Updates from our Cuckoos

Thomas has reached the Congo basin and is in rainforest to the north of the Teke plateau. He is the second of our tagged Cuckoos to reach the Congo this year. He is now 941km (585 miles) southeast of his stopover site in eastern Nigeria.

Sherwood is still using an area of dunes and trees behind the beach just to the north of Dakar in Senegal. The data we are getting from his tag suggests that all is still well with him, so it will be interesting to see when he decides to move east.

During the last few days Selborne has moved back west and into Ghana, overflying Togo on the way. He has flown 207km (128 miles) during this movement and is currently just north of the town of Kukpoku.

Larry has been settled in his post-desert stopover site for two months. In 2016 he moved south into the Congo basin on 29 Sept. However, in 2017 he didn't leave until 9 November. It will be interesting to see what he does this year.

Having been one of our most westerly Cuckoos since his arrival in West Africa at the beginning of August, Lambert is now one of our most easterly. From his location in Guinea, only nine days ago, he has travelled 1,987km (1,234 miles) east, passing through Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and into Nigeria. He is to the north of the River Niger and to the southwest of Duma.

Knepp is still settled in central Nigeria close to Robinson. Both are still in the Kaduna region. It is still pretty wet and thunderstormy in this area.

Carlton II is still in Burkina Faso but did have a short foray into Ivory Coast. Having reached Benin further to the east he has now moved back west 586km (364 miles). These westerly movements may be in response to poor weather making feeding difficult and the search for better feeding. 

Bowie is still to the north of the Teke Plateau, however, we haven't heard from his tag since 20 September. The temperature reading showed that he was alive but the battery charge was quite low. He is in an area of dense rainforest and the solar panel on the tag is probably not getting enough sunlight to properly charge the battery. Fingers crossed this will change if and when he moves further south.

Cameron is still settled in Nigeria close to the Lame Burra Game Reserve. He has been in this location for 35 days, moving around an area about 3km x 3km. We last heard from his tag on 26 September.

We last heard from Sylvester on 28 August and his last transmission showed that his body temperature was fine, which tells us he was alive. However, his battery charge was low and looking at previous data we can see that the battery charge had been falling during the previous week and not recovering. This can happen when our Cuckoos are under the thick canopy in the rainforest and we have lost Cuckoos for as much as six weeks, only for them to pop-up again once their battery gets a good charge.

Of course we don't know for sure what has happened but all we can say is that when we last heard from him he was alive and that there was an issue with the tag which we hope will resolve itself - fingers crossed.