Updates from our Cuckoos

At 08.47 on the morning of 30 September, David was still at his stopover site in southern Chad but a location received from his tag at 13.49 on 2 October showed that he was 704km (437 miles) to the south and close to the southern border of Central African Republic. He is currently just north of a small town called Alindao and still 1,000km (620 miles) from his winter location in southern DRC. He arrived at his winter location on 16 December in 2015, having been at his stopover site in northern DRC since 28 September, which suggests he still has a little further south to travel on this leg of his journey before he heads to the winter location.

Locations received from the tag of 161324 on 23 September showed that he was heading south through Burkina Faso. His tag then powered down to allow the small solar panel to recharge the batteries. When it powered back up again 161324 had turned east and was in Nigeria, roughly midway between the Dagida Game Reserve and Old Oyo National Park. He didn't hang around though and a couple of days later he was 676km (420 miles) to the south and east of his last location but still in Nigeria. He didn't stay here long either, in the early hours of 30 September he was another 481km (300 miles) to the south in Cameroon 60km (40 miles) east of the capital Yaounde, and on the northern edge of the tropical rainforest. A few poor quality locations received on 2 October suggest he is still at this location.

On 22 September locations received from 161321 showed that he had left Benin and was heading east across southern Nigeria. Further locations received since then show that he is currently settled in the area he arrived in on 22 September. He is in an area of wet forest north of the town of Ejiba.

We haven't heard from 161319 for over a month now and fear the worse. As we have no further information we don't really know what happened to him, other than he didn't seem to make it out of the Italian Alps. The last location we have for him is in a wooded Valley just north of Finele in the Province of Bolzano.

Locations receievd from PJ on 19 September show that he is still settled in southern Niger.

It seems that Peckham had started his desert crossing on 6 September, as when we next heard from him on 9 September he was in southern Libya and about half-way across the desert. By the early hours of 11 September he had successfully crossed and was in northern Cameroon. He has sinced moved east and is currently in southern Chad.

Markoo seems settled in northwest Nigeria, at what must be his stopover site before heading east towards the Congo rainforest.

Larry is still in his southern Chad stopover site.

A good quality location received from Jack's tag during the evening of 17 September showed that he was still in northern Italy on the banks of the River Po, close to Lombriasco. How much longer it will be before he makes his move south we don't know but it would seem that he is now running a little late.