Introduction:
Where
As the majority of the group had previously visited Northern Cameroon, Mole with its Sahel specialities, was not a priority destination. Instead we concentrated our efforts on the forests which held the prized Upper Guinea birds, essentially Kakum, Ankasa and Atewa. We also tagged on a visit to the less well known Kalakpa Resource Reserve, which was extremely rewarding, together with a final few hours at the impressive Shai Hills.
When
In Ghana the dry season window of access lasts from November through to May, with most birders visiting between December and March. By May the nesting activity of Yellow-necked Picathartes is at its height, but leaving a trip so late has few other advantages so for most birders a mid-winter trip is the preferred option.
How
Having experienced the excellent service provided by Ashanti African Tours I would certainly recommend that anyone travelling in our footsteps uses this first class company (http://www.ashantiafricantours.com/birdwatching_tours.php). The entire itinerary was constructed after extensive discussions with Mark Williams, with the aim of maximising our chances of seeing a long list of target bird species, and in practice it worked extremely well.
Robert Nkator proved to be a highly competent guide whose knowledge of the regions bird calls was outstanding. The remainder of our team were particularly helpful, efficient, well-organised, and all-round fine company. The transport provided was of an extremely high standard and the most comfortable accommodation available was sourced throughout, with the whole package offering very good value-for-money.
In short, anyone planning a birding trip to Ghana should not even consider using anyone but Ashanti African Tours.
Daily Diary:
Saturday 4th December
After a week of deep snow in the UK, and the associated worry of flight delays, the timely departure of Andy Deighton, Martin Flack and I from Birmingham Airport comes as a great relief. Soon we are enjoying a coffee with Volkert van der Willigen in the Schipol Airport departure lounge, watching the snow drift down on Amsterdam, and worrying about the departure of our connecting flight! As it transpires, the Dutch snowfall slows us by four hours, before we finally board the KLM flight to Accra, where we know the cold weather can’t hinder our plans.
Accra Airport proves to be a very civilised place and soon we are exchanging greetings with the Ashanti team who will be looking after us for the next two weeks and with Martin Kennewell, whose Singapore flight has arrived early enough for him to have already pulled in a Freckled Nightjar visit to the nearby Shai Hills. We also learn that Rob Hutchinson has been detained by Dubai Airport security for a contrived misdemeanour and will arrive a full day late!
At our disposal is a very comfortable and very spacious bus, driven by the superbly competent Anim. Robert Nkator is our bird guide, and carries the reputation as the best in the land, while Victor and Emmanuel are along to help out and learn the ropes, but prove to be superb company for the duration of our journey.
After 2 ½ hours of travel through the night, on some very good roads, we reach the Rainforest Lodge, our home for the next four nights and located right at the doorstep of the famous Kakum National Park. Our air-conditioned rooms are superb and the hotel is so new that some of the paint is still not dry!
Sunday 5th December
Our delayed arrival means that we have a whole 45 minutes sleep before the breakfast alarm sounds. At 05.00 it is already shockingly hot and humid for us Europeans, fresh from the coldest November for decades, but it’s great to be back in West Africa and the excitement mounts as we drive the short distance to Antwikwaa. Our journey takes us through farmbush and the odd patch of remnant forest to a small village where a local guide is rustled up. We then follow a wide dirt track through cultivated lands, cocoa plantations and finally the forested edge of Kakum National Park.
The birds come thick and fast as we try to readjust to the West African avifauna which is all a little unfamiliar after several years absence from this area of the continent. We reacquaint ourselves with Ghana’s ubiquitous species like White-throated Bee-eater, Swamp Palm Bulbul, Red-headed Malimbe, Black-necked and Vieillot’s Black Weavers, the latter of which has the unfamiliar chestnut back and belly of the castoneofuscus race. Various sunbirds, barbets and tinkerbirds feed in the farmbush, where we find more old friends such as Blue-throated Roller, African Grey Parrot, Grey-headed Negrofinch and African Cuckoo Hawk, a species which must be as easy to see in Ghana as anywhere in Africa.
It doesn’t take long to find some of our first Upper Guinea targets too, in the form of Copper-tailed Glossy Starling, the stunning Buff-throated Sunbird and a magnificent White-crested Hornbill. Bates’s Swift feeds over the forest, but Kemp’s Longbill takes some determined coaxing from the dense undergrowth. Bristle-nosed Barbet proves to be relatively abundant here and a showy Finsch’s Flycatcher Thrush proves to be one of the morning’s highlights.
