Updates from our Cuckoos

On 16 August Larry was still transmitting from Poland but by the morning of the 18 August he was 700km (430 miles) to the south in eastern Croatia. A good signal on the afternoon of 20 put him further south still, this time in Montenegro, 265km (165 miles) on from this location in Croatia.  He is just north of the Biogradska Gora National Park, a mountainous region with many lakes.  

Peckham has left the UK and headed 290km (180 miles) to Belgium. This is his second attempt to leave, the first of which was thwarted by heavy rain. In previous years his first transmission outside of the UK have come from Switzerland and The Netherlands. He is currently moving around the area between Lummen and Diest. Having spent longer than usual in the UK we may see him move on quite speedily.

By the 11 August Victor had moved 345km (214 miles) southeast to northern Ghana before continuing on a further 630km (390 miles) east to Nigeria over the next couple of days. The last signals show him to the south east of the Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River, formed by the Kainji Dam. 

A transmission on the morning of the 14 August revealed that Mr Conkers had left Morocco and sucessfully crossed the desert. He covered 1660km (1030 miles) south to reach the Ferlo Nord Wildlife Reserve in Senegal. He has taken a more westerly route than any of the other Cuckoos this year. 

PJ has travelled  250km (160 miles) from Niger and is now in northern Nigeria. 

The last signal we received from Carlton was on June 9 when everything appeared fine with both him and the tag's battery, however, there have been no transmissions since.

We're aware that increased feather coverage, due to the smaller size of the solar panel, means we are getting fewer signals from some of the new tags but we're concerned that we've had nothing for two months. Carlton should have been moving around and thus the tag would have been exposed to daylight during this time. It may be that something has happened to either Carlton, such as predation, or to his tag in this period. The tag's battery can degrade if they don't receive enough light and are then unable to switch back on.

We really don't know what has happened at the moment but we hope he may surprise us and pop up again in a new location in the next few weeks when we would have expected him to have left the country.

Samson has travelled eastwards from Mali during the last week, covering around 1165km (725 miles) across Burkina Faso and northern Benin, to reach Nigeria. He is just west of the Kwiambana Game Reserve and north of the Kamuku National Park. 

Boris has travelled 1350km (840 miles) from his last location in Spain to reach a new location in western Algeria. Mr Conkers is just slightly further west in Morocco and from here they look set to make their desert crossings. 

We've seen several of our birds back track to previous stopover sites when conditions haven't been perfect for onward travel, but Larry has undertaken a journey from Italy northwards to Poland, a country in which he hasn't transmitted from since we've been tracking him. In fact none of our Cuckoos, since the project began in 2011, have ever sent signals from Poland.  This is much further northeast within Europe than normal and almost puts him on the same latitude as Peckham who is still in the UK!

We think this is in response to the very hot conditions in the Mediterranean region and is an escape flight rather than a return to last stopover site. We're surprised to have seen him travel so far north. Tracking these Cuckoos still continues to throw new light upon their migration!