Updates from our Cuckoos

Like several of our tagged Cuckoos, Knepp is in dense rainforest and, judging by the low battery charge on his tag is spending much of his time under the canopy. We last heard from his tag on 13 February and he was still settled to the north of Mwagne National Park, Gabon.

We seem to be hearing from Carlton II’s tag about once a week at the moment when we should be hearing around couple of days or so. However, he is settled in an area of dense rainforest and is presumably spending quite a bit of time under the canopy, which means that the solar panel on the tag is not charging the battery as well as it would in full sunlight. The data we are receiving from the tag shows that the battery charge is quite low. Once he moves into more open habitat this should resolve itself and we should hear from Carlton II more frequently.

We haven’t heard from Cameron’s tag since early October and at the time we were hopeful that he would pop-up again. The battery level had been getting progressively lower during the last month that we have information for; however, the temperature data showed that he was alive. We have to conclude that Cameron’s tag has failed and that we won’t hear from him again.

Bowie is still to the south of the Niari River in southwest Congo. The last location we received from his tag was just before 9pm on 12 February and it showed a movement to the north of the patch of forest he has been settled in. This may well be the start of the second leg of his journey back and it will be interesting to see where he is when we next hear from his tag.