Migrant birds in Africa

22 Jan: No Nightingales today

2012-01-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

An extra 15 minutes in bed for everyone today as it’s dark at 6am still we wanted to avoid catching bats instead of birds - nice as they are. We soon had plenty of migrants to keep us busy with Common Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, a Blackcap (two others caught previously last year 9th and 24th November) and Melodious Warbler.

The bird of the day was a Great Reed Warbler, which looked like a highly-magnified Reed Warbler. An Olive Sunbird put in an appearance - complete with pectoral “tufts” that looked a bit like it hadn’t shaved its underarms. The weather was very sunny and breezy so not ideal for ringing. The wind soon got up so Ian and I took down the nets as Bee radio-tracked the two tagged Nightingales. Oppong and Ian went out after lunch for petrol and a cutlass to trim net rides and came back with a coconut each too. Delicious and full to the top of coconut milk. We had a front row seat on how to open a coconut using a cutlass and I’m surprised so many Ghanaians still have a full compliment of fingers!

Little Bee-eaters and a two Lanners also flew over the hostel in the afternoon. No Nightingales (boo) today but as it still seems to be quite breezy we’ll do the non playback Nightingale transects tomorrow instead of ringing. Internet is very temperamental and intermittent at best so apologies updates are slow......

21 Jan: Nightingales 8 and 11

2012-01-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

After a moist and noisy night it took a good slug of caffeine to bring me into the world of the living. We set off to the usual Nsuatre trap site to radio track Nightingale 8 which we duly found, and he’d/she’d swapped sides to make it interesting for us. The long walk over the north side survey took around 3 hours. We saw on our travels: Tropical Boubou, Viellot’s Black Weaver (complete with nests), Village Weaver, Palm Swift, a Cuckoo Hawk, a noisy African Thrush and Grey Kestrel. We also saw a Willow Warbler and a Tree Pipit.

Bee said there were some usual spots where they tended to hear them each time. We checked for Nightingale 11 with the radio receiver and it had stayed put. Radio tracking the transmitters on the birds is not as simple as it seems, it needs good deal of focus and determination (and a good pair of ears) to find the birds. Nightingales behaviour also means that they stay low in the vegetation so you don’t get the satisfying visual confirmation like you do with more arboreal species for instance, and the transmitters signal can go weak if the bird moves down near the ground. It’s going to mean tracking taking longer for us every time we tag a Nightingale. Hope they appreciate it!

After a lunch of an Oppong special chicken recipe we relaxed for a bit and I stalked a few lizards with my camera. The plan was to ring tomorrow so we put up 8x18m mist nets on the south side, Bee and I radio tracked while Ian introduced himself to the local Whinchats and watched them fly-catching. We might try to catch some with spring traps. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get some more Nightingales and make a lot more work for ourselves.

20 Jan: Tricky tracking

2012-01-20T07:23:00.000-08:00

The noisiest night yet so there were a few sleepyheads this morning. We took the car to the trap site and started radio-tracking the two Nightingales we tagged yesterday as it was still quite overcast and too dark for the playback surveys. Bee has used the radio transmitter and receiver before on Capercaillie and whilst in Ghana so showed us the ropes.

We tracked down one that was sitting in its usual habitat patch - amazingly close to other Nightingales. At 6.20am it was light so we kicked off the survey, first playing Nightingale call and croaks and then listening for a response. We repeated the survey approx every 25m.The transects took us through areas of scrub, maize, cassava, papaya, teak, plantain and bananas, and their responses always came where there was scrub. We had a count of 20 Nightingales in 2hrs 20mins.

We had just enough time to find the other Nightingale, which had settled nearby to where we’d originally caught it. A quick dash and pack after an early lunch, we just had time to freshen up. Bee came back from her wash looking rather flushed, after having opened the shower room door to find a Ghanaian chap having a good scrub! After Bee and I composed ourselves we moved back to Gladys’s in Nsuatre. We also discovered various beasties had also moved in - a few flat spiders, ants in the bed rooms and a skink in the loo. I hope that they will be quieter neighbours than at the last place! We put up some nets to see if we could catch any, but succeeded only to catch thin air (usually quiet in the afternoons), but did have a good view of some Cattle Egrets and amused ourselves annoying mimosas (sensitive plants). We also did a repeat radio track of the Nightingales. The tracking is trickier than it looks - especially as the birds are at close range. Tomorrow we will do a play back survey of the north side - It’s nice to be busy!

19 Jan: A Happy Birthday and the first Nightingale of the year

2012-01-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Today was my birthday so the pressure was on the gods of ringing to send us a Nightingale. The weather today was damp, with mist hanging the air, but it didn’t seem to put the birds off as we caught our first Nightingale of the year (that’s Palearctic migrant no.96). We also caught a retrap which Bee had originally ringed on the 24th November (No. 8). Both very nice presents! We tagged both Nightingales with radio transmitters as the retrap’s original transmitter had now run out of battery life. We’ll be tracking the birds ideally twice a day now so where ever they go we will have to follow to find them!

To make the day even better we also had our warbler count topped up with a flurry of Garden Warblers, Reed Warblers, Melodious Warblers (one new and a retrap), and a Willow Warbler. For Afro-tropical species, we caught a Black-and-White Mannikin, Common Waxbill, Blue-billed Firefinch, Copper Sunbird, Olive-bellied Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Grey-backed Cameroptera, Red-faced Cisticola, Little Greenbul, Green Crombec and a Senegal Coucal who’s red eyes rivalled that of a demented Blue Tit’s.

A lunch of cheese, bread and salad washed down with coffee and condensed milk provided us with energy for an afternoon of productive loafing. Ian got to know the GPS better, Bee sorted emails and ringing records and I sought assistance for the broken light bulb in my bedroom that was becoming a sore point after a few stubbed toes... Kestrel, Common Wattle-eye and Common Bulbul were observed around the hostel. We also celebrated my birthday with a nice spaghetti dinner, and toasted marshmallows to a chorus of bats chattering as they hoovered up the flying termites that had emerged with the increased moisture in the air. Oppong made us laugh at the table as when his phone went beep at the table. The question “Is that your wife?” was quickly answered with “No, it is my phone”. Oppong surprised me with a bottle of sparkling apple juice and a cake. Thanks to everyone for a great day and Happy Birthday to my twin sister at home too! Plan is for playback survey work tomorrow, and then we go back to Gladys’s hostel in Nsuatre.

