Updates from our Cuckoos

From the shores of Lake Chad on 2 October, Chance moved south-west and by 7 October was 330km (200 miles) from the lake. He is 90km (55 miles) from the city of Maiduguri which is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. 

A week after Livingstone moved south, so too did Waller and Chris, overtaking him in the race south. However from his location in the Central African Republic, Livingstone headed directly south and by 6 October he was catching up and was in Congo, in a location near to the Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

A further poor quality signal today shows that he has travelled even further south and is at a similar longitude to David, our most southerly Cuckoo, who made a big movement south on 7 October to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new movement will mean that he is one of only a number of tagged Cuckoos which have flown that far south, including David in 2012 and 2013 and Kasper in 2011. 

By the 28 September, Tor had left the Kano region and was in the Yobe region of Nigeria, 350km (200 miles) to the east. The next (poor quality) signal we received from his tag was 975km (600 miles) further south in Cameroon on 7 October. By the early hours of this morning he had completed a further 700km (430 miles) and was in Gabon, close to the south-eastern border with Congo.  This new position puts him as far south as David.

From his position on the 28 September, David had travelled 735km (450 miles) south by the afternoon of the 5 October and was in the Salong National Park. He was roughly 160km (100 miles) north of the area he arrived in on 24 October 2012 and spent the winter in last year.  This wintering location is one of the furthest south we have seen from our Cuckoos since the beginning of the project. Only Kasper from the first year of the project and Lloyd from last year have also travelled as far south as David to overwinter. 

By the afternoon of 26 September, Patch had left Lake Chad in a south-easterly direction, travelling around 255km (160 miles) and venturing into the Chari- Baguirmi region of Chad. By the 27 September however he had travelled 70km (45 miles) northwards and was close to the Hadjer-Lamis region. Chance currently remains at the lake. 

Having covered 1,207km (750 miles) from his stopover in Chad, Waller is currently the most southerly of our tagged Cuckoos. He is now in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 117km (73 miles) south-east of Chris. It will be interesting to see what he does next. Will he stay in this area like Chris has done for the last two winters, or in common with the other Cuckoos tagged in England and Scotland, will he head to the Teke Plateau, 300km (187 miles) to the south-west or perhaps head further east, like the two cuckoos tagged in Wales did last year? 

David is now 749km (465 miles) south west of his last position in South Sudan. Having moved east of the Chaine Des Mongos mountains as he did last year, David has now over-flown the Central African Republic and he is now 100km south of its border in the Orientale region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is on a very similar path to last year and we would expect him to continue another 800km (500 miles) south-west to spend the mid-winter period in the same general area that he did then. 

Chris is now within the area that he has spent most of the last two mid-winter periods in, just inside Congo, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. He arrived here on 26 September, a day later than he arrived at this location last year.

Ken had moved a further 200km (125 miles) across the Ouham region by the evening of the 24 September.  His new location is only 50km (30 miles) from Sussex's location.