Updates from our Cuckoos

Between 15 August and 17 August David moved 500km (311 miles) SW to a location in southern Chad, leap-frogging BB on the way.  He is still there now (20^th August). This makes him the most southerly of the Cuckoos we are tracking – he is in an area of Sudan savannah which should be green and full of food for a Cuckoo at the moment, having been rained on in recent months. 

At the time of writing (early afternoon, Monday 20^th August) Indy is in the midst of his desert crossing. Over the preceding ten hours, we have received a series of locations that tracked his progress as he moved almost due south from Tunisia into eastern Algeria. Prior to today, we last heard from his tag on 15^th August, when he was still in northern Italy. We hope Indy is fully fuelled and that, when his tag starts transmitting again (due Wednesday afternoon), he will be in hospitable country on the south side of the Sahara. 

Since Iolo was tracked heading south over Libya on 5^th August, we have received only one further unconfirmed location for him. This was four days later and placed him in northern Chad. Not only would we have expected him to have completed his desert crossing by then but his tag had lost charge in the intervening four days. Furthermore, during the transmission period prior to this final location being received, only two messages were received from his tag, neither of which was good enough to result in a location being estimated, despite his tag still having had some charge at that time. This suggests that it was not in a position to transmit clearly to passing satellites – its antenna could have been on the ground for instance. Taken together, these pieces of information suggest that Iolo died during his desert crossing, probably in northern Chad. 

Between 14 and 16 August Wallace moved approximately 140km (88 miles) S from his location in southern Germany to the northern foothills of the Alps in Switzerland, between Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Lucerne. He was still in this area when we last heard from him (Saturday 18 August)  - we are receiving few high quality locations so it is difficult to pin him down precisely but he is most likely in or close to a valley near the town of Schüpfheim.  

A single location received for Chance this morning (20^th August) placed him in south-eastern Chad 30km north of David’s position. Although this single location appeared to be a good quality fix it may have been erroneous, as two other unconfirmed locations received for the period immediately after this one placed him much closer to his previous location and just east of Lake Chad. It seems more likely that Chance has remained in the vicinity of Lake Chad rather than having moved 670km (415 miles) ESE as shown on the map but we will have to wait until Wednesday to find out. 

 We have concerns about both of these Cuckoos. Mungo was last heard of on 2^nd August in the area north of Lake Chad that he arrived in on 26^th July, soon after completing his desert crossing.  The charge on his tag was very low at that time. Lyster has not been heard of since 8^th August, when he was still in sparse desert in Mauritania, having moved just a few kms in the preceding two days. His tag did not appear to be charging even though it was the middle of the day with very little cover in the area and the charge was very low when transmissions ceased. 

Things are quiet at the moment for Cuckoos tagged in England. We have not heard for some time from the tags on Reacher in southern Spain or John in southwest France – we hope this means that the birds are well on the way to finishing preparations for their desert crossings. Chris remains near Lake Chad but unfortunately Lyster is Missing In Action in Mauritania – we fear the worst for him, as outlined in his blog. 

In the early hours of 15 August we received a transmission from David's tag - the first since 20 July - which revealed his new location in Sudan! He is the seventh of our tagged Cuckoos to reach Africa and is the most easterly Cuckoo. He is in west Sudan, close to the border with Chad, where three of the Cuckoos are currently. The series of transmissions received show he moved south around 190km (120 miles) during the tag's on period.

No further transmissions have been received from Iolo in Libya or Lloyd in Italy since the 9 August. Indy also remains in northern Italy and we last heard from him on the 13 August. 

Wallace has flown 55km (35 miles) southwest within Germany and is now close to the village of Lauterbach in the Black Forest near Schramberg.  Mungo’s last transmission on 29 July locates him near Lake Chad but we haven’t received any further signals from him. BB is also in Chad and we last heard from him on 13 August.