18 Jan: Melodious and gropper

2012-01-18T03:58:00.000-08:00

After a rather noisy night- (every night is party night in a Ghana), we got up at 5 to a healthy pineapple and bread breakfast. The first net round saw a rush of Palearctic migrants with 5 Garden Warblers, 2 Reeds Warblers, 1 Grasshopper Warbler and 1 Melodious Warbler. From the guide book recently published on Ghanaian birds ‘groppers’ shouldn’t be here so it’s an interesting species to catch, Bee says there has been one seen before Christmas too- so not just a fluke! I’d not seen a melodious before so it was great to have the chance to ring it (thanks Ian). They look superficially like an Icterine, but smaller and quite yellowy green whereas Ickies tend to have a buffy tinge and a thinner looking bill. Also I find Icterines tend to shout at you in the net, and this little bird stayed very quiet.

We colour ringed all the migrants and took, feather, faecal and blood samples for analysis in the lab later, as well as fat and muscle scores. None seem to carry a lot of fat, the Garden Warblers were carrying some - up to score 3. Afrotrops caught were a Greenbul, Bronze Mannikin, and Red-headed Quelea. We also saw some European Bee Eaters fly over. After all the birds were ringed we packed up shop and had a civilised lunch at the dining table. Bee and I did our impression of two washer women as Ian sorted out charging flat batteries and action man Oppong helped me put up an ad hoc washing line. Nets will go up later today and hopefully it will be a good day.#

Above: Grasshopper Warbler

Above: Melodious Warbler

17 Jan: Hornbills and ground squirrels

2012-01-17T03:53:00.000-08:00

Today we had a lie in, followed by a maize porridge and condensed milk to start the day. All tummies in good working order too which is always a bonus. An introduction to the ringing sites was due so Bee showed us the transect routes for the Palearctic migrants survey and we recorded a few en route.

Whinchat, Nightingale, Tree Pipit and Woodchat Shrike all made an appearance, as did a Grey Hornbill, Common Bulbuls, African Paradise Flycatcher, Vieillot’s Black Weaver and a handsome Lizard Buzzard. We found a nice snake skin lying on the path, spotted some mammal footprints in the dust and some cheeky lizards scampering always out of reach of the camera lens. Bee also saw a nice Abyssinian Roller en route to get lunch at the Runners restaurant in town where Ian and I were treated to our first ever foufou and goat stew. Despite the weird texture it was pretty tasty and better still, its etiquette to eat it with your hands. The Occra stew was avoided- we’re learning to follow Oppong’s lead when it comes to food. Back to the guest house, and a quick pack up as the guest house owner had somehow double booked us with a regular, and we needed to move to a new place.

An hour later we were in the new digs, and although a few door handles short, some do it yourself electrics, and a longer drive to the trap site, it’s otherwise a nice clean place to stay. After settling in we set the nets at the north entrance near Barnabus’ patch ready for the first ringing session of the trip for Ian and I. The nets went up quickly and hopefully will catch at least one Nightingale, which was croaking and jibing us from right next to one of the rides. 7 nets up and furled, we saw several ground squirrels as we finished. A dinner of yam, tomato sauce and sardines washed down with a malt drink or beer rounded off the day nicely. Not a bad day at all!

16 Jan: Looooooooooong journey

2012-01-16T03:43:00.000-08:00

After a pleasant, albeit small, breakfast of sausage, egg and beans (got beaten to it by hungry students), the Yellow-billed Kite circling overhead the hotel patio helped introduce us a new friend, Iben from the Denmark Ornithological Society (DOF). She had overheard some bird talk at the table and was also working on a project with the GWS on a ringing project. Just enough time to twitch the Western Grey Plantain Eater and a few Cattle Egrets before we shared the car to GWS office - it was sad to leave our new found acquaintance so quickly with so much to talk about.

Emmanuel (our driver) and Nick (co pilot and prince of part of Berekum!) accompanied us on the day long journey through Accra, to Kumasi where we were to meet Bee, Chris and Roger. A few African Grey Hornbills, Hooded Vultures and Pied Crows wafted overhead as we motored by never ending stalls selling fresh fruit, tiger nuts, chilli boiled eggs and other groceries. Finally we stopped to meet our new team mates, receiving a warm welcome before Ian and me, plus Bee and Oppong (our chef and driver) set off. Chris, Roger and Emmanuel went the opposite direction to the Wood Warbler site.

Our guest house, some 3 hours later, was fine with comfy beds and after some acrobatics, string and impressive use of a kitchen knife, my mozzie net was erected by Oppong. A quick fast-food dinner of fried rice and chicken in town and bed after a long tiring day. Roll on birds!!

Posted on behalf of Vicky

15 Jan: Two more ringers

2012-01-15T03:39:00.000-08:00

Ian and I arrived late today in Accra , to join the team on Monday. Ian as Senior Research Ecologist for BTO and I as a keen volunteer BTO ringer from Kent. First a good rest was needed after a long plane journey, so after possibly the world’s most expensive taxi, the Pink Hostel welcomed us to our first Ghanaian bed for the night. Rooms had all the mod cons, just a quaint take the lid off the cistern and flush by hand loo to keep the problem solving part of the brain working. Ghana Wildlife Society will pick us up tomorrow to get the car to that will take us up to Berekum.

Posted on behalf of Vicky

Wednesday 14/12/2011 Accra and mid-season summary

2011-12-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes:
Today it’s my turn to return to the UK. A brief visit to the GWS office to wrap a few things up, and before long I’m heading to the airport. 10 weeks have flown by but an awful lot has been achieved and learnt. The two study sites have been well and truly established, a total of 13 target birds tagged, and hundreds of tracking fixes have been taken. Habitat has been mapped and some tree species have even been identified! Dozens of other migrants have been caught, weighed and measured, and many more have been mapped on their “territories” at each study site. It’s been a great start to this new phase of the project, thanks in no small part to the brilliant team. To Japheth and Nick for their excellent fieldwork, Oppong for his amazing food and Emmanuel for his help. And of course big thanks to our volunteer Bee, who with Ed is still tracking nightingales for a few more days yet!

Meanwhile as I return for Christmas, Aly and Oumar continue to gather valuable migrant data from the Sahel zone in the north of Burkina Faso. They have completed 3 monthly transect and ringing visits, and will be undertaking round 4 when many of us will be taking our seasonal break.

Plans are to return in January to the nightingales and the wood warblers, so watch this space for the latest in the New Year!