A group of Rosy Bee-Eaters feeding above the trees are just too high to enjoy properly and we are left wanting more, but our first group of stunning Red-billed Helmetshrikes do not disappoint. Other notable sightings include Black Spinetail, Grey-headed Bristlebill, Piping Hornbill, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Red-necked Buzzard and Western Nicator, all adding up to a very rewarding first taste of Ghanaian birding.
Our next stop is on the rusty old iron bridge which spans the brown waters of the Pra River. From our vantage point we enjoy Rock Pratincole, White-throated Blue Swallow, African Finfoot and White-headed Lapwing in a rather hot but very enjoyable thirty-minute bird frenzy, before the prospect of a cool hotel and a hearty lunch drags us away.
The fish and rice is a little mediocre and the chef is clearly still feeling his way around the new kitchen, but a siesta in the heat of the day is most welcome after the recent sleep deprivation. It doesn’t last long, however, and by 15.30 we are back in Kakum NP, this time entering the true lowland forest for the first time. Our afternoon session reminds us just how hard forest birding in West Africa can be, but with persistence we eek out Gray’s Malimbe and Grey-throated Flycatcher, while after a heavy storm has passed over a White-tailed Alethe is whistled in as the last tick of the day.
Back at the Rainforest Lodge we are relieved to find that the Dubai police have released Mr Hutchinson, and with a full compliment we spend a pre-dinner hour not seeing Fraser’s Eagle Owl at a village just down the road.
Monday 6th December
The Kakum Canopy Walkway has quite a reputation in the world of birding, and there is definitely an air of anticipation as we slurp our porridge well before first light. The Park entrance is just fifteen minutes drive from the hotel and soon we have tramped through the forest to the edge of an escarpment from where the amazing structure stretches out before us. As the forest floor falls away a series of timber walkways, suspended by a latticework of ropes, join sturdy wooden platforms affixed to the trunks of strategically placed emergent trees. There are five platforms in all, each capable of supporting our whole group and even proving stable telescope supports.
The structure is now some fifteen years old, and although looking a little weather-worn it does feel very safe, or at least it does once the initial shock of walking 40m above the forest floor on the swaying gang planks has been overcome. Robert guides us to the favoured platform and instantly the ticking commences!
First new bird of the day is Brown-cheeked Hornbill, followed rapidly by a pair of Violet-backed Hyliota. Golden Bulbul, White-headed Wood-Hoopoe, Preuss’s Weaver and more Red-billed Helmet Shrikes are the prequel to an Upper Guinea flurry of Fire-bellied Woodpecker, Johanna’s Sunbird, Forest Penduline Tit and Yellow-mantled Weaver.
Watching forest life at canopy level brings a whole new dimension to birding, with incredible views being gained of species which would be virtually impossible to see from ground level. A Lesser Spot-nosed Monkey feeds on a nearby treetop and a Red-thighed Sparrowhawk glides past. Other highlights of an action-packed morning include Sabine’s Puffback, Little Grey, Shrike and Chestnut-capped Flycatchers, Grey Longbill, Tit Hylia, Cassin’s Hawk-Eagle and a variety of commoner greenbuls.
Cassin’s Honeybird and Sharpe’s Apalis round off the canopy ticking, while even the walk back to the bus produces some new birds in the form of Western Bearded Greenbul and a stunning low-level Black Bee-Eater.
After lunch and a quick nap we are back on the Canopy Walkway for the afternoon shift at 15.45. Things are much quieter, as expected, but our main goal is some hornbill action and we are not disappointed. After great looks at both Brown-cheeked and Black-casqued we have to wait a little for the star of the show, a brutish male Yellow-casqued Hornbill which joins its group of congeners to drift off down the valley in languid flight.
A sudden electric storm has us running for shelter, but by the time the sun has sunk below the horizon we are back on the walkway to see what darkness will reveal in the canopy. Brown Nightjar fails to respond to playback, but our nocturnal efforts are amply rewarded with a couple of huge black-and-white Pel’s Flying Squirrels, which emerge in a tree right beside one of the platforms. Not to be outdone by the squirrels an amazing chunky tail-less Potto, aptly described by AD as ‘the Popeye of the loris family’ proceeds to climb one of the stay-wires which secure the platform! Our walk back to the bus provides a final new mammal, this time a diminutive Demidoff’s Galago; who needs nightjars when you can see mammals like these?
