Updates from our Cuckoos

David transmitted yesterday and remains in the south of Sudan close to the border whilst Indy’s last transmission on the 21 September indicated he was still in the north of Cameroon. 

Lloyd is still alive and (as far as we can tell) well in northern Italy. It is certainly getting very late for him to be preparing for a desert crossing – as time goes on, it is looking increasingly unlikely that he will make it successfully across the desert as food must be getting scarcer. This is especially the case given that he appeared to be attempting to use the western route through Spain when he last headed south from Italy.

It is now two weeks since we last heard from Wallace’s tag, when its charge was very low and unconfirmed locations suggested he may have left to the SE. We had expected to hear more by now but as the tag’s charge was so low, it is still possible that he is in a location where it can’t charge. We may yet hear more about Wallace’s travels and are keeping our fingers crossed for him.

We haven’t received any more transmissions from Mungo‘s tag since the 2 August, when he was close to Lake Chad – given the time that has elapsed, we can only assume that he has died, or that his tag failed, but there is no direct evidence for either scenario. 

Having made it into Congo by the morning of Tuesday 25 September, Chris didn’t hang around and by yesterday afternoon (Thursday 27 September) he had progressed a further 300km (186 miles) further due S. He is now 56km (35 miles) due S of the location that he spent most of last winter in. He is in similarly wet swamp forest, close to the Likouala aux Herbes. 

In the early hours of this morning Chris transmitted from Congo. At lunchtime on the 20 September, Chris was still in Central African Republic, 378 km (235 miles) away from his previous position but from here he travelled almost directly south. His arrival there this year is around two weeks earlier than last year, when he first transmitted from Congo on the 10 October 2011. You can see where he has ‘overtaken himself’ by the overlap of the two pathways on the map. Chris is still to the north of where he spent much of last winter. He is currently the most southerly Cuckoo, although Roy, who is on the border between Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not far behind.  

Roy is in Basse-Kotto prefecture of CAR, about 29km (18 miles) NNW of its capital Mobaye. The habitat in the area is southern Guinea Savannah with gallery forest along the rivers – he has stopped just north of the vast Congo rainforest. If Roy continued on the same path, he would pass about 160km (100 miles) east of the area where the Cuckoos tracked last winter ended up. As the rain is moving south and areas to the north are beginning to dry up, we expect some of the other Cuckoos to follow Roy and Chris to the south over the next couple of weeks.  

When we last received a location for him early on Sunday morning, BB was heading south and straight towards Central African Republic (CAR). We wondered how much further he would get that night and whether he would be the first tracked Cuckoo to reach that country this year. But when his tag began transmitting again this morning we found out that not only had he not got any further – in fact he had headed back north by about 75km (47 miles) to a location in Chari-Baguirmi region – but also that Chris had leapfrogged him and become the first Cuckoo in CAR!

By the early hours of this morning, Chris had moved 398km (246 miles) due S from the position he had held in southern Chad since 6 September. He is now in Ouam prefecture in western Central African Republic, and becomes the most southerly of the tracked Cuckoos. He is migrating along a very similar path to last year but, so far, he is not stopping at the same locations. This was also the case in Europe, although he then crossed the desert on a more westerly path, possibly having been drifted by the wind. 

By the morning of Sunday 16 September, David had moved 728km (452 miles) ESE from the area in southern Chad that he had been in since 17 August. Although Roy also moved east of south along the border between Chad and Sudan about a week ago, the easterly component of this movement is very surprising – we had expected him to move SW towards the area of southern Chad that several of the other Cuckoos are either in or passed through on their way to the wintering area in the western Congo basin last winter. It will be really fascinating to see where he goes next – will he (and Roy) head to completely different wintering grounds to last year’s birds?