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Birdwatching trip report - GhanaPeriod: 4.2.2007-19.2.2007Author(s): Mike Bowman and Kalu Afasi Key sites visited: Birding Ghana by Public Transport
Mike Bowman and Kalu Afasi
Part 2, 4-19 February 2007 Introduction
Ghana is an extremely friendly country and one where the average birder will immediately feel at home thanks to the invariably warm welcome given to visitors. The number of tourists is quite small and once away from the airport area and key tourist sites like Mole National Park, and the Slave Castles, Europeans are rarely seen. The cost of renting a suitable vehicle with driver, usually about $150/day, is often out of the reach for a person travelling alone and far outweighs all the other cost elements of a birding holiday within a country like Ghana. Obviously for a group of 4 or 5 people a rented vehicle makes much more sense. In my case I travelled alone to Ghana and met my local birding partner Kalu Afasi in Accra. From the outset Kalu and I had planned to use only public transport, comprising long distance bus services with STC to Tamale, short distance bus services (usually seating 23 passengers), and Tro-Tros (collective mini-buses). We also used taxis to access the various birding sites. Taxis are a good option and can be cost effective for trips of up to several hours provided the cost is properly negotiated to begin with, make sure your local guide does this or you will end up paying a considerable premium until you get a good feeling for the prevailing costs of taxis, which are never metered. We also used whatever local hotels we could find and avoided the higher priced hotels generally used by foreign tourists. Most local hotels only offer cold showers but as the water is almost never very cold this is not a problem. Typically prices are in the range of $7-20, depending whether they offer air-conditioning and hot water. The only more expensive hotel we used was Hans Cottage Botel which is a must for birders staying in the Kakum National Park area if only for the interesting birding around the site. An opportunity occurred for an additional visit to Ghana and I flew once again from Geneva to Accra via Amsterdam. This time I arrived over 4 hours late as KLM’s MD11 became unserviceable in Amsterdam just before our departure and had to be replaced. Kalu and I had already agreed more or less the itinerary that we wanted to follow as well as the one bird we really wanted to see, Yellow-headed Picathartes, more of the latter further on in the report. After a couple of days getting used to the heat and humidity we found ourselves once more on 4 February at the central bus station in Accra. In February the country was much drier and dustier than during my last visit in October/November and the Harmattan hot dry wind from the Sahara had been particularly bad prior to my arrival, nevertheless we did have a few showers and on 8 February torrential rain in the Volta Region on our way to Amazefe (Mountain Paradise). 4-5 February 2007 Apapam
We once again took local bus services to a small village called Apapam, which although not very exciting, did have some excellent hikes for bird watching. We made a couple of long walks on the 4th and 5th from our hotel in the village and the birding was indeed excellent bringing me a number of life birds, notably Buff-spotted Woodpecker, Cassin’s Flycatcher, Rosy Bee-eater, and Chestnut-bellied Negrofinch, other birds seen included Simple Leaflove, Veillot’s Black Weaver, Black-winged Bishop, Didric Cuckoo, Little Bee-eater, Tit-Hylia, while Little Greenbuls were singing everywhere with their attractive song. 5-6 February Atewa Forest Reserve
After our second hike around Apapam our next site was to be the Atewa Forest Reserve and our first outing at Atewa brought yet again some different birds. The highlights were Buff-throated Sunbird, Green Crombec, Pale-breasted Illadopsis, West African Batis, Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher with the usual African Green Pigeons, Collared Sunbirds, Pied Hornbills, Black-crowned Tchagras, etc. An early start brought us a new bird for both of us, an immature Forest Robin, followed by Palm-nut Vulture, Swamp Palm Bulbul, White-crested Hornbill, Klaas’s Cuckoo, a Willow Warbler, Naked-faced Barbet, Spotted Greenbul, Red-necked Buzzard, Little Bee-eater, Grey Kestrel, and Red-vented Malimbe etc. 7-8 February Bunso Aboretum
We stayed at the guest house within the pleasant grounds of the arboretum. Note there is no food to be found anywhere in the Apapam/Atewa/Bunso area and the only solution is to visit “Linda Dor”, the nearby Restaurant and Bus Stop on the main road to Kumasi, this offers good food, and a wide selection of drinks, plus clean toilets and washing facilities. All the long distance buses travelling from Accra to Kumasi and Tamale stop at this location. In the Aboretum and surrounding agricultural area we saw Spendid Glossy Starling, Sabine’s and Mottled Spinetails, Naked-faced Barbet, Green Hylia, Green-headed Sunbird, Crested Malimbe, Red-headed Malimbe, Palm-nut Vulture, Johanna’s Sunbird, Yellow-billed Shrike, Brown-necked Parrot, and a group of very attractive Red-billed Helmet-shrikes in addition to the more common birds such as Green Pigeon, Yellow-billed Kite etc. 8-9 February Amazefe (Mountain Paradise)
