Updates from our Cuckoos

On the 17 Janaury a series of poor quality locations indicated Chris had left his previous position and was heading NNE. A signal on the 20 January revealed he had crossed the border into Congo and had traveled 550km (345 miles) almost due N to a location in the region of Pool, about 80km ( 50 miles) north-west of the capital of Brazzaville.

This is likely to be the first stage of his northward migration. Having wintered so far south this year in Angola, it will be interesting to see if he continues to the north of the Congo Rainforest, as we have seen our British Cuckoos do each winter or whether he will remain to its south for a while, like the Scandinavian birds have after wintering in Angola. 

We last heard from David seventeen days ago from the Congo Rainforest. Whilst we are a little anxious about him the last transmission showed that the tag temperature was as expected. His battery charge was extremely low and his tag will have stopped transmitting soon afterwards. We are hoping that if he moves into some sunshine that his tag will begin transmitting again.

Since his stop in the Likuoala Aux Herbes area, he has continued another 88km (55 miles) north-west, and as of 12 January was just 9km (6 miles) from Norfolk Cuckoo, Derek.

After his initial movement of 75km north-west of Lake Mai on 26 December, Patch has continued moving. He travelled a further 304km (189 miles) and as of 09.15 on 14 January, he was in the southern part of the Congo rainforest, just 11km (7 miles) from a fellow Scottish Cuckoo, BB.

Livingstone is still in the area of Gabon in which he arrived on 30 December.  We last heard from him on 11 January.

Still no news from Chance. However, despite not hearing from him since early December we haven’t given up on him. The last transmission showed that the tag temperature was as expected if he was alive; however, the battery charge was extremely low, so low that the tag must have stopped transmitting immediately afterwards. 

BB has begun the first stage of his journey back to the UK. On 11 January he was 250km north of his mid-winter location. He is still in the southern part of the Congo Rainforest, just to the north of the Téké plateau and just south-west of the settlement of Makoua. We have seen in previous years that around this time British Cuckoos begin to make their way to north of the Rainforest, before heading to West Africa.

Since his 90km north-easterly movement from Lake Mai, Whortle has headed a further 76km (47 miles) in a north-westerly direction and is now 154km (96 miles) north of the lake, and just 10km from Mbandaka on the banks of the Congo River.

We still haven’t heard from Tor since his tag transmitted on 4 December. As that signal carried no diagnostic data we were unable to check his body temperature or the state of the tag’s battery. 

Skinner has moved again but this time he has really gone for it, moving 1283km (795 miles) from his location close to Cuckoo Chris. After a short stopover in Gabon, following a northward movement of 757km (470 miles), he carried on north-west and as of 10pm on 13 January was in south-west Cameroon, 43km (27 miles) north of the border with Equatorial Guinea.  He has gone from being our most southerly Cuckoo to our most northerly, leapfrogging all of the other cuckoos since the beginning of the year.