Tuesday 13/12/2011 Final day with the Wood Warblers

2011-12-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

It’s the final morning of wood warbler fieldwork before departing for Accra, and the air is still hanging with a dusty smog. It’s not reducing visibility too much, but again it prevents the sun from really breaking through, even well into the morning. We’re just tracking today, but even so we manage to locate 10 unringed wood warblers. 5 of these are in the “new” spot where bird 4 was caught, so they're not on part of yesterday's survey route. Although no sign of bird 4 itself, both tagged birds 2 and 3 are still traceable, the tags having thus far lasted 18 and 14 days respectively, so both better than tag 1.

Above photo: Japheth tracking bird #3 in middle of forest patch

Above photo: typical view of canopy frequented by wood warblers

There is again a sense today that there are more birds around than previously. Maybe I shouldn’t be heading back to the UK just yet! It’s certainly something we need to note for seasons to come. It could be that a new wave of wood warblers, such as it appears, would be catchable and taggable. Then again all of these birds may be moulting just as bird 4 was and therefore not taggable, but it would be interesting to find out nonetheless.
Unfortunately however the flights are already booked, and besides of course we are looking forward to seeing our friends and families again in Accra and beyond. Back at the house we’re soon packed and tidied up after our 2 week stay. After a quick call to the landlord we hand things over to the caretakers Christie and Grace, and wish them well for the Christmas season before bidding them au revoir until the New Year

Above photo: final look at the hazy view from the house before departure

Monday 12/12/2011 The harmattan blows in

2011-12-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

Above photo: harmattan "smog"

There’s a definite change in the air this morning. Driving down to the site as the night-time gloom lifts it becomes obvious that the visibility is not what it should be. We attempt to track the two birds and carry out a site survey. Shortly into the survey, and a single wood warbler (unringed) is spotted. A half hour later, and we hear the call of the first willow warbler for this site this winter, and a little later another wood warbler calls from the near distance. Further on still and a 30m Ceiba tree is host to single spotted and pied flycatchers, single melodious and willow warblers, plus 3 wood warblers – an extraordinary tally. The feeling already is that there are (suddenly?) more birds around than a week ago.

Above photo: 30m+ Ceiba tree, home to lots of migrants

A further 6 individual unringed wood warblers are seen, so 11 in total, plus we manage to trace our tagged birds 2 and 3, still a strong signal from both. 2 nightingales, a spotted flycatcher and a melodious are also detected later on. Throughout the morning, though, the sun fails to break through the haze, a dry, dusty and smoky suspension brought in by the arrival proper of the harmattan winds. Could it be that some of the migrants have also arrived with, or just ahead of, these winds?

Of interest whilst doing the rounds was finding a couple of trees who's bark had been slashed, apparently to harvest the medicinal sap. Plenty of ants and a few other bugs were making the most of the oozing resin.

Above photo: ants profiting from medicine harvest

Communication from Bee at Nsoatre; they arrived back in good time last night to track the nightingales. It seems – not surprisingly – that their bird 1 has vanished. We think that most likely here is that the tag has finally failed, as this was caught around the 10th of November. The other birds are present, but one or two others’ tags may be showing signs of weakening.

Sunday 11/12/2011 The Nightingale team departs

2011-12-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Our very last attempt to catch today, before Bee, Ed and Nick head off to the nightingales, and what do you know, no luck! However, for the second time, the non-tagged bird 4 is found, in a different tree but almost the same spot as on the 9th.

After our trapping effort we have to say our goodbyes to Bee and Ed as they head off to look for bird 1 (just on the off-chance that it might be findable without a radio-tag) with a view to being collected by Oppong at the other side of the valley before heading for the nightingales. Japheth, Nick and I go on to search for birds 2 & 3.

Above photo: typical plantation/forest edge mozaic near birds 2 & 3

Above photo: hairy-breasted barbet

A short while later Nick is collected by Oppong, and the wood warbler field team once again becomes just the two of us! Oppong, Bee, Ed and Nick head off to Nsoatre to hopefully get some nightingale tracking in this evening.

Whilst tracking I decide at long last to take a sample of vegetation to take back to the house - it's a leafy twig from one of the trees used an awful lot by the wood warblers. Fingers crossed for my being able to identify it!

Sat 10/12/2011 Ed’s arrival

2011-12-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

No trapping this morning, straight into the tracking, and only the two birds to find. Despite “losing” bird 1 yesterday (still no sign last evening) bird 2 could also be untraceable today, as they were tagged together. No need to worry however. Both remaining birds have tags with a good signal.

Above photo: enormous spider seen daily when tracking bird 3

The rest of the morning is spent mapping some habitat, and quite interesting too to discover just how the land is carved up between the farmland, scrubby fallow and the remnant forest. There seems to be more of the latter than I would have previously guessed, with the open arable fields making up less than one third of the land area. Much of the scrubby fallow, however, is impenetrable without a machete, due to the dense Chromolaena stands, so the exact acreage of this we can’t yet measure without more work from January.
News filters through during the morning that Emmanuel and Ed have met up at the airport and are on their way, and sure enough at midday they arrive at the local canteen. Despite being undoubtedly tired, Ed is keen to help out in the field and joins us tracking in the afternoon.

Above photo: a somewhat out-of-place leaf-mantis

Friday 09/12/2011 No sign of #1, but #4 is found

2011-12-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Friday morning and one last effort to catch, at least before Ed arrives – we’ll have another go on the 11th, but probably only to colour ring I think. No luck today anyway, so we get on with the tracking. After successfully catching up with birds 2 and 3, Bee and Nick set off from the village to seek out bird 1 in the valley. Japheth and I decide to have a look for bird 4 despite the fact that it wasn’t radio-tagged. We feel that as it is colour-ringed, and so long as it hasn’t moved too far, we have a fighting chance of spotting it. Within a short while we manage to find it, along with 2 others and also 3 garden warblers, foraging at times quite low down to about 2-3m. This is a great result without any radio tag, but then again it had barely moved any distance at all from where it was caught. Like the 3 others, this bird was in a rather poor condition when trapped, so if it does “intend” moving on any great distance it will need to put on weight first.

Above photo: site of capture and resighting of bird #4

We meet Bee and Nick back at the other side of the valley, and they bring news that there was no signal to be heard from bird 1. In this case we feel that it may well be possible that it has moved on. It is also perfectly possible for the tag to have finally expired, however, some 14 days since it was switched on.

