Updates from our Cuckoos

When Chris’ tag resumed transmissions early this morning it revealed he had indeed continued northward, as expected – but not to England! A series of locations placed him in southern Belgium and although each was an unconfirmed location whose accuracy couldn’t be assessed, taken together they indicate that he was travelling slowly westwards around the northern periphery of the Ardennes Mountains. Chris’ current location is within 100km of the areas that he stopped over in the late summers of 2011 and 2012 and in fact visited this very area during his ‘mini-tour’ of NW Europe last June but we had no indication that he visited the area last spring. Will he stay here for a while before returning to England? Will he defy expectations and not return to England at all this spring? Watch this space!

Having been in the latter stages of his desert crossing early on Tuesday morning, we had expected Chance to have moved into Spain by the time of the next transmissions due on Saturday (13 April). A series of locations received throughout that day showed that he had indeed done that, progressing a further 1135km (705 miles) N and stopping in the northern part of Aragon region, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is interesting that he has reached the central part of the mountains, with no indication of him attempting to go around one side or the other. Based on what we saw last spring and so far this spring from Chris, the speed at which he progresses from here back to Britain may depend on how favourable weather conditions are. Over the past two days, they do appear to have been favourable so it will be interesting to see where he is when his tag starts transmitting again this evening. 

When Chris’ tag resumed transmissions as the skies cleared on Saturday evening (13 April), two locations showed he was still south of Autun in Burgundy, central France. Between the times of the two locations, however, his tag’s temperature dropped by 4 degrees C, probably indicating the initiation of migration, and sure enough, an hour and a half later he was 80km (50 miles) to the NNW. In total, Chris advanced about 120km (75 miles) in the 3.5 hours after dusk. Further unconfirmed locations for the early hours of Sunday morning suggested that he had stopped about 80km (50 miles) to the east of Paris, possibly due to the rain that lay to his north. If indeed he did stop here, we expect he would have resumed his migration the next night so it is likely that when his tag comes on again on Tuesday morning, he will be back in England – watch this space!

We didn’t hear from David’s tag during its last scheduled transmission period yesterday, which is in keeping with the poor charging and erratic transmissions of the last few months. We hope his tag will last long enough to enable us to track his return to Britain – hopefully when he moves across the desert, it charge well enough for transmissions to resume. 

Locations received this morning (Thursday 11 April) show that BB is still in the Upper Niger NP in Guinea. He is within a few kms of both the upper reaches of the Niger itself and its confluence with a major tributary. Both watercourses are already quite large this far upstream (the Niger is over 100m wide), reflecting the very high rainfall that areas upstream in this corner of West Africa receive each year. 

A good location received in the early hours of this morning shows that Lloyd remains at his previous location in eastern Ivory Coast, 50km SW of Comoé NP, in the same area that was used by BB and Chance early this spring and by Martin last year. 

Chance could still be next to make the desert crossing but at the moment unconfirmed signals suggest he is still in the Ivory Coast. 

Signals received yesterday morning show that Chris has continued quickly onwards from Italy and is already in France, travelling 450km (280 miles) to Charbonnat in southern Burgundy with little rest. This has been a very fast paced journey from Ghana - Chris has covered about 4,600 km (2858 miles) in less than a week, which is not much slower than the fastest of the swifts we have tracked with geolocators! If he is still in good condition and the weather is kind, he could be home in the next few days.