Lloyd remains at the location he has held in Sankuru Nature Reserve, DRC, since 19 Feb. He was by far the latest bird to head south from Europe, making the Sahara crossing in early October, so it is interesting that he is late moving north too. We are still waiting to learn for sure whether he will follow the other Cuckoos, which wintered considerably further west, to West Africa or take a different route north.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Lloyd lagging behind
18 Mar 2013
BB close to Benin border
18 Mar 2013
BB has continued moving in an approximately north-westerly direction. A location received in the very early hours of Sunday morning (17 March) showed that he was in south-western Nigeria, close to the border with Benin, about 600km (375 miles) WNW of the location he held on 14 March. As there was only a single location we don’t know if he was moving at the time this latest location was received.
Chance to cross desert shortly?
18 Mar 2013
Chance remains at the stop-over location just north of Lake Volta that he has been in for three weeks now. Will he be the first Cuckoo to head north across the Sahara? And will he make a move soon? Last year the first Cuckoo to cross the Sahara was Martin, who started his crossing around 30 March.
BB also in Nigeria
15 Mar 2013
The last transmission received for BB was on 3 March when he was in Cameroon. The newest signal, received yesterday afternoon, shows that he is now approximately 650km ( 400 miles) further NW and has joined Chris in Nigeria. BB is now in the Akwa Ibom Region of the Niger Delta and is about 290km (180 miles) south of Chris.
No change from David, Lloyd and Chance
15 Mar 2013
As of 13 March, David was still in Cameroon. Other locations received confirm that Lloyd has not moved from his position in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that Chance remains north of Lake Volta, Ghana.
Chris in Nigeria
15 Mar 2013
Transmissions from Chris' tag on 13 March reveal that he is in Nigeria, having moved 430km (267 miles) WNW from his previous location in Cameroon. Chris is in the Benue region, about 33 km (20 miles) to the west of Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.
Chris heading north-west?
08 Mar 2013
Only low quality signals have been received recently from Chris’s tag but these show that on 4 March and throughout 6 March he was slowly zig-zagging in a north-westerly direction. The last of these transmissions at about 6pm, show him 138 km (86 miles) north-west of the location he was in on 4 March. Where will he be when the tag next transmits?!
Chance heads back to Lake Volta
08 Mar 2013
Transmissions received yesterday morning show that Chance is still in Ghana and has moved closer to Lake Volta again. Ha has travelled roughly 50km (32 miles) north-west from his last position and appears to be on a narrow river-like section, 42km (26 miles) north of the previous location beside the Lake.
Like Cuckoo-clock work?
04 Mar 2013
It looks like Chris was lying low in preparation for his next move, as poor quality transmissions received this morning locate him in Cameroon, 525km (326 miles) away from his location in Congo. Chris is the only bird that we are following for the second year of the project and we can see this movement is very similar in timing to last year, when he transmitted from Cameroon on 2 March. We aren’t able to say for sure when he actually arrived in Cameroon this year, only when the tag turned ‘on’ and revealed this new position. It will be interesting to see whether he will stop in Togo next, as he did on 6 March 2012, before continuing to Ghana.
This new north-westerly movement by Chris is almost parallel to BBs’ transmission points, as he travelled from Congo to Cameroon. Chris, BB and David are now all in the East Region of Cameroon. David is 80km (50 miles) to the north-west of Chris while BB is 140km (88 miles) south-west. It’s interesting that these three Cuckoos, one each from England, Scotland and Wales, are all so close together. The other Scottish bird, Chance, is much further west in Ghana, and the other Welsh bird, Lloyd, is to the south-east in Democratic Republic of Congo. How will the routes and timings of our Cuckoos’ journeys compare as they make their way back to the UK?
David joined in Cameroon
04 Mar 2013
David, along with BB and now Chris, are now all in the East Region of Cameroon. David's tag transmitted a poor quality signal this morning about 20km (12miles) north-west of his previous location, moving him closer to the border with the Central Region. David is 80km (50 miles) to the north-west of Chris's new postion and 120 km (75 miles) north-east of BB.
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