Above photo: colourful bugs in valley forest

News from poor Ed is that his onward flight from Rome is delayed, so he expects to get to Accra well after midnight. It could be worse though. And it gets worse! Later in the evening Bee learns that his flight is delayed until the early morning, so he is now due in Accra when Emmanuel is due to leave at about 8am – so he’s going to get picked up from the airport and straight into the field tomorrow.

Thurs 08/12/2011 An un-taggable tail

2011-12-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

Above photo: the team can't resist snapping the sunrise

On Thursday we pop the nets up at the latest new spot. We get a response from the playback straight away, and after about 45 minutes (including changing the playback from song to just call!) we ensnare our fourth wood warbler. But, there’s a problem! Close inspection reveals that it has no central tail feathers. These are vital for us to be able to attach a radio tag, so after all that effort we cannot put the radio tag on! One positive from this is that if the bird was close to moulting these feathers, had they been present and we’d attached the tag, it may have been dropped within a day or so anyway. Also, with time running out for this phase before the Christmas break, we’re also running out of opportunities to get much data from a newly placed tag.

Above photo: wood warbler wing showing extent of moult

Weds 07/12/2011 Nick returns

2011-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

No luck catching on today, and after tracing birds 2 & 3, I drop Bee and Japheth off to look for bird 1 in the valley. Meanwhile I take a walk along a “new” path to explore a little further beyond the normal areas where we survey, and come across 2 wood warblers along with garden warblers, melodious warblers and spotted flycatchers. It clearly looks worth a punt at catching here. Nick gets back to us later in the afternoon, so we’re now back up to a field-team of 4.

Tuesday 06/12/2011 Chas’s last day

2011-12-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

Chas’s last morning, so of course we all set out catch a wood warbler for him (and us!) Operating two nets as before, and ever hopeful, we do manage a catch. Well, a single African thrush anyway! No wood warblers though, despite one responding to the playback, calling away in the nearby trees. The tracking of the 3 others is a success though, so thankfully Chas got to see one of our wood warblers post-tagging.

Above photo: Chris and Japheth tracking bird 1 from a clearing

So after lunch at the university canteen in Abetifi, Emmanuel took Chas back to Accra, with his flight back to the UK later this evening. Sad to go I expect, especially with tagged nightingales still roving around at Nsoatre! However, when Emmanuel comes back on Saturday, Bee will then head back to the nightingales for one last week of tracking, along with boyfriend Ed who’s arriving on the 9th. Meanwhile were all looking forward to seeing Nicholas again, who we hope will be joining us in Pepease tomorrow now that he's fininshed his exams.

Above photo: Japheth and Bee tracking bird 1 from the ridge in the evening

Above photo: fieldwork is taking it's toll on the team!!

Monday 05/12/2011 Visa extension and team expansion!

2011-12-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

We set two nets with playback in the most promising spot from Sunday’s survey, but after almost an hour and a half we had caught no further birds. Things are beginning to look a lot trickier for catching now. Not sure why this should be, seeing as we had so much luck with our first two attempts.
We pack up from the field and head back to camp, as with 60 days on my visa running out soon, I need to get an extension stamp from the nearest immigration office, which is in Koforidua. And with the nightingale team packing up today and heading to join us, we need to be back sharpish. Meanwhile our landlord Ola is heading off back to Accra, but has very kindly agreed to all 6 of us staying in his house for the night, which is fantastic.

Arriving in Koforidua at the immigration office just after midday, we are told that the officer in charge is absent until 2pm, so we file the paperwork, head for lunch, and return (with fingers crossed - especially seeing as I have handed in my passport!) Back at 2, and thankfully by 3pm all the paperwork is in order, so we head back home. There we meet up with Bee, Chas and Oppong who have already arrived - fantastic to see them all again!

We phone ahead to the local hotel to make sure of our evening meal order, but then as seems to happen every night from about 1830 to 2200hrs, the power goes off. The local hotel has a back-up generator, but they actually call to say this is not working either! We won’t be eating at the hotel, then. Instead we head to Abetifi and have rice and beans by torchlight at Club Afrik. Cheap and not too cheerful! Still, it’s a meal, and I hope a memorable final dinner in Ghana for Chas.

Thursday-Sunday 01-04/12/11 Now failing to catch....

2011-12-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

Above photo: fog blankets the study site

Over the next few days we attempt to catch each morning, and after an hour of trying on each occasion we remain on 3 tagged wood warblers – not one more bird caught. We follow this with the tracking of the first 3 birds, and on the Sunday we also undertake a full survey along the usual transect route.

Above photo: misty morning

Above photo: centre of study site with the mist lifting

Above photo: pied hornbill calling

Above photo: late morning, Japheth tracking bird 1 in the valley bottom

Above photo: in denser vegetation making things more difficult

What was interesting from the survey was the lack of wood warblers seen aside from those that we already knew about and had tagged! In fact, bird 3 was spotted 300m from it’s usual spot without resorting to tracking. We did encounter a total of 5 others, in just 2spots. With 4 of these in one place, the Monday morning netting attempt was going to be right next to this spot.

Meanwhile on Sunday we're invited to take lunch with Ola our landlord - a fabulous mix of all sorts of traditional Ghanaian dishes, served up al fresco in the shade of the large gazebo in the grounds. We really shouldn't get used to this!!

Above photo: taking some lunch with the landlord

Above photo: yam, kenkey, rice balls, tilapia and bush-meat, followed by strawberries and icecream!

Bee, Chas and Oppong have begun to wind things up over at the nightingale site, completing the habitat mapping. Amazingly, Chas got to spot a grasshopper warbler during fieldwork, according to the field guide a species not normally found this far south, in fact very rarely encountered in Ghana at all.

The final full site survey was carried out after some particularly damp weather conditions, which totally drenched the vegetation, and made the fieldwork a rather wet job!!

Above photo: no not rain, but the vegetation was soaking wet!

Still more incredible creatures have been to visit the Nsoatre team...

Above photo: an amazing butterfly

Above chameleon - now you see me...

...now you don't

Wednesday 30/11/11 Accommodation upgrade!

2011-11-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

Above photo: dawn over the study site

We have another go at catching this morning, this time with two nets and mp3 players, set over 100m apart. We get a response near one net pretty quickly, but sadly the bird does not choose to descend into the net. Whilst waiting for a catch we take a short walk away from the net site and I spot 4 wood warblers foraging high up in a leguminous tree, so we decide to try here with the net tomorrow.

