A very poor location from Valentine's tag in the last few days suggests that he is in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea, around 1,400km (890 miles) offshore. We don't believe this to be the case but it could be an indication that he is on the move. It will be interesting to see where he pops-up, fingers crossed it will be somewhere north of Angola and not out to sea. Watch this space.
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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Valentine on the move?
21 Feb 2020
Tennyson still in central Congo
21 Feb 2020
Since moving in to central Congo around a month ago Tennyson has been spending his time moving around the rainforest in his location. We are receiving lots of infoamtion from his tag that shows he has been frequenting an area of around 30sq KM (16sq miles). It will be interesting to see whem he makes his first move north.
Senan in Congo
21 Feb 2020
A good quality location from Senan's tag during the morning of 20 February showed that he is in Congo, very close to the border with Gabon. It could be that he didn't spend very long in northern Gabon and that he has been in northern Congo for the last month or so, an area where other tagged Cuckoos have spent the midwinter period.
PJ still in Cameroon
21 Feb 2020
PJ hasn't moved far since arriving in Cameroon but information from his tag received during the last couple of days show he is alive and well. In previous years he has started the second leg of his journey around the end of February, so he could move west any day now.
Carlton II on his way back
21 Feb 2020
A couple of poor quality locations from Carlton II's tag during the early hours of 21 February show that he is 223km (138 miles), north of his wintering area in Gabon. He is still in Gabon but closer to the border with Congo and on the southern edge of the Minkebe National Park. This is his first movement north since arriving in Gabon in early November.
Tennyson moves south-west
03 Feb 2020
At the end of January, Tennyson made a journey of 205km (130 miles) south-west, moving back into a central area of the Republic of Congo.
PJ in Cameroon
24 Jan 2020
Over the last few days PJ has flown 269 km (167 miles) north west from Central African Republic into Cameroon. He is now in the mountainous Adamawa region of central Cameroon. In previous years PJ as stayed in Cameroon until the end of February/early March so we expect him to stay put for a few weeks before heading west to Ivory Coast.
PJ on the move again
15 Jan 2020
An update from PJ's tag yesterday morning shows that he has flown a further 432 km (268 miles) north-west from Gabon to a new location in the Nana-Mambéré region of The Central African Republic. He is close to the border with Cameroon and just south of the area he stopped in during his migration north in 2017. From here he is likely to move west into Cameroon and then continue through west Africa towards Ivory Coast where he stopped off in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Senan in Gabon?
07 Jan 2020
We were surprised when Senan hadn't moved on in the latter part of 2019 however, the area he was in within Benin had received extra rainfall in the previous three months, and was likely to be greener than normal for the time of year. Other Cuckoos were also later moving from West Africa into the forest zone this autumn, presumably for this possible reason. A new poor quality location received in late December indicates Senan could now be in northern Gabon, in or close to the Minkébé National Park. This would be a logical position for him. The battery on the tag is low, and has been for some time, but hopefully we will receive further signals which will confirm this, so that it becomes visible on the maps shortly.
PJ heading North
06 Jan 2020
Between 22nd and 25th December, PJ flew 745 km (463 miles) north from his last location in northern Angola to his new location in eastern Gabon. This movement is similar in timing and direction to PJ's movements in 2017 when he moved to Gabon on 8th January and in 2018 when he moved to Gabon on 27th December. In previous years he has stayed in this area of Gabon until the end of January before moving further north, into Cameroon.
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