Updates from our Cuckoos

Since his last transmission on 16 February, Lyster has travelled 1,190km (740miles) from his last known position in Congo. He is now in Nigeria! A transmission from him at 00.49 on 5 March shows that he is currently in the Niger delta. Lyster is the fourth cuckoo to have begun his long journey back to the UK.

Chris provided the biggest surprise over the weekend. Having not heard from him since 19 February, it was a shock to find out that on 2 March he was in Cameroon. Two days later (4 March) and he is in Togo, 1,950km (1,210miles) northwest of his last position in Congo.

 Kasper's tag was picked up by the satellite at 17.20 on 4 March, it showed that he had moved 28km (17miles) south west from his previous position. He is now just west of the northern end of Lake Volta, Ghana. As the first cuckoo to leave Congo, will Kasper be the first to tackle the northward crossing of the Sahara? The next few weeks will tell.

It's now been 18 days since we heard from Martin and 13 days since we heard from Lyster. We aren't worried though as we think they are probably deep under cover feeding up, as Kasper did, perhaps before heading north? This makes it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries. Who knows where they will turn up!
 

It's now been 13 days since we heard from Lyster and 18 days since we heard from Martin. They may be deep under cover feeding up, as Kasper did, which  makes it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries.   Kasper travelled 350 miles during the month in which we received no signals, check back for further updates and to see where they turn up next!  

We haven't received any further signals from Chris' tag since the 19 Feb at 07.12 when he was still in Congo, north of Bimbo. 

It's also now been 18 days since we heard from Martin and 13 days since we heard from Lyster. We think they are all following in Kasper's footsteps, prior to his movement into Nigeria we heard nothing for over a month. It's likely they are deep under cover, feeding up before heading north, making it difficult for the solar panels to charge the tag's batteries.

A transmission on 22 Feb at 19.55 shows that Clement remains in the same location in the south of Cameroon.

We received a transmission from Kasper's tag yesterday (28 Feb) at 21.12 which showed no further movements and indicated that he was still at the northern end of Lake Volta, Ghana.

Transmissions received yesterday between 7pm and 9pm show that Kasper has continued his journey. He has travelled 390km (242 miles) west from his location in Nigeria and is now in Ghana. He is currently at the northern end of Lake Volta, the largest reservoir by surface area in the world, and the fourth largest one by water volume.
 

We received a signal from Lyster on the 16 Feb which showed that he has made no further movements northwards as of yet. With both Kasper and Clement having travelled hundreds of miles north, could Lyster be on the move soon too?