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.
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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Chance to cross desert shortly?
18 Mar 2013
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.
Lloyd still in DRC
04 Mar 2013
The last signal shown on the map was transmitted on 24 February but over the weekend we received a further poor quality signal which shows it's likely he has remained in the same area. Zooming in on the map you can see he appears to be in the depths of the Sankuru Nature Reserve. This is the world’s largest continuous protected area for great apes at 11,800 square miles and is the first large-scale reserve in the Congo to be managed by the indigenous people. None of the Cuckoos tracked last year wintered as far east as Lloyd, so we are waiting to see whether he will follow the other Cuckoos to Cameroon or whether he will do something different.
Chance remains near Lake Volta
04 Mar 2013
We have received several locations for Chance dotted around the north of Lake Volta in Ghana, the most recent of which was on 2 March. Last year Kasper spent around 3 weeks in this area while Lyster spent just over a week. Both left the area around mid-March 2012.
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