Above photo: Chris and Japheth tracking wood warbler 3

Perhaps it’s a good job we didn’t catch any more, as bird 3 gives us a bit of a run-around. It appears to have settled in a seemingly impenetrable patch of forest, so we spend a good while circling this patch and getting as many fixes as we can to pinpoint its whereabouts. We do catch up with bird 2, and thankfully we manage to see bird 1 in the valley once more, and in the same tree as yesterday.

Above photo: unidentified arachnid

After a good morning, we decide that it’s time to move into our new, and it has to be said a lot nicer, accommodation. Not a bad pad – and a nice view to boot!!

Above photo: our living room
Above photo: the view from the house

Bee and Chas have continued success at the nightingale study site, with all ten tagged birds still detectable, and catching efforts have even resulted in retrapping one of them, along with some more amazing African species.

Above photo: female green-headed sunbird

Above photo: the retrapping of a tagged nightingale

Above photo: Levaillant's cuckoo

Tuesday 29/11/11 Third wood warbler caught

2011-11-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

Above photo: sunrise, and Emmanuel and Japheth are ready at the car for our next wood warbler

With Japheth back and our confidence with tracking increasing, we put a net up in a spot where yesterday we saw an unringed wood warbler. And bingo! After a half-hour of playback a bird is caught, and a few minutes later our third radio-tagged wood warbler is released. Brilliant!

On top of this capture success, we manage to see both other birds this morning – bird 1 for the first time!! This was foraging with an un-ringed bird in a bug-filled flowering tree by the river. Not identified it yet, but I think it might be a Berlinia species.

We manage to track and get fixes on bird 3 this evening. Hopeful to actually see it tomorrow!

Above photo: the GWS field vehicle, about to take us home...

Monday 28/11/2011 Checking out yet more new accommodation

2011-11-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

It’s definitely beginning to look like the best system for a day’s tracking is to invest as much time as can be allowed to actually find each bird and get a waypoint for its location, and record some detail of behaviour, habitat, and tree species, and any association with other birds. Having said that, still not actually seen bird 1 yet – but we’re getting close!

Aside from tracking today, we have a meeting with the owner of some wholly decent accommodation on the edge of town. Essentially a holiday home/ weekend retreat for himself, he has built some chalets nearby and rents these out to local professionals. He says that sadly there is no free chalet at present, but explains that for our last two weeks we can move into 3 rooms in his own house! Deal done!!

The grounds of our prospective new accomodation

On our way back from fieldwork this evening we were treated to some pretty good views of long-tailed nightjars resting on the track ahead of us. This meant that poor Japheth had to wait a short while in town for us to pick him up. Sorry Japheth!

Above photo: long-tailed nightjar

The nightingale tracking continues anabated. The team now have a full complement of 10 radio-tagged birds, which has become quite a handful to track twice and even three times a day! Bee and Chas have also undertaken some more habitat mapping of the site, and during the course of fieldwork came across this rather confiding African crake:

Above photo: African crake

Sunday 27/11/2011 Moving from the mountain

2011-11-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

Above photo: dawn over the valley

A second morning seeking out the birds, and we head straight for down into the valley where bird 1 was yesterday. We get a good signal from the word go. We find that the valley is in fact quite grassy and scrubby, demonstrating that we are at the very northern edge of the forest zone, and the southern edge of the savannah. Plenty of farmland at the bottom too, readily irrigated from the river continuing north towards the Volta, from the waterfall we passed yesterday. Wondering whether the bird will be accessible in the dense forest at the head of the valley, we’re pleasantly surprised to find that it appears to be hanging out at the farmland/forest edge. No matter how hard we try, however, we cannot see the bird, but feel we must be within 50m of it. A few decent fixes, and we’re pretty pleased with this so head for bird 2. Little problem finding this one, and we see it in a mixed canopy some 70m away from yesterday’s spot.

Above photo: early morning tracking

Considering our success so far, we decide to up-sticks from the mountain-top and head for the closer accommodation, so we head straight back to camp and start packing. We say our farewells to the caretakers, grab some lunch in Mpraeso, and head for the new guest house.

The afternoon foray into the field is spent in the valley, chasing after bird 1. It appears to have moved within some particularly troublesome shrubby terrain, and we take 2 hours to get 2 fixes, and as a consequence we end up with no time to search for bird 2. We decide that our pm fieldwork in future should start with bird 2, and then get as good fixes as possible on bird 1 from vantage points on the ridge above the valley.

Saturday 26/11/2011 First time wood warbler tracking

2011-11-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

0600 sharp and Emmanuel and I are back at the ringing site. Headphones at the ready, we tune our tracking receiver into bird 1.

Nothing.

Not a peep from the receiver. A walk up the road and 100m in every direction, and still nothing. Wondering if the bird has moved on already, we decide to switch to bird 2, hoping for some reassurance that at least the equipment is working! Straight away we get a beep in the headphones. Very quickly we home in on the direction of the strongest signal, and make our way towards the bird.

Amazingly after about 45 minutes we not only pin-point the location of bird 2 about 160m from the ringing site, but we actually spot it, replete with colour rings, foraging a few metres above us in a path-side tree. What an amazing feeling! Yesterday we attached the tag wondering if we’d even get a signal from the birds today, and here were are actually watching one of them!! Brilliant.

Next task was to try again for bird 1. Understanding that the range of the tag is about 500m, up to 1km in the best conditions, we resolved to walk 500m in every direction from the ringing site. Should this fail, we’d expand the search to 1km, and then further if necessary. For the first foray off the main East-West track we head south, listening all the while for any signal from bird 1. An occasional switch to bird 2 shows that we can still detect it from up to 650m away, but 500m S of the ringing site, still no bird 1.

A short walk west along the main track we arrive at the village, and ask for a path northwards. We are pointed in the direction of the river, but are told we need a guide. A quick explanation that the Queen Mother has given us permission, and we’re waved on. About 150m after leaving the village, and bingo, I start to get the faintest signal from bird 1. Continuing on past the river, where it disappears underground and emerges at a sacred waterfall, we’re crossing a grassy, rocky plateau – quite unsuitable for wood warblers it would seem. The valley below is wooded however, and this appears to be where the signal is coming from. We find a path down towards the valley, through some farmland, and then further down to scrub on the edge of the forest. At this point the path runs out, so we take a waypoint and a compass bearing towards the strongest signal. We back-track and seek out other vantage points to take bearings, but back on the plateau we find that we’re heading further away from the signal as it gets weaker, and there seems no other way down to the valley. We decide to head back to the village, and from the road we can “circle” round to the other side of the valley, and maybe get bearings from the opposite ridge.