Tuesday 7th December
Another day, another block of farmbush. This morning we see the sun rise at Abrafo, a more open area where crops mix with scrub and oil palm plantations. The birds certainly find the habitat to their liking, as we notch up Blue-shouldered Robin-Chat, Fanti Saw-Wing, a perched Red-chested Goshawk and a flurry of Singing, Whistling and Red-faced Cisticolas. Simple Greenbul and Copper Sunbird are additions to the trip list, but a pair of obliging Puvel’s Illadopsis are an early highlight. Chestnut Wattle-Eye is impressive, but the iridescent blue facial skin of Red-cheeked Wattle-Eye can only be described as dazzling. It is also interesting to note that both Puvel’s Illadopsis and Red-cheeked Wattle-Eye are seen in an oil palm plantation and not more natural habitat.
As we drive a section of the track in the bus Robert picks out one of the morning’s main goals, a perched flock of Rosy Bee-Eaters. Thirty-nine of these strawberry-breasted stunners are sitting in an isolated tree, occasionally swooping for bees, and allow magnificent views of this early contender for bird-of-the-trip.
The track leads us to Suhen Forest, where the dense secondary-growth cover holds a different set of birds. Here a gabonensis Black Cuckoo, Yellowbill, Forest Wood-Hoopoe, Maxwell’s Black Weaver and Red-legged Sun Squirrel are added to the list, but the certain stars are a fantastic pair of Red-billed Dwarf Hornbills which feed actively in the mid-storey.
After the routine lunch-and-siesta we head out for Brimsu Reservoir, around thirty minutes drive from the Rainforest Lodge. Secondary forest and regrowth surrounds the man-made waterbody, where some interesting birds lurk. The dazzling little Western Forest Robin is an early highlight, with Green Crombec, Chestnut-Wattle-Eye, White-throated Greenbul and a fine Great Sparrowhawk all appearing during our fruitless search for Shining-blue Kingfisher.
Retreating to the access road at dusk, playback brings us some wonderful looks at perched Long-tailed Nightjars and a rather more flighty Black-shouldered Nightjar. Last stop of the night is at an ostrich farm, though large flightless birds are not our goal. A short walk in the dark brings us to a block of tall trees which are Robert’s stakeout for Fraser’s Eagle-Owl, a much-wanted species for all. After half-an-hour of playback and repositioning it isn’t looking good, when miraculously a huge shape sweeps into the branches right above us. An awesome Fraser’s Eagle-Owl spends the next twenty minutes in low, bare branches allowing definitive photographic opportunities and providing a fitting end to a memorable day of great Ghanaian birding.
Wednesday 8th December
With the most notable omissions from our Kakum bird list being Canopy Walkway specialists, we head to the treetops well before dawn, carrying a packed breakfast. Taking up position in the darkness, a calling Brown Nightjar is coaxed in to below our vantage point but just refuses to show. It is a wonderful spot to watch the day break, however, and listen to a ‘Mexican wave’ of calling Nkulengu Rails sweep up the valley from their arboreal roosting sites as an orange sunrise lights the vast, forested eastern horizon.
New birds in the canopy this morning include the swallow-like Ussher’s Flycatcher, several striking Blue Cuckooshrikes, Little Green Woodpecker, Red-vented Malimbe, Black-capped Apalis, West African Batis and a flypast Congo Serpent-Eagle.
The middle of the day is spent is transit to the west, along the coast, to the bustling market town of Shama, where we check into the D and A Guesthouse located on a quiet backstreet. Our rooms are very comfortable, if a little mothball-scented, and our friendly ex-pat Israeli host provides some of the finest cuisine of the trip.
After eating we take up positions in two newly acquired Land Rovers and head inland, on rough dirt roads which pass through small villages where the reaction of the local populous reveals that white faces are still something of a novelty in the area. It takes an hour-and-a-quarter to reach Nsutu Forest, an impressive area of secondary growth on the western limit of Kakum NP, where Ashanti have been carrying out extensive reconnaissance studies in recent months.
