Updates from our Cuckoos

As expected PJ has continued southwards. By 12 November he was just east of the Crystal Mountains in southern Congo and by 16 Nov he was in the Zaire region in northern Angola. Signals on 19 Nov revealed a further southerly movement of 160km (almost 100 miles) to the Coutada do Ambriz reserve. In total he has moved over 890km (590 miles) from his location on 14 November. He may still go a little further within Angola, as last year saw him venture to the Parc Nacional da Quicama, 170km (110 miles) further south. 

In 2017, we have been trialling the very latest satellite tracking technology - this year’s cohort were tagged with 2g tags from Microwave Telemetry.

We have, unfortunately, ‘lost’ contact with most of them already. It would seem that the smaller size of the new tag allows the solar panel, used to recharge the tiny battery, to become shaded by feathers, resulting in much less efficient charging of the battery, and consequently lower contact with the tag. Although some may have died, the lack of transmissions from the tags makes it impossible to assess this and in all cases, there were no indications that the birds were in trouble when we last heard from their tags.

This is exacerbated during the winter months by the birds spending more time under the canopy in the Congo rainforest. We don’t know how the batteries will fare when the birds begin their northward migration back to the UK. On leaving the rainforest the tags should receive more sunlight which might be enough to overcome feather shading, and if this happens some of the ‘lost birds’ could pop-up again in February or March, but it is possible that the prolonged shading will have caused irreversible damage to the much smaller batteries in the 2g model. We all have our fingers crossed.

As we move forward we are continuously looking for effective ways to continue gathering this important data for Cuckoos, and other species, to benefit our knowledge and ultimately wildlife conservation. We hope that next year we will be able to track a cohort of cuckoos without these issues arising. 

PJ has moved 290km (180 miles) south within Congo in the last week and is now in the Lekoumou region, 40 miles south of Bateke Plateau National Park. Last year he was in Angola by the 25 October and remained there until January so we expect him to continue moving south to reach the same area. 

Larry has continued south from Chad, where he's been since the beginning of September. By the 9 November he had covered 1175km (730 miles) to reach the Cuvette-Ouest region of Congo, not too far south-east from Victor in Gabon. He didn't stop here for long though and by the early afternoon of 11 November he was 760km (470 miles) further south in northern Angola.

Larry’s southward migration from the UK to Angola has been remarkable. Weather conditions during the stopover period in Italy were harsh, incredibly hot and dry conditions were experienced across the whole of the northern Mediterranean area with wildfires being a feature from Spain to Croatia. Presumably in response to these conditions, and the probable lack of invertebrate food, Larry moved north to Poland, undertaking a journey of around 1300km (800 miles), at a time when we would have expected him to head south across the Sahara. Larry spent several weeks in Poland, and it would seem a wise move, from here he was able to undertake his migration to sub-Saharan Africa via the Balkans, a part of the world we hadn’t seen him move through before. Even though his migration this autumn was unusual, he is right back at his wintering location in Angola.

In the previous two years we've been following him he has also ventured to Angola, but normally to a location in the north-east, where he has remained for a while before then heading west towards the coast. He appears to have gone directly to this area now and is north of Tomboco. It's likely that, as in previous years, he will remain here until at least mid-December or possibly even mid-January, depending on conditions. 

Signals show that by the late afternoon of 26 October, Peckham had covered 1,640km (1020 miles) across Libya and Niger and was around the Niger/Chad border, north of Lake Chad. A few hours later and he had continued further south to Lake Chad. His desert crossing was over and he could spend some time refuelling after his long journey.

His tag next switched on in the early hours of 29 October to reveal he had continued onwards, 575km (360 miles) south-east and was in the Logone Occidental area in the south of Chad. The Congo rainforest is now very much within his reach! Well done Peckham!

A little later than usual, but Peckham has made it to Africa! On the 23 October transmissions showed that Peckham was on his way south again, and by late afternoon was 505k (315 miles) further than his last position near Milan, and just a little further south than Rome. From here he flew 1210km (750 miles) across the Mediterranean Sea to reach the coast of Libya by the early afternoon of 24 October.

This is a very similar route to previous years, where he has left Italy for Libya and then headed onwards to Chad. In 2015, when he embarked on this same trip, he made it to Libya by early August, in 2016 it was early September and this year he is later again - in fact the latest arrival to Africa of any Cuckoos we have tracked! We are really pleased to see him have made it this far so late but he is not out of danger yet. He still has quite a way to travel to make it across the desert and find a suitable stop where there will be the necessary resources he needs to rest and refuel after such a long and strenuous journey. If he was in good condition when he left he will have more chance of making this successfully.

PJ has headed south and is now in the lowland forests of the Congo Basin, within Congo. He has covered around 590km (366 miles) from his previous location in the Central African Republic. 

From Nigeria, Selborne has headed 1450km (900 miles)  to Gabon, across the Gulf of Guinea - possibly stopping for a brief time on the island of Bioko- and then over Equatorial Guinea. Signals received yesterday show he was in the south of Gabon, close to the Monts Birougou National Park. This new location makes him the most southerly of all the tagged Cuckoos currently. 

Larry has remained in Chad since he arrived there at the end of August, moving only a short distance further south at the beginning of September.