Above photo: underground river emerging into forested valley

The road runs south-north along the west side of the valley, and the slopes down are farmed and passable via many paths. We find one which takes us to a vantage point overlooking the valley, but still some 500m from where we were on the other side. A good signal from here, and we finally get a good picture from 2 more bearings. Happy with these “fixes”, and with the sun now high in the sky, we head back to our camp on the mountain.

En route through Abetifi we discover a fantastic little canteen in the grounds of the University, amazing value and service, probably cheaper in fact than catering for ourselves! We resolve to take our lunches here, and self-cater for breakfast and our evenings from now on.

After a long morning, we decide that we must move to Pepease tomorrow. This commute is just too long! It will be much more practical for tracking the birds twice daily.

Whilst out tracking the nightingales, Bee and Chas continue to engage with the locals, and the wildlife pin-badges are going down well.

Above photo: Bee with some local kids on their way to help on the farm

Friday 25/11/2011 Our first tagged wood warbler!

2011-11-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

As planned we arrive at 0545, set the net and light the blue touch paper (i.e. start the mp3!)

Instantly we get a response. First one bird, then another, calling, but not seen, from over the net area. Then a couple of minutes later another two arrive in that first main tree from yesterday. These two drop down towards the net, and the pewing continues. Just a few minutes later, two reappear in the tree, then a third, fourth and fifth are spotted. None are now calling and all are foraging and moving steadily further away from the source of the song. None is calling, however. Not even those that were very vocal at the start. We need to check the net.

Craning a neck around the corner into the net ride, we spot our first trapped wood warbler, and there next to it is a second! Bowled over by this success, we hurriedly extract the birds from the net and return to the car to prep for ringing and tagging.

Above photo: Japheth at the ringing table

Above photo: ringing the wood warbler

Above photo: measuring the tarsus

Above photo: checking age and for any moult

Above photo: our first radio-tagged wood warbler

Thankfully even with two birds to process the job is done smoothly and efficiently, and before long we’re re-checking that the tags are working. The birds are released with their new mini-transmitters, and they promptly disappear. Moments later we check the frequencies again, and still receiving them there’s a great sense of relief and satisfaction all round. Job well done! Just hope we can find them again later....

With Japheth off for an overdue weekend off, we take him to Nkawkaw to catch his bus. It will be down to me and Emmanuel to hunt those birds down tomorrow. Not knowing how much time this will take, we decide to put off attempting to catch more until we get a good sense of the work involved tracking just the two birds.

Above photo: Nkawkaw traffic

Back west Bee, Chas and Oppong take time out from a hectic fieldwork schedule to explore the local market and search for some bargains!

Above photo: vegetable stall at Nsoatre market

Above photo: villagers sorting through clothes at Nsoatre market

Thursday 24/11/2011 Finding our first “farmland” wood warbler

2011-11-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

Full of the aforementioned tea, bread and bananas, we head out at 5am in search of wood warblers – for the 4th time of trying! Will they have arrived?

The start of the transect route suggests not. Today’s mission is not to carry out a complete point count survey, but to determine, including with the aid of playback, whether or not any wood warblers are here at all. Remembering the locations (including the same trees) of the wood warblers from last year, we cover as much ground as possible, using short bursts of song and call from the mp3 player. From 0600 until 0930 we see and hear nothing wood warbler like and are more than a little disappointed, until at last at 0945 we hear a faint “pew” from behind. Turning back, we locate our first study-site wood warbler, in a broad-leaved tree next to the roadside and a cassava field. It moved off a short hop to a different tree, so to get a closer look we find a newly cut path through some scrub on the edge of the field. Quite ironically, the path leads to a felled tree, creating a small clearing in the scrub. With nothing to lose, and considering December is looming and tagging time running out, we decide to attempt to catch this first bird at this first opportunity. The perfect though somewhat regrettable ready-made net ride serves a purpose, comfortably accommodating a 9 metre long net.

Above photo: felled tree creating a perfect net ride

With the mp3 on we retrace our steps to the car, and watch. Sure enough, the bird responds as before, pewing continually, and seemingly getting closer and closer. It then dropped down towards the net! Its call, however, continued, so we guessed it unlikely that it was in the net. Finally it resurfaced back up into te tree where we first saw it, still calling, but now just foraging and no longer attracted towards the net. At this point we decide to close up and turn off the tape, and resolve to come back to the same spot at first light the next day.

Before going back to camp, we stop in Pepease to see if there are any guest houses at all. We are directed towards one, which looks ok, so depending on our success/ failure rates over the next day or so, we at least have some lodgings closer to the study area that we can move to.

Meanwhile, Bee and Chas are continuing in their efforts to catch further nightingales for tagging. As a result they managed to get hold of this fine individual!

Above photo: sulphur-breasted bush-shrike

Wednesday 23/11/2011 Splitting the team

2011-11-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: Last night we finally plucked up the courage to split the team in two. In the last few days I’ve managed to convince myself that I’ve heard wood warblers calling on a couple of occasions, so we need to go and check our site in the Mampongtin Hills. And with 7 nightingales tagged, Bee and Chas have plenty to be getting on with, even if they don’t catch more! Leaving them in Oppong’s capable catering hands, Japheth and I head for Mpraeso with driver Emmanuel promising to cook when required...

After a trouble-free trip, our camp to start the visit is back on the wonderful Odwenanoma Mountain. We plan to make the most of any time here, as certainly we will need to find a camp or lodgings much closer to the expected study site should we catch any wood warblers and therefore need to track them twice or more daily. On this first night we collect some tea, bread and bananas, get the local canteen to boil water for our flask, and hey presto we have a breakfast ready for the morning.

Tuesdays 16-22/11/2011 The nightingale week

2011-11-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: Once back amongst the nightingales the first thing to be determined was what, exactly, might have happened to our first tagged bird. With no signal received at two attempts just before our departure on the 12th it was thought the tag had failed – mainly because the weight of the bird suggested that it couldn’t have suddenly headed off any great distance overnight.

It wasn’t long before a signal was received, and the bird re-discovered some 250m or so from the capture site. Not all that far, but with these birds rather hugging the ground the signal can be easily lost. Later tracking forays showed that the bird was moving gradually further away again, and eventually appeared to settle about 600m from where it was originally caught.