Walking the wide dirt road we rapidly amass a good selection of birds in our relatively brief window of daylight. Square-tailed Saw-Wing, Tiny Sunbird, Dusky-blue Flycatcher, Rufous-crowned Eremomela, Sabine’s Spinetail, Thick-billed Cuckoo and a magnificent party of Great Blue Turacos are all added to the list before darkness falls and African Wood-Owls begin to hoot. The Owls stay put, but the real highlight of the day comes when a Brown Nightjar responds to the tape and appears beside the track.
From our remote outpost it is a long drive home and it is 10.00 before we get back to the D and A, where the cold beers and red-red taste particularly good after a long afternoon in the field.
Thursday 9th December
Today we take a picnic breakfast and lunch to Nsutu, in order to maximise our birding opportunities. Arriving on site at first light, we walk the forest track all morning and find that the birding is rather slow in the misty, humid conditions. Steadily we notch up the list, however, with Yellow-browed Camaroptera, Crested Malimbe, Spotted Greenbuls and an early highlight in the form of a superb Black Dwarf Hornbill, which spends some time at the roadside.
As the sun breaks through the mist the birds liven up and we add Lemon-bellied Crombec, Fraser’s Sunbird and several very dapper Western Bronze-naped Pigeons. African Piculet and Chocolate-backed Kingfisher are both very well received, with Cassin’s Honeybird, Crowned Eagle and what is only the fourth Ghanaian record of Lagden’s Bush-Shrike completing the morning’s list.
Today’s post-lunch siesta is a very cramped and sweaty affair taken in the Land Rovers and the afternoon’s birding session is correspondingly lacklustre, as calling Green-tailed Bristlebills refuse to oblige and little else appears. It is not until Robert’s ultra-sharp hearing picks out the distant call of a Long-tailed Hawk that pulses suddenly quicken. After such an uneventful afternoon no-one really expects a response to our playback and the shock of the whole group is therefore magnified as this most-wanted raptor soars slowly over the wide clearing to the sound of blazing camera shutters. Long-tailed Hawk really is a five-star bird, a raptor with a hornbill’s tail, bright rufous underparts and a contrasting slate-grey head.
As darkness descends we return to yesterday’s nightbird locality and this time two Brown Nightjars put on a magnificent performance in the spotlight, showing concolourus brown plumage and boldly contrasting white throats to great effect. Close by we try some owl playback and with very little effort a magnificent Akun Eagle-Owl drifts silently into view! This stunning bird proceeds to stare down on us for several minutes with glaring yellow eyes, as the flashguns illuminate another rarely recorded species.
Although we try long and hard, the promised Rufous Fishing-Owl fails to materialise, with another Pel’s Flying Squirrel rounding off a day of many highlights before we make the long trek back to Shama.
Friday 10th December
With one final try for the Fishing-Owl in our sights we set out well before dawn for our last session at Nsutu. The owls remain elusive, but a displaying Rufous-sided Broadbill is a very good start. Red-tailed Bristlebill performs for us in the same patch of forest, while its calling Green-tailed cousin again refuses to oblige.
Forest Penduline Tit puts in another treetop appearance and a party of five Black-collared Lovebirds which hurtle over the track are a very welcome addition to our lists. Other good performances from White-spotted Flufftail, which walks across an open streamside sandbank, Willcock’s Honeyguide and a pair of Red-billed Dwarf Hornbills add up to a worthwhile morning at this fine locality.
Travelling back to the coast we again cause much excitement in the tiny roadside villages and at one point we witness the unforgettable sight of two hundred school children running across a playing field screaming “white man, white man” in the local dialect!
After a hearty brunch at the D and A, we set off west for a full four-hour drive west to Ankasa National Park. Upon reaching the entrance road we abandon the bus in favour of the Land Rovers, to negotiate the extremely wet and rutted road which leads through several kilometres of farmland to the Park entrance. At the gates we pay our fees, pick up a guide and watch some obliging roadside Black Bee-Eaters, plus a pair of Cassin’s Flycatchers typically feeding just above the river.
Following the track through the forest we drive directly to a series of forest pools where many of our main target birds are known to occur. Stopping beside an attractive little lake set amidst the tall trees a wonderful White-bellied Kingfisher greets us, fishing from branches close by, and as we watch this beauty the first of several immaculate Dwarf Bitterns is flushed; not a bad start!
