Updates from our Cuckoos

Peckham is currently in fairly dense forest in southern Cameroon. It might not be too long before he makes his move west into West Africa and begins the long journey back to the UK.

In the last few days Peckham has journeyed a short distance of 90km (just over 50 miles) north east and is now in the Republic of Congo. He is one of several Cuckoos to begin heading north. 

Peckham has moved 90km (55 miles) south and is now in the same area where he spent last winter, close to Okandja in Gabon.

Peckham has finally moved further south, and closer to the other Cuckoos. After a journey of 940km (580 miles) he has left the Central African Republic and is (just) within the borders of Gabon. Last year he also wintered in Gabon, at a location slightly further southwest. His recent movement is over a month later than last year's arrival date in Gabon.  It will be interesting to see whether he heads to the same location as last year, or if he moves even further south, which may give more weight to the idea that conditions are drier and less favourable in Gabon and areas of the Congo rainforest this year. 

Peckham is our only satellite tagged Cuckoo still north of the Equator. He is still in southern Chad, very close to the border with Central African Republic, and still 1,000km (626 miles) northeast of his 2015 winter location in Gabon. In 2015 he arrived in Gabon on 8 October, so he is currently running around a month late. His tag data suggests that all is well with him, so he could move south any day now.

Peckham is still in the area of southern Chad in which he arrived in mid-September, although over the last few days he did undertake a 146km (90 miles) round trip into the Manda National Park, only to return to his stopover site. Perhaps this is in preparation for his push south into the Congo rainforest? Only time will tell.

It seems that Peckham had started his desert crossing on 6 September, as when we next heard from him on 9 September he was in southern Libya and about half-way across the desert. By the early hours of 11 September he had successfully crossed and was in northern Cameroon. He has sinced moved east and is currently in southern Chad.

Last year Peckham left northern Italy on 30 July and by 9 September was in Chad on the southern edge of the desert, so it is a little worrying that he is still so far north. A look at his tag data suggests that everything is ok, although the battery charge is a little low. Surprisingly, there is a very poor quality location for 6 September that suggests he is in Sicily. We will need better quality locations to confirm this but if it is the case Peckham may well have started his desert crossing - several of our Cuckoos make a direct flight across the desert from northern Italy. Watch this space.

Peckham is still settled in the stopover site that he used last year, however, he has lingered for almost a month longer this time. We are not sure why this is the case as this is only the second migration that Peckham has undertaken wearing a satellite tag. It might be that last year was unusual, or indeed that this year is the unusual one, so it is hard to draw conclusions at this stage. We do know that in 2015 the region suffered a severe drought which might have moved Peckham on early, only time will tell what is a normal departure date for him.

On 10 July Peckham arrived in the Po valley in northern Italy. This is the same area in which he carried out his stopover last year, arriving here in 2015 on 4 July. In 2015 he remained in the area until 29 July.