BTO cuckoo update

October 2012. The first of the cuckoos that BTO are tracking have reached Congo! Chris's tag first started transmitting from the country in the early hours of 25 September and since then he has continued south. He is now 56km (35 miles) due south of the location that he spent most of last winter, in similarly wet, swamp forest. His arrival in Congo this year is around two weeks earlier than last year, when he arrived on 10 October 2011.

Meanwhile, Roy isn't far behind, having crossed from Central African Republic into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He has moved from a savannah landscape with gallery forest to a landscape dominated by forest but with some open patches.

Concern
There has been nothing further from Mungo, so BTO are concerned about him and also Lloyd, who is still in Europe. It's certainly getting very late for him to be preparing for a desert crossing - as time goes on, it is looking increasingly unlikely that he will make it successfully across the desert, as food must be getting scarcer.

On a happier note, David's tag has transmitted recently. He remains in the south of Sudan close to the border, whilst Indy's last tag transmission on the 21 September indicated he was still in the north of Cameroon. BB and Chance remain in Chad and we have received transmissions from both tags in the last couple of days. BTO are very interested to see where David is heading - will he turn back west to winter in a similar location to last year's Cuckoos or will he move on to somewhere completely different?

BTO are still hoping to hear from Wallace, to see whether he has definitely moved south from Italy. They had expected to hear more by now but as the tag's charge was so low, it's still possible that the tag isn't able to charge at the moment due to his location.

Take a look at the maps and blogs here.