And then the heavens open in one almighty tropical downpour which tests our brolleys to the limit. When the rain abates we check out another pool which reveals a further Dwarf Bittern, before the light fails and ends the day’s birding. Sandy Scops-Owl is always going to be a long shot and it’s no real surprise when our playback gets no response and we set off to find our lodgings.
For the next two nights we are based at the Hotel Gracia in Half Assini, whose rooms are somewhat shabby and the dining room very sweaty, but where at least the meals are well up to the mark and the fried plantain and red-red is consumed with some relish. A look at the map reveals that we are actually on the coast, but we never see our hotel in daylight, let alone catch a view of the sea!
Saturday 11th December
Breakfast at 04.00 starts the day, then we make the 1 ¼ drive back to Ankasa for sunrise. The morning’s birding session is rather hard work, with Yellow-bearded Greenbul, Blue-headed Wood-Dove, Chocolate-backed Kingfisher and Pale-breasted Illadopsis the highlights of our sweaty efforts. Back at the forest pools Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Hartlaub’s Duck and another Dwarf Bittern are seen, while new mammals include Giant Forest Squirrel and a couple of Tree Hyrax, including a youngster which appears to have been inadvertently stranded at ground level.
It is getting very hot and it appears that the first half of the day has been something of a non-event when a trawl with the Red-chested Owlet recording provokes a response. The source of the call is tempted closer and finally some sharp eyes pick out the boy, at the centre of a small gathering of mobbing passerines. And what an owl he is, with pale grey head, rich rufous back and a black-spotted breast edged in rich chestnut; lunch suddenly has a much better taste!
The siesta-station on the benches behind the Park NQ is the most sweaty and uncomfortable yet and it’s quite a relief when the walking recommences mid-pm. The afternoon’s birding makes the morning seem relatively dazzling by comparison, with Melancholy Woodpecker the only new bird seen before our walk brings us back to the park gate. Here we plan to stake out the river for Shining-blue Kingfisher, though our strategy nearly ends in disaster as only AD witnesses the first streak of blue flash below the bridge. Luckily our quarry makes a return visit and we all depart with Shining-blue Kingfisher safely on the list, and a more up-beat atmosphere prevails at the end of a rather long day.
Sunday 12th December
A very early departure allows us to make the drive from the Half Assini to Ankasa in time for an hour’s owling before the sun appears. In spite of our determined efforts Sandy Scops-Owl remains off the menu, but an African Wood Owl puts on a fine performance by way of slight compensation.
The morning is spent birding on the River Trail, where an African Finfoot with a tiny youngster, a nesting pair of gorgeous Black-bellied Seedcrackers and a perched Congo Serpent-Eagle are the highlights. Numerous Rufous-sided Broadbills are calling and one is seen beside the track, where a feeding flock contains a Brown-eared Woodpecker which is new to the trip. A Slender-tailed Squirrel is also obliging, unlike yet another calling Green-tailed Bristlebill which further proves its credentials as the ultimate forest skulker.
We leave the forest at 10.00 and transfer back to the bus for a two-hour drive to our Takoradi lunch stop, via an impressive mangrove-top Reichenbach’s Sunbird on the Anumsure River. By 16.00 we have dined and moved on to Brenu Beach, for a taste of grassland savannah birding. In an exciting change from the dull confines of the forest we rapidly notch up Brown-crowned Tchagra, Oriole Warbler and Common Wattle-Eye, plus some old friends from the Western Paleartic summer in the form of Spotted Flycatcher, Yellow Wagtail and Western Marsh Harrier.
Final stop of the day is made beside a large freshwater lake in Cape Coast Town, where the White-backed Night Heron vigil draws a blank but the local Oriole Warblers put on a fine performance. Accommodation for the night is back at the now-familiar Rainforest Lodge, where we reacquaint ourselves with the comfy rooms and prepare for our journey further inland.
Monday 13th December
Today’s first port of call is the poetically named Aboabo, an area of cultivation and some impressive remnant forest patches. Having left early we have a packed breakfast and have hardly finished chewing our hard-boiled eggs when the first tick appears! Black-throated Coucals have been calling all around since our arrival, and eventually one of the rather impressive beasts is coaxed out for a prolonged view amongst the cocoa bushes.
