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Birdwatching trip report - GhanaPeriod: 17.10.2006-1.11.2006Author(s): Mike Bowman and Kalu Afasi Key sites visited: Birding Ghana by Public Transport
Mike Bowman and Kalu Afasi
17 October - 1 November 2006 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. I flew out from Geneva with KLM via Amsterdam and arrived in Accra on the evening of 16th October. The next morning I met up with Kalu to agree on the final itinerary. I had previously birded the coastal sites with Kalu, an excellent local birder and tour guide, back in January 2006. We had got on extremely well and I wished to visit some more sites with him, notably Mole National Park as well as visit some of his hot spots behind the Kakum National Park. As background information Ghana is currently experiencing a shortage of electrical power that has lead to a national load shedding programme. Different areas are switched off for 12 hours at a time and although outages are supposed to be planned and generally known to local residents, however arriving in an unknown area after dark can be a bit disconcerting when the only light is coming from oil lamps. It is essential to carry a good torch, preferably using a LED light source as this is unlikely to fail when it is really needed. Unplanned outages also occur quite frequently so it is necessary to ensure that cameras and mobile phones are charged whenever power is available. Very few buildings have stand-by generators. 17-23 October
This period was mostly spent relaxing and acclimatising to the heat and humidity. In 2006 the rainy season had lasted much longer than usual and heavy showers were quite frequent as a result there was relatively little dust and vegetation remained luxuriant. Naturally I birded around the garden of my host in the village of Ofankor on the northern side of Accra, where typical birds seen from the garden included:- Shikra, Grey Kestrel, Common Kestrel, Senegal Coucal, Grey-headed Sparrow, Laughing Dove, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Olive Sunbird, Copper Sunbird, Yellow-billed Kite, Bar-breasted Firefinch, Bronze Mannikin, Little Swift, Common Bulbul, Black-crowned Tchagra, Northern Red Bishop, Common Fiscal, Mosque Swallow, Ethiopian Swallow and Hooded Vulture. During this period I also spent a weekend on the Kwahu plateau in the pleasant little village of Tafo, reached from Accra by the bus route to Kumasi, alighting from the bus at Nkawkaw. From Nkawkaw the plateau can be reached by taxi over a very steep mountain road. I did very little bird watching in Tafo but it looked interesting with the steep cliffs seen from the road and dense jungle on the way up. The plateau seemed pretty “birdy” and amongst other things I saw Brown-crowned Tchagra, large numbers of African Pied Hornbill, Northern Red Bishop, Vinaceous Dove, numerous Cattle Egrets, Common Kestrel, Senegal Coucal, Whinchat, Spotted Flycatcher, Double-spurred Francolin, Red-chested Cuckoo, etc. 23 October, travel to Tamale Monday 23rd was spent travelling from Accra to Tamale the gateway to the Mole National Park. The air-conditioned bus of the STC leaves at 0900 and takes approximately 13 to 14 hours for this trip and arrives in the late evening in the city of Tamale. The bus makes 4 or 5 15 minute stops for food and comfort breaks. The air-conditioned buses on the route also show films (mostly Ghanaian and “Nollywood” features from Nigeria). On arrival we made our way by taxi to a local motel which was almost empty. We never needed to reserve hotels as almost all were nearly empty. 24 October, Tamale and Mole NP Getting up in the morning in Tamale there were already some new birds to be found around the chalet: Speckled Pigeon, Long-tailed Glossy Starling, Vinaceous Dove, Purple Glossy Starling, Piacpiac, Gabar Goshawk, Bearded Barbet as well as the usual Bronze Mannikins, Laughing Doves, Shikra etc. Arriving in Tamale is not the end of the story as it takes about 3 hours to get from Tamale to the Mole NP! A daily bus makes the journey but leaves at a most uncivilised hour so we took a taxi which was a lot more convenient and not excessively expensive. We had passed the entry to the park on our way to Tamale but because of the hour at which we passed the junction we had to continue to Tamale. The road into the park is unmade and very dusty and rough in places. We were not able to make any reservations at the Mole Motel as their landline radio link was down and none of their mobile phones were online. Mobile coverage in Ghana is generally very good but is extremely patchy around Mole. As a back-up to the Mole Motel there are some rooms available in guest houses in the village of Larabanga at the entrance to the park. On arriving at the Mole Motel we obtained the last free room, an exception to the rule, which was a three-bedded family room with fan only. Some rooms do exist with A/C and a better situation. I was immediately struck by the presence of incredibly tame Warthogs that needed to be shooed away from the doorway of the room, large numbers of Olive Baboons and other monkeys were also present around the motel grounds. After birding around the local tracks Kalu fixed an outing with one of the local rangers who are necessary when descending into the park as such. We went with a ranger who was extremely well informed about the local birds, not always the case. Amongst the birds seen were, Woodland Kingfisher, Grey Hornbill, Pin-tailed Wydah, Bateleur, Western Grey Plantain-eater, Black-billed Wood-dove, Fork-tailed Drongo, a spectacular male Exclamatory Paradise Wydah, Senegal Lapwing, Senegal Eremomela, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Striped Kingfisher, Yellow-fronted Canary, Northern Black Flycatcher, Helmeted Guinea fowl and White-fronted Whistling ducks were numerous around the water hole. 25 October, Mole NP Early in the morning we were greeted by the unmistakable calls of Hadada Ibis as flocks of these birds flew towards the water holes. After breakfast we joined our ranger again and the first bird we saw was a Cinnamon-breasted Bunting. The park below the motel was very wet indeed, unusually for the