Updates from our Cuckoos

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.

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.