A nearby Blue-headed Coucal provides a good comparison and as we walk on to the more mature forest, Blue Cuckooshrike, Kemp’s Longbill and a pair of Black Dwarf Hornbills all put on a show. Last new bird at the site is Tessmann’s Flycatcher, a species fabled as ‘the most strung bird in Ghana’, but our less-than-confident field identification is borne out by photographic study when we get back home.
After a successful morning we board the bus for a drive of a couple of hours, followed by a packed lunch, as we psych ourselves up for the main event of the entire trip; this afternoon we head out in search of the mythical Yellow-headed Picathartes.
Our mission begins at the tiny village of Bonkro, where Ashanti Africa have a fund set up to provide aid and education for the local population in return for protection of, and continued access to, one of the few known Yellow-headed Picathartes nest sites in the world. After an excited welcome from the local villagers we are allocated our guide and set off eagerly into the humid forest.
First the narrow track takes us through cultivation, and then into dense forest where we start to climb. The whole walk is of forty-five minutes duration, with the latter third being somewhat steeper but not particularly demanding. Eventually we are confronted by a towering rock face set amongst the steeply sloping forested hillside, and upon closer inspection of an overhanging section we find a dozen-or-so mud nests plastered to the wall; even the sight of a Picathartes nest has the heart thumping faster!
To one side of the nesting face is a convenient arrangement of horizontally planed rocks, which act as a natural seating area for our small group. It is here that we are instructed to settle ourselves in, with a minimum of cover to shield us from the birds, and the waiting commences. It is only 14.00 when we assume the position, but as this is main focus of the entire trip we really don’t want to be late and no-one is complaining.
As the minutes tick by the air of apprehension mounts, as it can surely be only a matter of time before a rockfowl emerges. It is precise 16.00 when the first stifled whisper announces the arrival of Ghana’s Holy Grail, as bottoms quietly shuffle and necks crane to get the first glimpse of this monster bird. Considering a Yellow-headed Picathartes is the size of a crow, with white underparts and a dazzling sulphur-yellow head it can be surprisingly unobtrusive in the dense vine-tangled understorey and it is some minutes before all have safely had their tick and we can relax and enjoy the show.
Over the next two hours we savour at least three Picathartes, at times unfeasibly close and seemingly unafraid, as they hop between branch, liana and rock face. They are prehistoric-looking creatures, pure white below with a charcoal-grey back and long slender tail. A long white neck has a yellow wash to the nape, supporting an outrageous bright yellow head. Contrasting with the glowing sulphur bare-skinned head is a huge black eye, powerful black bill and a unique rounded black patch spanning from nape to ear coverts. This really is one of the pinnacles of any birding lifetime and we sit transfixed, silently and in awe; they don’t come any better than this.
As darkness starts to descend upon the forest we leave the Picathartes to their rocky home and set off down the slope, everyone grinning madly. Back at the village our excitement seems to have been conveyed to the local population, with whom we exchange greetings and distribute an array of gifts brought from home; it really is a very emotional event for all concerned.
Job done, we hit the road, driving for an hour to the Champion International Hotel in Kumasi, where several beers are certainly in order to mark an experience which will never be forgotten.
Tuesday 14th December
Leaving at 04.30, it takes us an hour to drive to Bobiri Forest, actually famed as a butterfly reserve. As it turns out, this may be its best purpose as birds are decidedly hard to come by. Narina’s Trogon is an early star, with the distinctive constantia race exhibiting vivid spots of yellow facial skin and clearly crying out to be split. Several groups of Dusky Tits feed in the canopy, at least three impressive Afep Pigeons perch in the treetops or swoop in display, and an African Piculet pecks away at a bamboo stem in a most obliging manner.
Having seen all that Bobiri appears to have on offer we head south west to Atewa, with the lengthy drive broken by a fine meal at the Linda Dor Restaurant, Bonsu. At Akim Tafo we check into the Royal Bleumich Hotel, whose bathroom plumbing really is a sight to behold!
From the hotel it is just a twenty minute drive to the start of the trail which leads up to Atewa Forest, with the initial portion leading through agricultural land. We have just two hours of daylight, so concentrate on the section of the trail running through the open areas as far as the park gate, where the birding is uninspiring and we come away with little more than a pair of African Hobbies.
Back at the Bleumich the staff are rather disinterested in serving us, and when the meal does arrive it leaves plenty to be desired; things can only get better tomorrow.
