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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 confirmed in Cameroon

11 Feb 2013
New locations received on Sunday morning (10th February) showed that, as suspected, Chance is in fact in Cameroon rather than Central African Republic. We have now changed the previous location from Central African Republic to its alternative to correct the error. This arose because the satellite system was unable to compare the single location from last Thursday with another received since the break in transmissions prior to Chance’s move, to assess the most likely of the two possible location ‘solutions’.  From a biological perspective, it was clear that the alternative was more likely but we had to wait for confirmation from subsequent locations before we could make the correction. 
 
Chance is on the border between the Adamawa and Central regions of Cameroon, having moved 760km (473 miles) NNW from his previous location in Congo Brazzaville.  He is in a landscape of savannah with gallery forest, a few tens of kms north of the last blocks of continuous forest – a similar location to the one David took up 400km to the east after his northward crossing of the Congo forest block a week earlier. They both appear to be on their way to the West African stop over used by all five tracked Cuckoos last spring. 
 

Chance makes a break for it

08 Feb 2013

After an absence of a week, yesterday afternoon we received a location for Chance suggesting he had moved 925km (575 miles) NNE into Central African Republic. This is surprising as we would expect him to move north west at this time of year, like David did  a week ago and all the tracked Cuckoos did last year. Although the accuracy of the location was apparently good, we can't verify whether he has in fact moved there because of the possibility that this is a 'mirror location'. The satellite system always produces two possible locations for a tag based on the signals received as a satellite passes overhead and usually, but not always, selects the most sensible one. The alternative location for Chance based on this satellite pass is in Cameroon and makes more sense to us, but until we receive further locations for Chance’s tag, we won’t be able to say for sure. Make sure you check back to see where he next transmits from! 

(Chance's position was updated from Central African Republic to Cameroon. See the later blog post for more information.)

David's tag charge low

06 Feb 2013
 
The latest transmissions on 2 Feb show that David continued a further 128 km (80 miles) north-west from his last transmitted position on the 30 Jan.  He had continued further into the savanna with gallery forest to the north of the huge Congo rainforest block and is now in the Nana-Mambere region in west Central African Republic. The charge on his tag was very low, which may explain why we haven't had any further transmissions form his tag since then. The weather there is currently sunny and around 33 C - over the next month or so the rains will return to this area and those to the northwest, increasing the amount of food available to cuckoos as they prepare for their Saharan crossing. 

Spring is on its way

31 Jan 2013

David’s tag resumed transmissions on 28 January, after a silence of 10 days, and showed that he was still in the same position within DRC that he had held since 27 December. Further locations received yesterday evening show that he had moved around 980km (608 miles) NNW from his previous location. 

This is the biggest movement we have seen from any of the Cuckoos for some time, so during his period of absence he was probably feeding up, fuelling for the journey he was about to make. He has moved completely over the block of more or less continuous closed canopy forest of the Congo Rainforest and is now in the southwest corner of the Central African Republic, 73km (45 miles) east of the border with Cameroon - he is in an area of what appears to be savannah with gallery forests and some forest blocks.

It looks like David has begun his journey back to the UK - this is about a week earlier than the first bird started to head north-west last year. Spring is just around the corner! 

BB and Chance remain close

31 Jan 2013

BB's tag transmitted on the 29 January while Chance's tag sent locations in the early hours of this morning which show that they remain just a few miles apart - possibly as few as two miles.

Chris content in Congo

31 Jan 2013

Roughly 385km (240 miles) north of Lloyd's position, signals were received on the evening of 29 January from Chris' tag, but he has not moved from his previous location.  Last year, his tag was still transmitting from Congo on the 19 February. The next signal received after that wasn't until the 6 March when he turned up in Togo.  

Lloyd settled for now

31 Jan 2013

Lloyd’s tag transmitted on the afternoon of the 31 January. He is still settled in the same area he has been in since around 7 December, but with David's new movement, could Lloyd be the next to head north? 

Period of silence from David's tag

24 Jan 2013
No further transmissions have been received from David's tag since the 16 January. According to the satellite map it looks like he is an area of closed canopy forest near the southern edge of the vast Congo block and this is likely to be obstructing the signal to the satellite. 
 

Transmissions received from Welsh Cuckoos

18 Jan 2013

Transmissions were received from both our Welsh Cuckoos' tags on the evening of the 16 January but there have been no significant movements from David and Lloyd to report.  

Chris remains close

18 Jan 2013

Transmissions from Chris’s tag were received yesterday evening, he is currently 100km (62 miles) to the northeast of Chance and BB.  

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