Updates from our Cuckoos

We last heard from Sylvester on 28 August and his last transmission showed that his body temperature was fine, which tells us he was alive. However, his battery charge was low and looking at previous data we can see that the battery charge had been falling during the previous week and not recovering. This can happen when our Cuckoos are under the thick canopy in the rainforest and we have lost Cuckoos for as much as six weeks, only for them to pop-up again once their battery gets a good charge.

Of course we don't know for sure what has happened but all we can say is that when we last heard from him he was alive and that there was an issue with the tag which we hope will resolve itself - fingers crossed.

During the weekned Selborne set off east, moving through Ghana and Togo and onwards into Benin. During this time he has flown 487km (303 miles). He is currently in the Parc National de la Pandjari in northwestern Benin.

Thomas has moved close to the border with Cameroon. He is in the northern part of the Gashaka Gumti National Park in an area of savannah grassland.

During the last two weeks Knepp has flown over 1,000km (600 miles) east, through Ghana, Togo and Benin and on into Nigeria. He is currently in the Kaduna region and only 15km (9 miles) from Robinson, a fellow Knepp Estate Cuckoo. Even though it is currently around 30 degrees, they have both just experienced a large thunderstorm and heavy rain.

During the last two weeks Carlton II has been making his way east through Ghana, Togo and Benin. Having made his way as far east as a hunting reserve in northeastern Benin he turned back west and is currently back in Burkina Faso, very close to the border with Benin. He is in Arli National Park in an area of gallery forest.

Bowie is in the Congo rainforest. He arrived there during the early hours of 12 September. He is just to the northwest of the Teke Plateau, an area that has served as an overwinter site for several of our satellite tagged Cuckoos in the past. He is currently 5,804km (3,606 miles) from his New Forest breeding site as the crow flies.

We expected Thomas to stage a little longer in Burkina Faso but he has surprised us all by moving a long way east, 1,337km (830 miles) to be precise. He is now in central Nigeria, around 60km (38 miles) south of the capital Abuja. He is currently under a band of thunderstorms and some fairly heavy rain.

Victor is still at his stopover site in Burkina Faso. In 2016 he moved east from here on 31 August and in 2017 on 14 August, he could make his move east any day now. His next staging location is close to the Kainji Reservoir in western Nigeria, another 900km (580 miles) to the east of his current location.

Having spent time in Senegal and Mali, Thomas is now in the southwest of Burkina Faso. He may well stay here for a couple of weeks before moving further east towards his final destination somewhere in the Congo Basin.

During the last week Sylvester has moved south and east, through Mali, Niger, Benin and into Nigeria. He is just to the west of the mighty river Niger and to the south of a village called Bawanka.