Our next destination was in the Volta Region very close to the border with Togo. Once again we picked up a local bus that took us to the town of Ho. From there we took a taxi to a small lodge known as Mountain Paradise, situated in a mountainous area close to the Togo border. This was a delightful spot which had excellent birding as well as renting out bicycles for trips aground the area as well as offering organised walks. We took the walk scheduled as 3 hours but the local guide failed to mention that it also included abseiling, (climbing up and down vertical rock faces using a knotted rope)! However we survived that although it was wet and slippery as rain fell most of the time. The birding was excellent and amongst others we saw a group of White Helmet-shrikes, numerous singing Little Greenbuls, African Thrush, Pied Flycatcher, Green Turaco, Brown-cheeked Hornbill, Pygmy Kingfisher, Lanner Falcon, Spotted Flycatcher, Blue-spotted Wood-dove, Speckled Tinkerbird, Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike, Grey Hornbill, Blue-bellied Roller, Velvet-mantled Drongo, Broad-billed Roller, etc. 13-14 February Shai Hills
After a few days of rest and recreation we once more set out for a new area, the Shai Hills reserve east of Accra. As the distance was not very great we did this trip by taxi, staying in one of the hotels situated directly on the main road towards the frontier with Togo and close by the main gate to the reserve. Fortunately the hotel served food, as it was decidedly remote from any other sources of nourishment. In the evening after our arrival we started seeing our first Senegal Parrots, extremely common around the Shai Hills reserve, other birds seen included an immature Common Wattleeye in the trees around the open air restaurant, Black-necked Weaver, Grey Hornbill, African Thrush and the inevitable Laughing Doves. The next morning we walked along the main road to the entrance gates into the reserve seeing Grey Plaintain-eater, Veillot’s Barbet, Senegal Parrot, Double-toothed Barbet and Yellow-crowned Gonolek before arriving into the reserve. Once inside we picked up a ranger and started our walk. The ranger was not particularly interested in the bird life so we just walked at our own pace. Plenty of different birds in this reserve and after a Vinaceous Dove we soon came across several spectacular Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrikes, Fork-tailed Drongo, Senegal Eremomela, Senegal Batis, a pair of beautiful Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters, Northern Puffback, Green Wood-hoopoe, White-shouldered Black Tit, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, several Spotted Flycatchers and spectacular views of a Violet Turaco, a group of Helmeted Guineafowl, a Grey Heron, Black-crowned Night-heron and a Greenshank were at a water hole. On the walk back towards the main gate we had good views of a Wahlberg’s Eagle soaring with some Yellow-billed Kites and also saw a group of Brown Babblers and a solitary Double-spurred Francolin. 14-15 February Nungua Nautical Training College
These wetlands are situated around the Nautical Training College in Nungua a small town situated between Accra and Tema, and are an excellent area for waders as well as some birds of open country. As we entered the grounds of the college, (normally the guards will not stop you if you explain that you are going to look for birds) although they might look at you a bit strangely! Once inside we immediately saw a pair of Green Wood-hoopoes, two Yellow-billed Shrikes, followed by Plain-backed Pipit, Yellow-throated Longclaw, African Wattled Lapwing, Black-shouldered Kite, Spur-winged Lapwing, Red-eyed Dove, Whimbrel, Senegal Coucal, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Ruff, Greater Painted-Snipe, Senegal Thick-knee, Collared Pratincole, Pied Kingfisher, several African Jacana and many wintering Eurasian waders. This site is very close to Accra and might be of interest to visitors not having time to get to any of the better-known sites in the centre and north of the country. 15 February Sakumo Lagoon
