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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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Stanley reaches the Congo rainforest

29 Sep 2015

Since the last update, Stanley has travelled 700 miles to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Stanley is now in the same area that he spent the winter of 2014/15 in, next to the River Congo.

Stanley moves to Cameroon

18 Sep 2015

Stanley has moved 370km (230 miles) southeast and has left Nigeria. He is now in northern Cameroon.

Charlie continues south

18 Sep 2015

Charlie has carried on, apparently skirting the Tibesti Mountains where a number of our Cuckoos stopped this year for the first time, to make it across the desert. He is currently located in southern Chad.

Charlie makes it to Africa

15 Sep 2015

Charlie, the last of our tagged Cuckoos still in Europe, has finally left and crossed over the sea from his last location in Greece to reach Africa! We were beginning to worry that he was still in Greece but signals on the evening of the 14 September show he was in Libya. Since then he has been making his way south across the desert. 

Looking back at previous years, the only two Cuckoos to arrive in Africa later were BB on the 15 September 2014 and Lloyd on 3 October 2012. Both these Cuckoos also took the easterly route, heading to Libya but from Italy instead of Greece, as Charlie has done. 

Coo arrives in Congolian forest

14 Sep 2015

Since the 10 September Coo has moved 810km (500 miles) further south, flying over Central African Republic.  By 13 September he had made it to northern Democratic Republic of Congo and areas of lowland forest. He is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to make it to the Congo Rainforest this year. 

Charlie last to leave Europe

04 Sep 2015
Charlie is the last of all the BTO tagged Cuckoos which are alive/ have working batteries to remain in Europe. The others have all made it to Africa or died trying. We expect it won’t be long before Charlie embarks on his attempt as most of the Cuckoos have normally flown to Africa by the end of August. Last year, however, Chris and BB, two of our older Cuckoos, didn't arrive until the 4 and 13 September. The latest ever arrival in Africa we have seen since the start of the project was in 2012 when Lloyd arrived on 3 October. 

Larry continues onwards

12 Aug 2015

After a few days, Larry has continued south and left the Tibesti Mountain area. He is now close to Lake Chad and safely across the desert.

End of the line for Jake

03 Sep 2015

The last signals we received from Jake back in June showed that he was still in central France. No further signals have been received since. Looking back, the tag temperature was unusually high during these tranmissions, indicating that Jake had died. We have no idea what the cause of death might have been.

Silence from Ash

03 Sep 2015

A series of poor quality locations from Ash during early July showed that he was moving around in Croatia but we have heard nothing since. The tag data showed that he was alive when we last heard from it so it’s possible that his tag has failed.

No further signals from Cookie

03 Sep 2015

We have received no further signals from Cookie. The data from his tag showed a low battery charge and although there is no evidence that he has died we think that this is likely. Dr Chris Hewson, lead scientist on the project visited northern Italy during the summer and found Cookie alive and well but in a location that held a very active Peregrine. Peregrines are known to take Cuckoos on migration and it is not impossible that this could have happened to Cookie.

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