Updates from our Cuckoos

There have been no further tranmissions from Indy since 21 September. Looking back at the temperature data of his final transmissions it indicates his body heat had dropped right down and we are now assuming that he has died in Cameroon. Mike McCarthy of The Independent talks about Indy's incredible journey in his latest article. 

Over the weekend we received transmissions from David's tag who is still settled in Democratic Republic of Congo. There has been nothing further from Indy since 21 September.

David transmitted yesterday and remains in the south of Sudan close to the border whilst Indy’s last transmission on the 21 September indicated he was still in the north of Cameroon. 

Indy was still in the same area of tiger bush on 14 September. By the afternoon of Sunday 16 September, however, he had moved 180km (112 miles) E to a position 24km (15 miles) east of Damboa in Borno region. At dusk that evening, however, he moved on again and by the time the last two locations were received around midnight, he was another 50km (31 miles) to the east. These placed him 35km (22 miles) WNW of Gwoza and about 45km (28 miles) from the border with Cameroon. Indy appears to be heading for southern Chad, where several of the tracked Cuckoos have been recently and where several of last year’s birds passed through before heading south to the Congo basin.

There have been no movements of note from our Cuckoos in the last few days. Transmissions have been received from Indy and Chance today and Lloyd, David, Wallace, Roy, BB and Chris in the last few days. Hopefully there will be more to report after the weekend! 

From his position just inside the Nigerian Border, Indy had moved 204km (127 miles) SE into the Yobe state by the evening of 9 September.  His current location is 35km (22 miles) east of Potiskum, in what appears to be an area of what is known as tiger bush, where scrubby woodland is interspersed with bands of un-vegetated rock . As expected, he is moving slowly into areas of higher annual rainfall, following the band of rains that is moving south as autumn progresses. 

Locations received from Lloyd’s tag on 31 Aug still place him in west Italy. There has been no further information on Iolo but both Indy and Davids’ tags have transmitted in the last few days. David is still in Chad whilst Indy remains in northern Nigeria.  

Indy has continued to move SE through the Sahel into areas with higher annual rainfall. On the evening of 31 August, he was still at hid location NE of Zinder in Niger but by early this morning (3 August) he had moved 128km (78 miles) SE. He is now 20km (12 miles) inside Nigeria and is 43km (27 miles) WNW of Nguru. Immediately to his south are Nguru Hadejia wetlands, a Ramsar Site which is very important for migratory waterbirds. 

Indy has moved south within Niger since the 24 August.  He travelled around 180 km (113 miles) and on the morning of the 27 August  was 70km (43miles) north-east of Zinder, the second largest city in Niger.

Indy has made good progress with his desert crossing. We have received several locations for his tag today that place him in southern Niger, close to the northern border of Zinder region, about 260km (162 miles) N of the border with. He doesn’t appear to be actively migrating during the day today - his location is still at least 200km (125 miles) further north than we would expect him to stay for any length of time, based on what we have seen from the Cuckoos last year and so far this year, so hopefully he will continue migrating tonight.