Updates from our Cuckoos

On 9 March we received a couple of locations that suggested that Victor was in Cameroon and just after 8am on 11 March we received a good quality location that proved this is the case. However, he isn’t in Cameroon, he is in eastern Ghana, close to the border with Ivory Coast. During the last few days he has flown almost 2,000km (1,250 miles). He is in fairly open forest close to the village of Broni. His map will update overnight.

Selborne has left Guinea and headed back east and into Ivory Coast. He seems to be homing in on the rains that are currently prevalent in the southern half of Ivory Coast. This wasn’t a short journey, he is 376km (234 miles) from his location in Guinea. This shows the importance of homing in on the rains and that our Cuckoos have the ability to do this.

Raymond is still in CAR, however, in the last few days he has moved 162km (100 miles) to the west. He is still in the gallery forest to the north of the rainforest but much closer to the border with Cameroon.

We haven’t heard from Larry since 21 February but at the time the data we got from his tag showed that he was alive and that the battery charge on the tag was OK. All we can do is hope that he will ‘pop-up’ again soon.

The poor location we received from Knepp’s tag on 4 March suggested that he was on the move, and now we know he really was. We received another poor location on 6 March which put him in central southern Nigeria but it wasn’t until 11pm on 8 March, when we received a couple of good quality locations from his tag, that we knew where he was.  Knepp is in Ivory Coast, 2,353km (1,462 miles) from his stopover site in Gabon.

A couple of poor locations received from Carlton II’s tag around 8am on 10 March show him in Cameroon, 316km (196 miles) north of his wintering location in Gabon. It will be interesting to see where he is when we next hear from him. The locations we have suggest that he is around 100km (60 miles) southeast of the Cameroon capital Yaounde. Until we get good quality locations from Carlton II’s tag his map will still show him in Gabon.

On Tuesday this week, PJ was still in Cameroon but he has since flown 2,085 Km (1,295 miles) west to Ivory Coast. He stopped briefly in Benin en-route. He is now 180 Km (111 miles) north west of the capital Yamoussoukro. We expect this to be PJ's last stop before he crosses the Sahara. In 2017 he left Ivory Coast to cross the Sahara on 8th April and in 2018 he departed on the 6th April.

Having spent the last month in Cameroon PJ is now on his way west.  A couple of poor locations around breakfast on 5 March showed he was on the move and in western Cameroon. By mid-morning he was in central Nigeria and by the early evening had crossed the border into Benin, completing a journey of 897km (557 miles) in 12 hours. This puts his average speed for this journey at 46mph. He is currently in an area of open forest in southern, central Benin. His map will update automatically overnight to show his new position in Benin.

After the poor location from Robinson’s tag on 2 March he checked in again on 4 March and surprised us all – he wasn’t in Nigeria, he was much further west and in Ivory Coast. He is now just under 2,000km (1,250 miles) from his wintering location in Gabon and is in fairly open forest to the north of the town of Kouassidatekrou.