Located between Nungua and Tema this site is much better known than the previous but well worth visiting as it has some additional species, notably herons and terns. The wetland area, a Ramsar site, is entered from the coastal road at a point where a shipwreck can be seen against the sea-wall. In addition to many Eurasian waders such as Wood Sandpiper, Greenshank, Common Ringed Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Grey Plover, Little Stint, etc. we also saw Yellow-throated Longclaw, Black-winged Stilt, Intermediate Egret, many Yellow Wagtails, Collared Pratincole, Senegal Thick-knee, Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, Common Tern, Ethiopian Swallow, numerous Great White Egrets, Zitting Cisticola, Squacco Heron, Western Reef Egret, a male and a female Western Marsh Harrier, a large flock of White-fronted Whistling Duck, African Spoonbill, Long-tailed Cormorant, and a group of 5 or 6 Glossy Ibis, not so often seen in Ghana. The visit to Sakumo Lagoon pretty well brought an end to the birding aspects of this visit to Ghana, which had been very successful, but one thing still remained, the “bogy bird” that both of us wanted to see, the legendary Yellow-headed Picathartes. Throughout the time that we had been bird watching Kalu had been working on a plan to get us to one of the Picathartes sites. 18 February Yellow-headed Picathartes site
Ever since I bought “Birds of Western Africa” by Borrow and Demey I have been obsessed by the possibility of seeing one of the two Picathartes species that are endemic to West Africa. The Yellow-headed Picathartes had not been seen in Ghana since some time in the 60s and had been presumed by some to have become extinct within the country following drastic reductions to the primary rain forests. The chance discovery of a tiny population by an American university in 2003 lead to a serious investigation into the status of this enigmatic species, whose only relatives are believed to be the Rock-jumpers of South Africa. Following this discovery Ghana Wildlife Society began distributing posters in villages where the surrounding habitat was favourable which has lead to the discovery of up to about 20 tiny isolated populations. Isolated because the bird has specific habitat requirements, dense forest with either caves or boulders with overhangs to build its mud nest. In order to see this bird it is essential to have the support of GWS as they alone know the locations of the populations, most of which are extremely difficult of access. The birds remain close by the nest site all year round and the mud-built nests, looking like oversized House Martin nests, are located under the overhangs of large rocks or within caves. In order to see the birds it is necessary to arrive at their breeding site an hour or so before dusk when they return to their nests, even outside the breeding season, which usually begins in March. So around 4PM we set off from the village walking initially through cocoa plantations before we began a serious hike through the rain forest aided by the machetes of our two GWS wardens. After about 45 minutes there it was, an isolated granite rock under whose overhang could be seen two big mud-built cup nests looking as though they had been built by some giant member of the swallow family. Together with the two GWS wardens we settled down for a long wait lying on the forest floor with a trail of ants continuously crossing over us, but surprisingly no bites were received. Remarkably during the entire hike no other birds were seen at all, although parrots could be heard calling in the canopy. As cramp began to set in we began to have doubts whether we would ever see the bird, finally after about an hour one of the wardens signalled that he had heard a bird scratching around on the forest floor and had seen it briefly, finally just before 6PM Kalu had a brief sighting just as I was looking in the wrong direction! Now we knew which way to look and suddenly I also had a brief apparition of the bird as it leapt around low branches just above the forest floor. This was followed by a mind-blowing binocular filling view of it as it remained stationary for about a minute on a low branch. What a bird, quite unlike anything else I have ever seen with its long sturdy legs, long tail and naked head with a bright yellow patch and strange bill looking as though it had been tacked on as an after thought. As we were between the bird and the nests we decided that we should depart discreetly and let the bird rejoin the nest site. We could scarcely believe our luck in seeing such a rare and enigmatic bird under such good conditions. For both of us it had been the bird watching experience of our lives. Conclusions
What a way to end a fantastic trip! Nevertheless on the trip back to Accra we also had brief glimpses from the bus of a Purple (African) Swamphen at a wetland site. Number of species seen February 2007: 171
Full List
Note: There are some discrepancies between the names used in Borrow and Demey’s “Birds of West Africa” and the names used by Wildlife Computing “Bird Recorder 32”, from which this list was derived.
Mike Bowman, e-mail butor2003@yahoo.fr
Kalu Afasi, e-mail kamalu2000gh@yahoo.com
Geneva, 12/03/2007 |
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