On the 24 December, locations show that Whortle had moved 90km (55 miles) north-east from his previous location near Lake Mai.

Patch stayed in his location near the lake until the 26 December but also moved away, in a north-westerly direction, of around 75km (47 miles). This movement took him close to the area which Waller had recently departed as he journeyed back to Congo. Will Patch follow Waller and move even further north?

David, Patch, Waller and Whortle are all still in the Democratic Republic of Congo and all the tags have transmitted within the last few weeks. Patch and Waller are still close to the shores of Lake Mai while Whortle is a little further north,  

David, our one remaining Welsh tagged Cuckoo, has gone the longest without transmitting, with the last signal received just over a week ago on 16 December. This year David is a little ahead of schedule, having spent Christmas further north in the swamp forests in 2012 and moving a few days after to the area he is now in, just north of the Salonga National Park and close to a tributary of the Congo River. 

Of the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland this year, Livingstone is still on the edge of the Téké Plateau, whilst Patch is in an area of closed canopy forest with seasonally flooded grassland west of Lac Mai in DRC. Waller is in the swamp forests about 120km (75 miles) ESE of Chris and Derek. All three of these birds could be in their final mid-winter locations, although we might well see Waller at least move further south towards the gallery forest / savannah mosaics.

Patch didn't pause for long in Cameroon and from his location on 11 October he travelled 1240km (770 miles) south-west to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has remained until now. He is in the Bandundu region, close to Lake Mai-Ndombe, a large freshwater lake within the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe area and the largest Wetland of International Importance recognized by the Ramsar Convention in the world. 

We were surprised to see that further signals received on 9 October showed that Patch had moved from DRC to Cameroon, a distance of over 1000km (620 miles), in less than an hour! These signals continued and it's clear to see now that the location pinpointed in DRC was an error location and that Patch is most definitely in Cameroon. He will have moved here directly from Chad, a distance of over 1000km (600 miles).