaining Cuckoos. We received tag transmissions from Chris and Chance today and from Lloyd and David yesterday showing there had been no substantial movements to report.

However, we haven’t heard from BB since the 30 December - at this stage this is nothing to worry about, though, as at this time last year we regularly went longer than this without hearing from the Cuckoos. A combination of poor charging conditions and a gradual decline in battery charge mean that they are transmitting less often, whilst as they are within the forest interference from trees reduces the chances of transmissions being picked up by satellites. Once they move on, or the weather at their current locations improves, we should start to receive positions more regularly again. 

David's tag last transmitted on the afternoon of 31 December indicating that he had remained in the same area. We hope to receive another transmission shortly. 

We received several signals from Lloyd's tag in the early hours of this morning. He is still in the same area but appears to be moving around. 

Transmissions were last received from BB's tag on the 30 December and show that he is still in the same area.

We received a transmission from Chance's tag on the afternoon of the 29 December confirming he was still in the same location. We expect further transmissions soon. 

No further movements from Chris to report but transmissions were received from his tag as 2012 ticked into 2013. We hope this year is more favorable for migrating Cuckoos than last year! 

David has travelled south from the swamp forest. On the 22 December a transmission revealed he was 116 km  (72 miles) south from his previous position and by the 24 December he had continued 39 km ( 24 miles), crossing the Lukenie river. He is now close to the position he held on the 6 December, on the edge of the forest zone. A further signal recieved this morning indicates he is still in this area.