Wednesday 15th December
After the previous week, our 05.00 breakfast is quite a lie-in! Returning to Atewa we retrace our tracks through the farmbush and then up the steady incline which leads through the forest to the ridge-top, which is the area’s prime birding locality. En route we get point-blank views of a Maxwell’s Duiker, but sadly the tiny antelope is very dead and destined for the local market in the hands of a group of overnight hunters, illegally working the conservation area.
White-tailed Ant-Thrush is the only new bird seen on the sweaty route-march to the summit, where the temperature is thankfully a little cooler due to the increased altitude. A Common Cusimanse, the forest mongoose of the region, dashes across the track but we have to be very quick to get any sort of view.
One target on the Ridge Trail is the localised Blue-headed Bee-Eater and this very attractive but rather unobtrusive species proves to be relatively numerous in the area. Bird activity is generally rather slow, however, with Dusky Crested Flycatcher and Blue-headed Wood-Dove being the only notable birds seen during a long morning of searching, though both Yellow-throated and Red-chested Cuckoos mock us with their calls.
After eating an interesting packed lunch of cabbage toasties we continue our search for the area’s many elusive specialities, with a Forest Scrub Robin tempting us off-piste to search for a singing bird. The Robin proves to be one of the most elusive species imaginable and refuses to show itself in the dense understorey vegetation, though our reward for persistence comes when a Green-tailed Bristlebill sits out in the open for us all to finally savour an alternative, but very attractive, forest skulker.
Chestnut-winged Starling is the day’s penultimate trip tick, before Robert’s fantastic hearing picks out the high–pitched calls of a Red-fronted Antpecker and we home in on another much-desired Upper Guinea speciality. It turns out we are actually watching a pair of these very special birds, with three juveniles in attendance, and the glowing red forehead of the male bird really is a sight to behold.
It has been a very hard day, but strangely rewarding, with a handful of great birds plus some wonderful supporting frogs, butterflies and dragonflies, and we trek downhill in the half-light pleased with our efforts but determined to get back early tomorrow and see what else we can prise from the excellent forest habitat.
Thursday 16th December
In order to make the most of our last morning at Atewa we are on the bus at 04.00 with a packed breakfast to see us through the early shift in the forest. Trotting up to the escarpment in the dark, we arrive with the sunrise and can quite literally wring the sweat from our shirts!
First stop is at Robert’s favoured spot for Rufous-winged Illadopsis, on the down-slope beyond the ridge. Although Blackcap Illadopsis comes in to the recording it’s rufous-winged relative calls from the secluded recesses of the forest and simply refuses to give itself up.
Moving back to the Ridge Trail we notch up a pair of Purple-throated Cuckoo-Shrikes and the usual smattering of Blue-headed Bee-Eaters, before our luck finally changes with the discovery of a cooperative and extremely handsome Forest Scrub Robin. We must be on something of a roll, as the next new bird is the highly localised Nimba Flycatcher, another much sough-after if decidedly uninspiring Upper Guinea prize.
Sadly our luck doesn’t run as far as Rufous-winged Illadopsis and we depart with more frustrating near misses and a consolation Cassin’s Honeybird for our troubles. We have certainly had to earn our birds at Atewa but we still rate this area as the source of some of the most rewarding forest birding in Ghana.
Returning to the bus at 14.00 we head straight for our favourite Linda Dor Restaurant, then shower and pack before heading out on the four hour drive to Ho, a large thriving city with an unfeasibly short name. Here we check into the Hotel Freedom which provides supreme luxury in comparison to the accommodation of the last few nights, and dishes up a spread of local delicacies to match.
Friday 17th December
It takes us just forty-five minutes to reach today’s birding site, the eagerly awaited and under-watched Kalakpa Resource Reserve. Picking up a comical looking, overweight and well-armed forest guide from the HQ we set off across the yellow savannah grassland to the gallery forest where our target species lie. Following the wide green ribbon of tall forest trees we soon rattle up a list Brown Illadopsis, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Narina Trogon, White-crested Hornbill and Green Vervet Monkey.
The bird at the very top of the wanted list, and essentially the reason for our visit, is the extremely localised Capuchin Babbler, the Turdoides of dreams! Robert warns us that seeing this bird will be tough and after a couple of hours in the forest we are in full agreement; we have heard them well enough but they repeatedly melt into the undergrowth, fail to respond to recordings and fall silent for very long periods.
