Updates from our Cuckoos

Chance was still in Cameroon on 7 November, having been there since 16 October. He has, however, moved rapidly south since then and by the evening of Friday 9 November, he was on the western edge of the Teke Plateau in eastern Gabon. This is a movement of 985km (611 miles) just east of due South within two days. 

There are currently just five tagged Cuckoos from which we are still receiving regular transmissions. While BB, LLoyd and David have all transmitted in the last couple of days, none of them have moved from their previous positions. Chris's tag transmitted on 7 November and showed he had made a small movement south of about 34km (21 miles), taking him closer to the Ubangi river. Chance also seems to have made a small movement recently and is now south-west of the Faro Reserve and only 54km (34 miles) from the border with Nigeria. 

No big movements to report from our remaining English and Welsh Cuckoos. David’s last tag transmission was on 30 October from within Democratic Republic of Congo. He is still in the same position, to the west of southern part of Salonga National Park, Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. Meanwhile, Lloyd’s tag signal confirmed that, as of this morning, 1 November, he is still in Central African Republic.  He has shown some local movements, heading northwest a short distance from his position on the 24 October, before then heading back southeast about 60km (37 miles).  Our English Cuckoo, Chris, remains in Congo, his tag transmitting in the early hours of yesterday, 31 October.

BB is still in Chad, with a transmission received late last night, while Chance’s tag transmitted the day before, on the evening of 30 October, from Cameroon. About 572km (355 miles) separate Chance and BB from each other.  

Roy’s tag has not transmitted since the beginning of October. From the temperature and charge data, there doesn’t seem to be any specific cause for concern but his tag had failed to transmit for three duty cycles before the last messages were received so there may be a problem with it. 

We suspect that Wallace’s tag has failed. We have received no further signals since 14 September when the charge of his tag was very low - it had been progressively charging to lower levels over several previous cycles. We now do not think the tag will be able to power on again and let us know Wallace’s whereabouts. There is no indication that Wallace has perished as the tag’s temperature remained normal. 

Lloyd has moved a small distance of 34km (21 miles) from his previous location and closer to the Chaine des Mongos mountain range. 

David’s tag transmitted on Sunday 23 October and indicates that he is still in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Looking at the map from last year’s birds, he is in an area much further east than any of the tagged English Cuckoos ventured. David is also almost as far south as the most southerly point received from the first year of Cuckoo tracking, this being from Kasper who was north-west of Kinshasa in Congo.

Lloyd has continued onwards, heading south-west 94 km (58 miles) and crossing the border of South Sudan into the Haute-Kotto area of Central African Republic (CAR). He is around 48 km (30 miles) within the border of CAR, just outside the Chaine des Mongos Mountain region, over which he will have flown in the last few days. 

There have been no further tranmissions from Indy since 21 September. Looking back at the temperature data of his final transmissions it indicates his body heat had dropped right down and we are now assuming that he has died in Cameroon. Mike McCarthy of The Independent talks about Indy's incredible journey in his latest article.