Updates from our Cuckoos

We have received nothing further from Mungo since the 2 August.

We have received signals from both BB and Roys' tags which show that they remain in the east of Chad, close to the border with Sudan. They are just 48 km (30 miles) apart and are the two most northerly of the tracked Cuckoos in Chad.

Locations received from Chance on 4 September show that Chance remains east of Lake Chad. 

Unconfirmed signals suggest that Wallace has moved 30km (18 miles) northeast, placing him 7 miles west of the shores of Lake Garda. 

Chris’ tag transmitted this morning from a location 52km (32 miles) south of his previous position. He remains in Chad but is only around 195km (120 miles) north-west of the border with the Central African Republic, where he moved to last winter after leaving Chad. 

No further signals have been received for John or Reacher since their last locations in France and Spain respectively. Taking a look back at the temperature data,  the last few messages received for each tag show a lot of variety associated with time of day - i.e. cooler in the early morning and reaching over 30°C in the afternoon. Temperatures prior to that had always been higher than 30°C, even when the Cuckoos were in Britain. This suggests that the bird’s body temperature wasn't influencing the tag's temperature much during these signals and does, unfortunately, support the idea that they may have perished.

Wallace was still in Switzerland on 1 September but by early this morning (3 September) he had moved to a location in northern Italy, about 17km (11 miles) west of the south end of Lake Garda and about 10km (6 miles) SE of Brescia. This location is at the northern edge of the Po floodplain, just south of the foothills of the Alps. He is there much later than the other Cuckoos who have used the floodplain to prepare for their desert crossing – the other Cuckoos that have used the Po watershed later in the season have tended to use the foothills rather than the floodplain, so we hope he will be able to find the remaining food he needs to fuel his migration. 

Recent transmissions showed Chance leaving the vicinity of Lake Chad but a series of locations received early on 30 August showed that Chance was moving NW at that time. He stopped 28km (17 miles) SW of Massakory, having moved 91km (56 miles) from his previous position. By Saturday 1 September he had moved another 66km (41 miles) NW to an area at the north-eastern corner of the seasonally flooded extent of Lake Chad, close to his previous position near the lake.

Indy has continued to move SE through the Sahel into areas with higher annual rainfall. On the evening of 31 August, he was still at hid location NE of Zinder in Niger but by early this morning (3 August) he had moved 128km (78 miles) SE. He is now 20km (12 miles) inside Nigeria and is 43km (27 miles) WNW of Nguru. Immediately to his south are Nguru Hadejia wetlands, a Ramsar Site which is very important for migratory waterbirds. 

Locations received once Roy’s tag resumed transmissions today (31 August) show that he has completed his desert crossing. He is in eastern Chad, a few kms from the border with Sudan and about 48km (30 miles) NE of BB. At about 14° N, he is the most northerly of the Cuckoos south of the Saharan. He is in the northern Sahel, where annual rainfall is low, but the bulk falls in July & August at this latitude so the area should be green with plenty of insect food available at the moment.