Updates from our Cuckoos

Chris continued eastwards around 90km (50 miles) from his position on 21 August. He moved to the Guera region of Chad and we have received recent locations this morning indicating he is still there. He is now just 30 miles west of where he was a year ago.

Transmissions show that David has travelled only a small distance within Chad from his previous location on 20 August. He is, however, no longer the most southerly Cuckoo.

Signals received on August 24 and 26 show that BB remains in the same area within Chad, close to the border with Sudan. 

Indy has moved south within Niger since the 24 August.  He travelled around 180 km (113 miles) and on the morning of the 27 August  was 70km (43miles) north-east of Zinder, the second largest city in Niger.

From the area of Danilovgrad, Montenegro, a series of unconfirmed transmissions show that on the evening of August 26, Roy was moving in a southeasterly direction. The last transmission received shows him over the middle of Lake Scutari, just inside the border of Albania. Is he making his move south? We expect further transmissions tomorrow morning. 

Wallace remains in Switzerland but appears to have moved south a small distance. Transmissions from his tag on August 27 show that he is around 10km (6 miles) south from Lake Brienz.

We had thought that as Lloyd was in Italy, he would travel south and make the crossing to Africa from Sicily or the coast, like previous Cuckoos who staged in Italy have. However, Lloyd seems to have changed direction.  The last transmissions showed him travelling south along the French coast before the transmission period then finished as he neared Fréjus. Transmissions resumed yesterday evening (23 August) and located him in the very south of France, 60km (37 miles) west of Perpignan. It looks very likely that he will now cross to Africa from Spain. He has taken a very roundabout route to get here. Perhaps availability of food has had something to do with this?

In an unexpected and somewhat surprising twist, Lloyd has left the eastern slopes of the Alps in western Italy and moved back into France! Having still been in Italy on Sunday 19 August, yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 21 August) he was in the Alpine foothills of SE France approximately 80km (50 miles) to the S. During the evening he moved off SSW and when the last location was received, he was 64km (40 miles) away, about 6km (4 miles) NNW of the coastal town of Fréjus. Could this mean he is going to take a westerly route into Africa, through Iberia, after all? 

Indy has made good progress with his desert crossing. We have received several locations for his tag today that place him in southern Niger, close to the northern border of Zinder region, about 260km (162 miles) N of the border with. He doesn’t appear to be actively migrating during the day today - his location is still at least 200km (125 miles) further north than we would expect him to stay for any length of time, based on what we have seen from the Cuckoos last year and so far this year, so hopefully he will continue migrating tonight. 

 Having been just north of Lake Chad since 19 July, Chris has decided it is time to move on. A series of locations received overnight 20-21 August tracked him moving 390km (242 miles) SE from his previous position. The last (and most accurate) position received placed him in the Chari-Baguirmi region of southern Chad, about 67km (41 miles) NE of the city of Bousso. Chris is now the most southerly of our tracked cuckoos and is now 134km (84 miles) W of the position he was in a exactly year ago.  He has moved to an area with higher annual rainfall that, like the area occupied by David, should have plenty of food at this time of year.