After much swearing, sweating and stalking we finally corner a party of four birds at the forest edge, where they cannot escape, and savour some stunning views of these rich chestnut babblers with smartly contrasting peppered-grey head and an ivory bill; it really is amongst the best birds of the trip. Red-cheeked Wattle-Eye, White Helmetshrike, Lesser Honeyguide and Senegal Eremomela complete the forest birding, with a dazzling Blue-bellied Roller in the savannah woodland nicely rounding off the morning at this superb site.
The middle of the day is consumed with lunch and a siesta back at Ho, before we return to Kalakpa for our evening session. This time Rufous-crowned Roller, African Grey Hornbill and Abyssinian Roller are the birds that greet us and a startled Kob sprints for cover as we re-cross the savannah. Upon entering the gallery forest a pair of Ahanta Francolins can be heard duetting loudly, and with some extremely stealthy footwork and skilful use of the iPod we all obtain fantastically close views of this rather attractive West African speciality.
Out in the savannah several dozen Broad-billed Rollers chase insects and display above the trees, while Senegal Parrots show us their dazzling orange bellies as they fly low to a communal roost site. Vinaceous Dove is the last new day-bird as we return to the HQ to track down some night-time specialities. A pair of African Scops-Owls put on a fine performance above the car park and a walk along the entrance track adds a rather flighty Northern White-faced Scops-Owl. Although a Greyish Eagle-Owl remains just a distant hoot, the views of the headlight-dazzled Long-tailed and Black-shouldered Nightjars are simply ludicrous, as we approach these immaculate birds to almost touching distant.
We retire tremendously pleased with our time spent at this excellent reserve and, as is so often the case, simply wish we had more time to enjoy such a unique environment. There are a final couple of target species that we may be able to see with one final push, however, so over supper hatch a plan to pull in an additional site on our final morning in the field.
Saturday 18th December
The fantastic flexibility of the Ashanti boys facilitate a 04.00 depart for the two-hour drive to the Shai Hills in order to catch first light. The savannah grassland and forest patches at Shai Hills support an entirely different community of birds to any habitat visited previously in Ghana and the notebook is a flurry of activity.
Wattled Lapwing, Brown Babbler, Double-spurred Francolin, Croaking Cisticola and Piapiac are all seen as we drive along a grass track to a high rocky outcrop flanked in woodland. Here African Thrush and dazzling Violet Turacos are new, but it is the call of Chestnut Owlet which holds our attention. After constant repositioning and making several attempts to penetrate the dense woodland all appears lost, when again a pack of mobbing passerines betray the position of a gorgeous little Chestnut Owlet and we have secured our first target bird. White-crowned Cliff Chat, African Paradise Flycatcher and Bearded Barbet are all drawn into the mobbing mêlée, before we head for the grassland to make the most of the cool early-morning conditions.
In the small shrubs which dot the dry savannah we pick up White-shouldered Black Tit, Brubru, Senegal Batis, Black-billed Cuckoo-Dove, Yellow-billed Shrike, a wintering Whinchat and, finally, after some considerable effort and a few Croaking scares, a Black-backed Cisticola. Our mission is complete!
The remainder of our morning is spent in a futile drive back north, and a rather half-hearted attempt to find Mouse-brown Sunbird and Pied-winged Swallow beside the River Volta at Antimioku. No notable birds are seen in the late morning heat but a view of the huge dam which holds back Lake Volta is an interesting distraction.
We have now run out of both birding sites and time and head back to lunch on the outskirts of Accra, and then the airport, in conclusion of our fantastic Ghanaian birding experience. The freezing European weather has a couple of final surprises up its sleeve, however, including a twelve hour snow-induced Schipol delay, which for a short while has us wondering if we will be spending Christmas in Amsterdam!
Ghana has proven to be a highly enjoyable destination. The presence of this friendly, welcoming country gives access to a unique section of fantastic Upper Guinea birds in a safe and civilised environment. Ashanti African Tours have really done us proud and we leave with a virtually complete bag of target species and some very happy memories. We hope that many others will do the same.
Ian Merrill January 2011
i.merrill@btopenworld.com
http://uk.geocities.com/i.merrill@btopenworld.com/default.htm