Updates from our Cuckoos

A series of locations received for Lyster yesterday afternoon (7 March) showed that he had continued moving rapidly west and is now just north of Digya National Park in Ghana. He is currently 30km (18 miles) SSW of Kasper's latest location.

After a silence of 24 days, at three thirty yesterday afternoon we received a location for Martin showing he was in northern Ghana, about 65km north of Tamale!  He had covered around 2,000km (1242 miles) from his location in Congo. This means that all five Cuckoos have now left Congo and are currently on their way back to Britain.

 Twenty-four days ago Martin was in Congo, as we haven't heard from him since then we have to assume that he could still be in Congo. However, as all of our birds have 'disappeared' prior to moving north from Congo, we hope that Martin is doing the same, and wait with baited breath to see where he will pop-up next.

 We haven't heard from Clement for over ten days and must assume that he is still in southern Cameroon, feeding in deep cover in preparation for his next push north.

Since his last transmission on 16 February, Lyster has travelled 1,190km (740miles) from his last known position in Congo. He is now in Nigeria! A transmission from him at 00.49 on 5 March shows that he is currently in the Niger delta. Lyster is the fourth cuckoo to have begun his long journey back to the UK.

Chris provided the biggest surprise over the weekend. Having not heard from him since 19 February, it was a shock to find out that on 2 March he was in Cameroon. Two days later (4 March) and he is in Togo, 1,950km (1,210miles) northwest of his last position in Congo.

 Kasper's tag was picked up by the satellite at 17.20 on 4 March, it showed that he had moved 28km (17miles) south west from his previous position. He is now just west of the northern end of Lake Volta, Ghana. As the first cuckoo to leave Congo, will Kasper be the first to tackle the northward crossing of the Sahara? The next few weeks will tell.

It's now been 18 days since we heard from Martin and 13 days since we heard from Lyster. We aren't worried though as we think they are probably deep under cover feeding up, as Kasper did, perhaps before heading north? This makes it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries. Who knows where they will turn up!
 

It's now been 13 days since we heard from Lyster and 18 days since we heard from Martin. They may be deep under cover feeding up, as Kasper did, which  makes it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries.   Kasper travelled 350 miles during the month in which we received no signals, check back for further updates and to see where they turn up next!  

We haven't received any further signals from Chris' tag since the 19 Feb at 07.12 when he was still in Congo, north of Bimbo. 

It's also now been 18 days since we heard from Martin and 13 days since we heard from Lyster. We think they are all following in Kasper's footsteps, prior to his movement into Nigeria we heard nothing for over a month. It's likely they are deep under cover, feeding up before heading north, making it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries.