Updates from our Cuckoos

Kasper transmitted at 09.17 today but hasn't moved any further from his previous location.

Since first hearing from Kasper again on the 7 February, he has since moved over 1,500km (950 miles) north west into Nigeria where we received a signal on the 9 February. Yesterday (12 February ) a new transmission showed that he had moved a further 100 miles south west towards the coast.

It will be interesting to see if he continues to take a coastal route back north, given that he crossed the Sahara near the widest point on his journey south.

The fact that all five of our Cuckoos made it all the way to Africa without any losses was a pleasant surprise to us but we now haven’t picked up any messages from Kasper's tag since 6 January.

There are a few possible reasons why this might be, including tag failure, poor tag charging due to the weather or Kasper staying under the forest canopy, or he could have been taken by a predator.
At the moment, we can only sit and wait to see if there is a further transmission. There is still a chance that his tag might spring back to life and beam us a signal, albeit slimmer as time passes.
 

The cloud cleared and the strong sunshine meant that the Cuckoo’s tags charged but, interestingly, they did not charge to very high levels, suggesting they are spending time under the forest canopy or in other dense vegetation. We haven’t received a transmission from Kasper since the 6th January and we are starting to get a little concerned as this is the longest gap since transmissions for any of the Cuckoos.

We last heard from Kasper on 6 January. With the cloudy conditions that our birds are experiencing at the moment we think that Kasper’s tag might not be charging too well. The forecast for the weekend is for much less cloud and more sunshine, this should help to charge the tag, so we could hear from Kasper then.

 Kasper is still in the southern savannah, north of Brazzaville. The last good transmission we had from him was on 27 December at 08.34, so we should hear from him again very soon.

Kasper is the most southerly of the Cuckoos – he is currently in a patch of gallery forest 50km north of Brazzaville. This area is at the southern end of the Teke Plateau and is where the forest would naturally give way to savannah due to decreasing and more seasonal rainfall patterns. He has been there since 23 October and was the first Cuckoo to cross the equator.

The last transmission from Kasper, at 05.49 on the 15 December, reports that he is still in his previous position, and is still the most southerly of our cuckoos.