season, and we soon had very wet feet as a result of leaping across numerous streams and boggy areas. Birds of interest included Rose-ringed Parakeet, Malachite Kingfisher, Beautiful Sunbird, Willow Warbler, Red-billed Hornbill, Green Wood-hoopoe, Woolly-necked Stork, Pied Flycatcher, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-weaver, Red-fronted Lovebird, Black-headed Weaver, Black Crake, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, White-shouldered Black Tit, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Red-throated Bee-eater, Spur-winged Goose, Lavender Waxbill, and finally a Stone Partridge was seen very well sitting on a rock as we climbed back up to the motel. We also observed a pair of Abyssinian Ground Hornbills perched on a branch during our final trek back up. 26 October, Mole NP Our last sightings were of Wire-tailed Swallows over the swimming pool, a Pied Flycatcher, Yellow-fronted Canary, a couple of White-backed Vultures, a Shikra, African Hobby and last but not least a magnificent Saddle-backed Stork near the water hole. We also saw a couple of very high flying migrating storks, most likely Black Storks although these are rare in Ghana. Throughout the time we were in Mole there was an almost uninterrupted stream of migrating Grey Hornbills moving in a westerly direction. 27 October, return to Accra This day was occupied by our return trip to Accra; unfortunately we had to travel with an old non-air-conditioned bus as the air-conditioned vehicle was full when we tried to make our return reservations. The old bus was very noisy and uncomfortable but made the trip in about the same time as the more modern vehicle. On the way we saw a few new birds, notably three Black-shouldered Kites, two Lizard Buzzards, Village Weavers, Pin-tailed Wydah, Common Kestrel, African Palm Swift etc. 30 October, Assin Foso Once again Kalu and I met up and took a bus from Accra’s Central Bus Station to Assin Foso which was to be our first base for some birding behind the Kakum NP. We arrived in Assin Foso before night fall and found a small guest house at the entry into the village. The owner confirmed that they would have food but when we went looking we discovered that they had eaten it all! As this was a day without electricity the search for food turned out to be quite a struggle in a totally dark village. A first eating spot visited had also sold out, a second one thought that they had something but after a long wait we discovered that they had run out of cooking gas. Finally in desperation we found another guest house where we ate well. During the evening we located a taxi willing to take us to Aboabo Camp very early the next morning. 31 October, Aboabo Camp and Hans Cottage Well before daybreak we set off to Aboabo Camp passing a large group of trainee immigration officers doing their early morning run. After a very rough and muddy drive we finally arrived at our destination and left the taxi at the GWS site. We then walked along a muddy track through the forest where we immediately started seeing some new birds, amongst which were Yellow-browed Cameroptera, Dusky Blue Flycatcher, Piping Hornbill, Tiny Sunbird, Velvet-mantled Drongo, Red-fronted Parrot, Naked-faced Barbet, Whistling Cisiticola, Sabine’s Spinetail, Icterine Greenbul, Blue-billed Malimbe, Swamp Palm Bulbul, Western Bluebill, Congo Serpent-eagle, Black-throated Coucal, Red-vented and Crested Malimbe, etc. After returning from the walk at Aboabo Camp, we found our way by a mixture of “Tro-Tro” (local bus), and taxi to the well known Hans Cottage situated between Cape Coast and the entry to the Kakum NP. Hans Cottage was decidedly luxurious after some of the places where we had stayed and their hot showers were much appreciated! At Hans Cottage the usual colonies of Village and Orange Weavers were present as well as Pied and Malachite Kingfishers, Cattle Egrets, and Common Sandpipers, we also saw a female Black and White Flycatcher, Red-faced Cisticola, breeding Western Grey Plaintain-eaters, Lesser Striped Swallows, a Fanti Sawwing, etc. around the grounds. 1 November, Antwikwaa and return to Accra Once again we took a taxi to a site known as Antwikwaa situated within the NP where we arrived just as day was breaking. We were greeted by the first Red-fronted Parrots flying overhead followed by a Piping Hornbill and numerous Pied Hornbills moving out from their roosts. An African Harrier Hawk flew over just as the sky was lightening up. Shortly afterwards a White-crested Hornbill flew across the track. Soon we had excellent views of a perched Long-tailed Hawk showing its unusual colour-scheme and shape. We were later to have good views of this species in flight. Other interesting species seen at this site included Thick-billed Cuckoo, Emerald Cuckoo, Common Swift, Speckled Tinkerbird, Grey-headed Negrofinch, Naked-faced Barbet and Grey-backed Cameroptera. After it had become too hot for birding we took a taxi down to Cape Coast where we booked seats back to Accra. We departed more or less on time but after about 20 minutes the bus came to a grinding stop full of smoke and miles from, anywhere. There was no water remaining in the radiator and the vehicle was obviously in very bad shape. After hanging around for about an hour and marvelling at the patience of the local passengers we jumped ship and continued our journey on a Tro-Tro that stopped with a couple of free seats. Conclusions All in all this was a very successful and enjoyable trip and one which was extremely economical with our use of public transport for all the long distances and taxis only for short distances and for the travel between Tamale and Mole NP. At the end of the trip both Kalu and I agreed that there was still some unfinished business and we agreed to meet up again as soon as possible in order to visit the Eastern and Volta Regions of Ghana with one bird particularly in mind the very rare and enigmatic Yellow-headed Picathartes. Number of species seen during October/November 2006: 154
Full List
Mike Bowman, e-mail butor2003@yahoo.fr Kalu Afasi, e-mail kamalu2000gh@yahoo.com
Geneva, 12/03/2007 |
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