Updates from our Cuckoos

On the morning of 13 October Chris was still close to the Ubangi River, northwest of Mbandaka in the Congo rainforest. At that time, he had spent three nights at this location – we had wondered whether he would move straight through the rainforest on his way to the savannahs to the south so this is extremely interesting evidence of him actually staying in and using this rainforest habitat. 

No change – Kasper remains in the same location and his tag is still not charging well. 

Lyster remains in the south-eastern corner of Burkina Faso, very close to the borders with Togo and Benin. He has been at this location since 9 October. 

On 13th October, Martin remained at the edge of the rainforest in southern Central African Republic.   

On Wednesday Clement remained close to the Yankari Game Reserve. Ulf Ottosson and colleagues from the AP Leventis Ornithological Institute in Jos, 130km to the south west, looked for Clement in the field on Wednesday. They managed to get to within 8km of his current location but then had to give up as access became very difficult due to the tall, dense, wet grass that grows under the trees in the savannah habitat at this time of year. 

The ornithological institute at Jos is funded by the Tasso Leventis Conservation Foundation, which also supports the BTO’s capacity building work in West Africa.

Transmissions received early on Tuesday 11 October placed Kasper still in the Bayan Dutsin Forest Reserve but the tag on his charge was very low.

As of Monday 10 October, Martin was still in southern Central African Republic. His tag is charging less well now that he is in more densely forested habitat with more cloudy weather but we should hear from him tonight. It will be interesting to see if he has followed Chris into the Congo to the south....

Clement remains at the Lame Burra Game Reserve. 

Chris has continued his recent movement from Chad and by the evening of Monday 10 October he had moved a further 320km further south to a position on the border between Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. He is in an area of apparently continuous, closed, wet forest in the heart of the Congo rainforest, the second largest rainforest on earth after the Amazon. He is a few km’s from the Ubangi River, a major tributary of the Congo River which runs almost parallel to the Ubangi, about 55km to its east at this point.

Chris has taken a more easterly route than the Eurasian Hobbies that were recently satellite tracked from Sweden and does not appeared to have minimised his rainforest crossing to the same extent although if he continues due south he will soon reach the savannas to its south. Having stopped in rather than over-flying the rainforest, it will be very interesting to see whether Chris has moved straight through the area next time his tag transmits...

Lyster is currently in the south-eastern corner of Burkina Faso. He is now only 800km to the west of Kasper and is heading his way. The landscape he is in is one of open woodland. Given the recent rainfall in the area, he should be finding plenty of food. The temperature today is a warm 30°C with sunshine and cloud, with the possibility of thunderstorms in the evening.