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Updates from our Cuckoos

Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.

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Lyster lingers and recovers from crossing

05 Aug 2011
Lyster’s tag is not charging well so we received only a few low-accuracy locations when his tag came on early on Thursday morning (4 August). These were, however, enough to tell us that he had not moved from his Spanish staging post. This means he has spent a week there so far so was clearly in need of significant refuelling before attempting the Saharan crossing.
 
Judging from the other birds, we expect him to move rapidly south with no further stop-overs once he leaves this spot but we don’t know when that will be. The other Cuckoos spent 2-4 weeks at their final stopovers but given his late departure from the breeding area, we might expect Lyster to spend less than or towards the bottom of this range. His tag is next due to come on around the middle of the day on Saturday.
 

Kasper searching for a spot

01 Aug 2011
Kasper has moved back! Having moved 200km south of his previous position in southern Chad and then approached Kano city, Kasper returned north and is now 110km (67 miles) SE from his original position! From google earth, this area looks to be better served with water features and patches of woodland than the more southerly area he visited so it appears he is wandering in search of favourable conditions rather than undertaking ‘true’ migratory movements at the moment.
 

Chris stays in Chad

01 Aug 2011
On Saturday (30 July) Chris was still in the same part of southern Chad, between the villages of Sobo and Daguéla, west of Zakouma NP.
 

Lyster refuels

01 Aug 2011
On Saturday (30 July) Lyster was still in the Parque Naturel del Alto Tajo area. He is clearly carrying out some re-fuelling in this landscape of pine forest-clad mountains in preparation for the Saharan crossing – how long until he makes a break to the south...? We are expecting transmissions to resume this afternoon (Monday 1 August).
 
1700hrs update: Positions just received show that Lyster is still in the same area. His tag will keep transmitting until the early hours of tomorrow morning so we would know very soon if he left the stop-over tonight.  

Martin on floodplain

01 Aug 2011
Martin is still just south of the Chari River in SW Chad. He appears to be on the edge of the heavily-cultivated floodplain, adjacent to the more wooded landscape to the south.

Clement feeding up

01 Aug 2011
Clement remains in the Forest Diambour and is presumably finding good feeding conditions here.

Kasper has moved on

29 Jul 2011

Yesterday evening (Thursday 28 July) we picked him up 200km (122 miles) south of his previous location, apparently stationary just west of the Challawa Gorge Dam in northern Nigeria. When we last picked him up, in the early hours of this morning he was 35km (21 miles) ENE of here, 30km (18 miles) SW of the city of Kano. We don’t know whether he continued his slow nocturnal movement from here or whether he has settled in this area – we should find out when his tag resumes transmissions on Sunday morning.

Clement heads for lush forest

29 Jul 2011

Clement has continued his slow but steady movement SE. He has moved another 100km (61 miles) in this direction and is now 76km east of the eastern tip of Gambia. Although he is still moving obliquely, relative to the rainfall gradients, he is now in a heavily wooded area called Foret Diambour. The weather today is a pleasant 29 degrees there with broken high cloud. Annual rainfall increases very rapidly to the south and southwest of here, and the comparatively lush forests of Niokolo-Koba National Park adjoin the Foret to the south. Conditions for Clement in this area should be very good at this time of year.

Chris still in Chad

28 Jul 2011
Yesterday evening Chris was in the same place in southern Chad that he has been in since Monday (25 July) at least. The habitat and landscape appears from google earth to be similar to those in Senegal that Clement has moved into.
 
 

Kasper remains west of Aguié

28 Jul 2011
Kasper remains in the area west of Aguié that he has been in since 19 July at least.
 

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