Meanwhile the race was on to catch more, with just 3 so far and 7 more tags to use. We weren’t short of birds, as every now and again a new voice would appear, and fill in a gap amongst the thicket. An awful lot of effort by the team went into selecting suitable sites to place the nets to maximise our chances, such that our particular target bird would at some point catch itself without recourse to any tape-lures! By necessity this meant we were catching a lot of other birds, including a whole host of other migrants using the same habitat, such as garden warblers, melodious warblers, reed warblers, whinchat, spotted and pied flycatchers. All of these were providing us with invaluable information about timing of arrival, condition and moult, but also give some clues as to the overall value of this region and its habitats for a wide range of migrant passerines.

Above photo: Pied flycatcher

Above photo: Whinchat

Above photo: moulting wing of melodious warbler

Whilst attempting to tag more nightingales the tracking continued, and with the number of tagged birds gradually rising, of course the tracking became a longer job! Most interestingly though aside from some slight “jostling” most of the birds seemed to be settling into their own particular patch. The winter territories are being well and truly established! And amidst all of this Chas and Chris managed to train me in how to fix the tag to the tail. Important to get this right here, but also essential before I attempt the same with a smaller tag on a wood warbler later on. Should we catch any of course...

Above photo: placing tag on nightingale tail
Above photo: tagged nightingale (you can just see the antenna)

Above photo: Bee tracking and taking GPS coordinates

There have been other distractions this past week. Aside from some splendid resident birds caught...

Above photo: female marsh tchagra

...others less splendid have proved quite tricky to identify!

Above photo: black-winged red bishops and red-headed quelea

Some spectacular invertebrates have dazzled and distracted...

Above photo: large moth - any ideas?

Above photo: enormous beetle

...and suggesting perhaps that some may not be working hard enough an impromptu Ghana V England football match took place in the front yard of the guest house. Needless to say England were trounced!

Above photo: Ghana v England football match

Sadly the 8 strong team was reduced to 5 on the 18th when Chris H needed to return to Accra for his flight back to the UK. With Nicholas’s exams looming he too departed for some serious studying. Chauffeured by Emmanuel, unfortunately the car decided to fall part just as they approached Accra. Chris managed to get his flight, but the car was impounded for repairs until able to return on the 21st.

Tuesday 15/11/2011 No luck catching

2011-11-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: Again this morning is foggy, and our start is delayed a little as although it’s post-dawn, things are still a touch dark. We open the same hill-top net, and Chris H stays in attendance as the playback is initiated. Meanwhile, the rest of us head down the hill to the successful spot from March 23rd earlier this year, and right amongst the encounters from yesterday. If it’s going to work, a single net will suffice, provided one or more birds respond to the recording. They should, in theory, head straight for the mp3 player placed beneath the middle of the net.
In almost 3 hours, we see two birds, and up at the top Chris sees one. At one point there was a faint wood warbler voice calling from the high canopy, but our two birds merely continued to happily forage high, and oblivious to the recording. A bit demoralising, but not entirely unexpected.
Considering our failure to catch, and even more so the lack of birds on the lowland site, we resolve to head back to the nightingales. The main concern is that I have not put a radio tag on a bird yet – a skill I need to master before I can do it without Chas and Chris, so our best chance, we feel, is to catch more Luscinias, and come back to the wood warblers in a few days when perhaps they will have arrived at our preferred study areas.

Monday 14/11/2011 Wood warbler-free "farmland"

2011-11-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

Chris O: After yesterday’s brilliant count of at least 11 wood warblers, we had an earlier start to get to the “farmland” site and much hope of some more of the same. A poor start did not bode well. 6 pairs of eyes and ears failed to pick up on any wood warblers in the very best spots of last year, even with the song and call playback. We checked every (well, pretty much!) tree-top, but in 4 hours got nothing. All was falling silent by mid-morning, so we headed back to camp, via a possible new campsite in the nearest town. If the birds do return, this place would make much more sense as a base than the hilltop some 50 minutes away.

A single net was erected near the camp this afternoon, after 2 birds were again seen nearby. Having elicited a “pew” from the playback yesterday, would they be actually attracted to it? With no other option at this stage – the birds are so high and mobile – we start the tape and stand back.In an hour of trying, we did see the two birds again, but only very high up, looking briefly slightly interested but not really responding particularly positively. With no birds as yet on the preferred farmland site (thought to be better for tracking any birds caught) we decide to at least try a more concerted effort on the hillside the next day. At least we know the birds are here, and we may get an idea of some movements and tracking limitations with one or two birds caught.

Sunday 13/11/2011 The wood warblers have landed

2011-11-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: Back on the mountain, and what a morning! Oppong dropped us at the bottom of the hill for us to walk back up. The hill top was shrouded in mist as usual, but even down the slope the trees were heavy with cloud. We bided our time, all of us being challenged by a new call or three, until eventually some colours emerged as the skies gradually cleared. On reaching the very-hot-spot on the transects from last season, and having craned our necks looking up at the canopy amongst the finest twigs and foliage for almost 2 hours, we spotted our very first wood warbler of the Ghana 'winter'! This was in a partly leafless bi-pinnate tree, fruiting with long leguminous pods. As it readily foraged in the crown, we walked on expectantly. A few yards later, and another was seen, and this time there were two. With the aid of the mp3 playback (not used on transects or surveys last year) we managed to elicit a feeble pewing from these birds. Perhaps this would help us locate more? Maybe even catch one or two later on? Sure enough, a little later a quick “blast” of the song got a pewing response, and in this instance 5 birds were seen together. Again these birds were pretty high up in the smaller-leaved canopy. Still further along and for the rest of the walk back to the camp at the hill-top, no more wood warblers were seen. A very encouraging start, however.

Above photo: clouds lift, and that podded tree top left

Above photo: the team craning to spot wood warblers

In the afternoon, a flowering tree right next to our camp was a-buzz with insect life, and drew our attention with various sunbirds and common bulbuls attracted to it. Whilst watching, a wood warbler appeared here too, and also a willow warbler popped up. Perhaps a net even by the camp would be productive, we thought. Later a stroll around the hill-top produced 2 more, and also 2 garden warblers. And for good measure, a breeding pair of violet-throated cuckoo-shrikes put in a most welcome appearance.

