Peckham remains in Africa and, worryingly, we've not had any signals from him since he first moved from Gabon to the forest of Cameroon on 8 April. We appear to have lost contact due to low battery charge. According to the limited sensor data we have for his tag in the period preceding that, there was no reason to be concerned about his welfare at that time. Last year, he left West Africa really late (later than now!) so it's possible he's lurking there now having moved on from Cameroon. It's also possible that his tag's battery is damaged and we won't hear from it again, or even that he has since dead. We will have to wait to see if further signals are received.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Silence from Peckham
09 May 2018
When will Peckham start his journey?
26 Apr 2018
Of those Cuckoos we continue to track, just Peckham remains in Africa. How will his late arrival to Africa affect his journey back and when might we expect him to return?
Peckham hasn't moved far
06 Apr 2018
Peckham has left Gabon but has only moved into Cameroon. We last heard from in on 1 April and things look to be OK with him. If all is well we would expect him to start heading west any day now. He is currently in the Dja Faunal Reserve, one of the most undisturbed pieces of African rainforest.
Peckham in Gabon
03 Jan 2018
By the early morning of January 1, Peckham had arrived in Gabon, 570km (355 miles) south-west from his last location in the Central African Republic. His new location in the Haut-Ogooue region is just 55km (35 miles) away from PJ who has moved north from Angola, where he has spent some of this winter. Peckham has spent the last two winters in and and around this area in Gabon so we don't expect much further movement from him, now that he is in his wintering grounds.
Peckham moves to Central African Republic
20 Dec 2017
Peckham has moved on from southern Chad where he has spent the last seven or so weeks and has journeyed 460km (295 miles). He is in the Mambere-Kadei region. In previous years he has continued on during December to the Congo Basin area and into Gabon. We are very pleased that despite his very late migration this year he is now close to the heart of the rainforest. Well done Peckham!
Peckham in southern Chad
31 Oct 2017
Signals show that by the late afternoon of 26 October, Peckham had covered 1,640km (1020 miles) across Libya and Niger and was around the Niger/Chad border, north of Lake Chad. A few hours later and he had continued further south to Lake Chad. His desert crossing was over and he could spend some time refuelling after his long journey.
His tag next switched on in the early hours of 29 October to reveal he had continued onwards, 575km (360 miles) south-east and was in the Logone Occidental area in the south of Chad. The Congo rainforest is now very much within his reach! Well done Peckham!
Peckham finally makes it to Africa!
25 Oct 2017
A little later than usual, but Peckham has made it to Africa! On the 23 October transmissions showed that Peckham was on his way south again, and by late afternoon was 505k (315 miles) further than his last position near Milan, and just a little further south than Rome. From here he flew 1210km (750 miles) across the Mediterranean Sea to reach the coast of Libya by the early afternoon of 24 October.
This is a very similar route to previous years, where he has left Italy for Libya and then headed onwards to Chad. In 2015, when he embarked on this same trip, he made it to Libya by early August, in 2016 it was early September and this year he is later again - in fact the latest arrival to Africa of any Cuckoos we have tracked! We are really pleased to see him have made it this far so late but he is not out of danger yet. He still has quite a way to travel to make it across the desert and find a suitable stop where there will be the necessary resources he needs to rest and refuel after such a long and strenuous journey. If he was in good condition when he left he will have more chance of making this successfully.
Peckham moves to Italy
10 Oct 2017
By the 8 October, Peckham had traveled to a location 32km(20 miles) south-east of Milan, Italy, having flown around 245km (150 miles) from his previous location in Switzerland. If he makes it to Africa from here, he will be the latest arrival to Africa of all the tracked Cuckoos since the project began. The previous record was 3 October. Hopefully he is not too late to complete his journey successfully and become a record breaker for the project.
Peckham in Switzerland
26 Sep 2017
A signal on 22 September shows Peckham continued on his way south from his last locations in Belgium and then France to reach Switzerland where he has remained for at least a couple of days. He is north-west of Stockholm, on the southern edge of the Gantrisch Nature Park, a mountainous area which includes many lakes. He also visited Switzerland in 2015, although was further to the north-east. He's still got a way to go to reach his wintering grounds but at least he is on his way!
Peckham looks to be on the move
20 Sep 2017
A series of signals show Peckham is finally moving south. The last good signal showed him over the Ardennes Mountains in the south of Belgium but further locations of poorer quality indicate he continued on into northern France.
We've been following Peckham for a number of years and can see by the 20 September in both 2015 and 2016, Peckham was already in Africa and as far south as Chad. His journey this year has varied considerably from these!
He was one of the latest to arrive in Africa last year, with the first transmission received from Africa on 9 September. Throughout the project only three birds have arrived later than this, with two in mid-September and Lloyd, one of our Welsh birds tagged in 2012, not transmitting from Africa until 3 October that year.
Despite arriving late last year his onward journey to reach Chad was fairly quick. Hopefully conditions will be favourable on the way south. We hope we will soon see him in Africa, all being well.
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