Clement remains in the Forest Diambour and is presumably finding good feeding conditions here.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Clement feeding up
01 Aug 2011
Kasper has moved on
29 Jul 2011
Yesterday evening (Thursday 28 July) we picked him up 200km (122 miles) south of his previous location, apparently stationary just west of the Challawa Gorge Dam in northern Nigeria. When we last picked him up, in the early hours of this morning he was 35km (21 miles) ENE of here, 30km (18 miles) SW of the city of Kano. We don’t know whether he continued his slow nocturnal movement from here or whether he has settled in this area – we should find out when his tag resumes transmissions on Sunday morning.
Clement heads for lush forest
29 Jul 2011
Clement has continued his slow but steady movement SE. He has moved another 100km (61 miles) in this direction and is now 76km east of the eastern tip of Gambia. Although he is still moving obliquely, relative to the rainfall gradients, he is now in a heavily wooded area called Foret Diambour. The weather today is a pleasant 29 degrees there with broken high cloud. Annual rainfall increases very rapidly to the south and southwest of here, and the comparatively lush forests of Niokolo-Koba National Park adjoin the Foret to the south. Conditions for Clement in this area should be very good at this time of year.
Chris still in Chad
28 Jul 2011
Yesterday evening Chris was in the same place in southern Chad that he has been in since Monday (25 July) at least. The habitat and landscape appears from google earth to be similar to those in Senegal that Clement has moved into.
Kasper remains west of Aguié
28 Jul 2011
Kasper remains in the area west of Aguié that he has been in since 19 July at least.
Lyster leaping through Europe
28 Jul 2011
Lyster has continued to make up for apparently lost time and has forged ahead over the past two days. Having moved into France on a slightly but significantly more westerly route than Clement and Martin did, we were interested to see whether he would move towards Spain or Italy. Now we have the answer – Spain! With only two previous ringing recoveries in north-east Spain at all suggestive of a passage of British Cuckoos through Iberia, it is quite a surprise that a second of the Cuckoos is taking a south-westerly route. Today (Thursday 28 July) Lyster is in Castilla-La Mancha region, about 150km (95 miles) E of Madrid, having flown in from the east through Aragon region overnight. This is a heavily wooded landscape close to the Parque Naturel del Alto Tajo, a park with spectacular geology including mountains, ravines and canyons that provide a wide variety of habitats.
Lyster has taken a much more direct and faster route into Spain than Clement did – we suspect he did a lot more fattening on his breeding territory than the other Cuckoos so we might expect him to continue his southward passage with only a little re-fuelling. So far, he has omitted the lengthy stop-over in southern Europe that the other four Cuckoos made. His tag is due to start transmitting early on Saturday morning so we may be able to find out then whether he has continued with minimal re-fuelling, or opted for a lengthier stop-over in Spain.
Martin close to Chari River
28 Jul 2011
We next pick up Martin on 26 July at 1 in the morning! He was just over the Nigerian border into Chad andmoved through the night to an area south of the Chari River by daylight. On the 28th, he was in roughly the same area of southern Chad but had moved about 15km (9 miles) NE and is now very close to the Chari River, which flows into Lake Chad and provides about 90% of its water.
Clement finds vegetation
28 Jul 2011
Clement has continued to move southeast within Senegal. On Wednesday (27 July) morning he was 130km (80 miles) SE of where he was on Sunday, about 65km (40 miles) north of the eastern tip of Gambia. He has moved into the wooded Sudan savannah zone, characterized by Acacia trees, and you can see by zooming in on the google earth map that the area has much more permanent vegetation than the areas he has been in so far. He is moving towards the richer, higher-rainfall Guinea savannah zone to the south and south-west but the direction he is going is taking him almost parallel to the rainfall gradient so he is still experiencing semi-arid habitats.
Clement has now moved 215km (135 miles) SE from the first place we picked him up in Senegal. We are fascinated to see where he will spend mid-winter – will he remain in one of the more humid areas of West Africa or continue moving towards Central Africa and end up in a similar place to the other Cuckoos, which entered sub-Saharan Africa much further east?
Chris makes it!
26 Jul 2011
Chris has made it safely over the Sahara! A series of locations received yesterday afternoon (Monday 25 July) placed him in southern Chad, about 190km (120 miles) from the border with Central African Republic. Chris is still our most easterly Cuckoo and, equal with Martin, he is now our most southerly too. His current location is at the southern edge of the semi-arid Sudan savannah zone, very close to the sub-humid northern Guinea savannah - with the rains having just started the conditions should be quite good for him.
Clement explores the area around the River Ferlo?
25 Jul 2011
Clement has settled in an area for the past few days and with the good light conditions, the solar-powered tag is performing well. We have had a number of fixes but these are not of sufficient accuracy to be sure whether he is moving about the area or not.
We really don't know exactly how important the Sahel is for migrating Cuckoos. This is the area just below the Sahara desert that has a three month period of rainfall starting in June/July. By September the area is green but, in our spring when migrants start to return, it is dry and arid and conditions are tough.
We the Cuckoos to winter further south in the humid zone of central Africa and they could spend from only a few days to maybe 2-3 months in the Sahel. With the rains having just started, this area is going to be lush and green if rainfall is good, so they may well stick around for some time. Satellite tagging is really giving some new and very valuable insights into Cuckoos' behaviour.
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