Updates from our Cuckoos

New signals from Ash's tag show that he is still in Ivory Coast. Having moved north-west of  Bouake he then back-tracked south-east to his previous location. 

Ash had moved on from Ghana and continued on to Ivory Coast by the end of February. By the 2nd March he moved 150km (96 miles) north-west and was close to Bouake, the second largest city in Ivory Coast. 

Two of our tagged Cuckoos are already moving west and are well on their way back to their breeding grounds in the UK!

Hennah had moved 2500km (1500 miles) to Ivory Coast by 8 February from a position on the northern forest edge on 6 February, low quality signals tell us, but by the 9 he had already continued west a further 820km (510 miles). He is now just inside the border of Sierra Leone in an area where the Lofa-Mano National Park and Gola North Forest Reserve meet, where presumably he will rest for a while after such a long journey in such a short amount of time. 

Meanwhile, Ash was in Nigeria on the 8 February but by the 9 he was in Ghana, north of Lake Ghana and the Digya National Park. 

Although this is not especially early for them to move into the region - in previous years we have seen the first cuckoos move to West Africa by mid-February - Hennah's stopover location especially is very far west for the date, as early stopovers tend to be further east. It is notable that both stopovers are within the humid forest zone, rather than to its north as most West African stopovers are - this could compensate for the birds being so far west at this time, before the savannahs in the area have been rained upon. 

It looks like a few of our Cuckoos are setting off on their first spring migration movements. Ash and Emsworthy have both joined Stanley in making a move northwards to the Congo rainforest edge while Derek has been in the area for a few days but only transmitting low quality signals, until now, which hadn't registered on the maps. 

Ash and Hennah have recently left Lake Mai. Hennah travelled 520km (325 miles) to the west, and in doing so moved to Gabon, while Ash moved 310km (195 miles) north-east. This may be due to slightly dryer conditions during November. Gabon appears to be experiencing wetter  conditions so Hennah may have made a good move.  

Having been in Central African Republic until 4 October, by the 6 Ash was 340 km (210 miles) further south in the north-east of Democratic Republic of Congo. He is now just 40km (25 miles) to the east of Dudley's location.  

With most cuckoos now in the Sahel region, we're entering a fairly quiet period in the annual cycle of the tagged cuckoos with less movement than during the migration season.

Birds who completed their desert crossing will spend time in the Sahel recovering their body condition, and some may stay quite a long time. In previous years, cuckoos have stayed in this area for as much as several months, while others spend a shorter amount of time before moving south into the humid zone forests.

The eastern Sahel in Chad and south Sudan has received plenty of rain recently, and thus conditions are likely good for cuckoos. Northern Cameroon was slightly drier than average in August, and so cuckoos such as Derek, Dudley, Stanley, and Emsworthy may be moving on if foraging conditions aren't suitable.

The first indication Ash was on his way was late on 31 July when a location was received just off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic sea. A few days later, on the 2 August, he was in Libya. From here he went south to Chad and signals received today show him close to the locations of Livingstone, Hennah and Peter. 

We are still following twenty-two birds. Currently two cuckoos are in France – Walpole and unnamed cuckoo 134957.

Five birds are in and around the Po Valley in northern Italy – BB, Chris, Stanley, Waller and Livingstone.

Six birds are in Spain – Two of these are big movers this week. After finally leaving the UK, Derek hasn’t hung around. After a brief stop in central-western France, he is now in central-northern Spain, just south of Tolbanos de Abajo. It is Maji that has provided the biggest surprise though. He seems to be taking a tour of the European mountain ranges. Having spent a time in the Austrian Alps, he is now in the central Pyrenees!

David is still in Montenegro and Ash is still in Croatia; both of these birds could make the move to Africa any day now.

We now have seven birds in Africa, six of them south of the Sahara. Emsworthy is the latest to arrive here and he is currently just south of Lake Chad, in an area that Chris also favours. Three other Cuckoos – Peter, Hennah and Dudley – are also close to Lake Chad.

From France, via Corsica, Ash appears to now be in Italy. He joins Hennah, who had also been in France and perched in the Pyrenees close to the France/Spain border but who also recently changed direction and headed to Italy to take this more easterly route. Whortle, Peter, Waller, and Livingstone are all also currently in Italy.