Saturday-Saturday 05-12/11/2011 Nightingale tracking starts

2011-11-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: Multiple excursions into the bush over this period began with mapping all the possible routes that can be walked, and all of the locations of nightingales, whether seen or singing, croaking or “heeting”. Compared to our last time here a week ago, the numbers have risen quite markedly. We’ve covered a smaller area than did the transects, but have “in-filled” this smaller patch and found a few more good pockets of nightingale activity. More than 45 have been encountered. On the non-migrant front, the best find was confirmation of a red-collared widowbird which we saw on the 25th October. Only glimpsed briefly last time, on this occasion the male was in display flight over the arable mosaic. Our field guide indicates that it is pretty scarce in Ghana, but that this area may be one of the better spots for finding them. Good views were had by all, although I wish I’d had my longer lens with me at the time!

Above photo: Adult male red-collared widowbird (although no red collar on this race!)

Above photo: Male black-winged red bishop flies over red-collared widowbird

The next few days were spent at one of the very-hot-spots to catch as many nightingales as possible. Various configurations of nets were tried, and the first two mornings produced one bird each. Chris H and Chas demonstrated the application of the radio-tags onto the nightingales, and subsequently the methods for using the tracking equipment. Also caught was a single male blackcap, the first to be ringed in Ghana – by this project at least!! Not a common visitor this far south.

Above photo: The project's first Ghana-caught blackcap

The radio-tracking proved to be more difficult than expected, due to the birds moving around a fair bit, and also possibly the density of the vegetation, and probable dips and troughs where the birds could lie undetected

Above photo: Chas and Japheth tracking down some radio-tagged nightingales

On the last two days the first bird in fact disappeared altogether, and we wondered whether it had moved on further south. Surely this couldn’t have happened? When caught it was very light, carrying no fat reserves. In order to move on it would have needed far longer to fatten and strengthen to cover any great distance. Reluctantly we surmised that it could have perished or that the tag could have failed. With time short on the afternoon of the 12th we took Chris and Chas to the wood warbler zone, once again with our fingers crossed.

Bee writes: Despite our hard work we did have fun too. Every day something amusing happened: either it was Chris H telling another one of his stories, or it was the frog in the toilet, or Chris O’s MP3 Player (which should have played nightingale) suddenly blasting an 80’s power ballad over the fields, or the people we met. One morning we came upon a woman farming her plantain plantation. She was very friendly and not shy at all and as soon as she had greeted us she called all of her children to come and have a look. Obviously, she had not told them what was awaiting them. It was so funny to watch their little faces when they spotted us “obruni” standing in the middle of their plantain field. They looked as if they had seen Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny at the same time.

Above photo: Bee and Chris meet the farming family

Oh yes and then there was the day I became a proper Ghanaian, the day I made and even ate (!!!) Fufu with Groundnut sauce. To be fair, Oppong and Emanuel did most of the pounding and everybody else tried the Fufu as well, and Chas even liked it like me. I don’t think I will miss Fufu terribly when I am back at home but it is definitely not as horrible as all the obruni make it out to be. Yes it is rather gooey and you do eat it with your fingers but I quite enjoyed the unusual sensation.

Above photo: Cassava + plantain = fufu

Above photo: Oppong and Emmanuel pounding the mixture

Above photo: Bee lends a hand

Above photo: the finished product

Thursday & Friday 03-04/11/2011 Chris Hewson and Chas Holt arrive

2011-11-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: With unlucky Chas arriving without his luggage on Wednesday night, Thursday was spent pondering where it could have ended up. A call to the airline back in the UK confirmed that it hadn’t yet left Heathrow airport, and that it would be on the next flight. Meanwhile we shopped for extra cutlery etc for the newly expanded team, and planned our re-deployment to the field for the next day (via the airport for lost luggage of course!).

Bee writes: Friday morning and Chris O and I went to get some Ethanol for preserving any faecal samples we might collect from any migrant birds caught, whilst Chas and Chris H were chasing up the lost bag. It had arrived! By 10 am all of us had fulfilled their missions successfully so we were ready to leave Accra.
The trip was somewhat long yet uneventful, so I kept myself amused by photographing funny advertisements and signs.

Above photo: One of many heavenly businesses seen on our travels

Wednesday 02/11/2011 Hilltop greenbul conundrum

2011-11-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Above photo: male red-bellied paradise flycatcher

Chris O: Today saw our last chance to catch a glimpse of a wood warbler before heading back to Accra to meet Chas ‘n’ Chris. Our best efforts with our limited number of nets saw no migrants, even with wood warbler song being played back. Whilst waiting we did however have quite a taxing time sorting out the greenbuls we caught. With almost all of those previously caught being confidently identified as little greenbul, the first two out of the net today looked different. One was a Cameroon sombre greenbul, and the other a yellow whiskered, the latter having been heard calling from the forest cover most days, but in the hand without the yellow whiskers not so easy to identify! Subsequent catches yielded more of each, and a few little greenbuls for comparison. We think we’ve got them nailed now!

Above photo: Nick Japheth and Bee waiting for more birds

Above photo: Cameroon sombre (left) and juvenile yellow whiskered greenbuls

Tuesday 01/11/2011 Whistle-stop transect

2011-11-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta writes: 4.30 am, the alarm clock is ringing, we have to get up. Everybody looks a bit worn today, yesterday‟s car journey and the late arrival has taken its toll. None the less we make our way to Pepease to do a transect and hopefully hear or see some Wood warblers.
I enjoyed Pepease more then Nsoatre. There are more trees in this area, which give it at least a touch of wilderness. But were where the Wood warblers? We did not see nor hear a single one. Maybe they have not arrived yet?

New birds for me at Pepease:
Woodland Kingfisher
Common Fiscal

Chris Orsman writes: We tried today to cram in the best wood warbler patches of both transects – to give ourselves the best chance of at least finding one with the limited time on this visit. Sadly, though, only one each of spotted and pied flycatchers were out at the farmed Pepease section, and no migrants at all back at the forested hillside.

Birgitta adds:
In the evening, we put up some nets for the next morning and had an early night. Although I was very tired, I could not go sleep. There were bats flying around the house and I listened to their calls, there were cicadas making a real racket and to top it all some animals started to scream its head off. It sounded like it was in great pain and by the noise, it made; I imagined it to be humongous. Therefore, I set out to find this beast but unfortunately, I did not see it. The next day I was told that it was a tree hyrax and as it is very small and weak it screams before it goes to hunt to scare away all the predators.
Although I did not see the tree hyrax I found some lovely moths and watched the bat hunt around the light (sorry moths!). Then I went to investigate another head slitting noise: some creature tried it‟s very best to sound like a jumbo jet. Finally, I found the villain. It
was sat, legs spread apart, over a hole the size of a tennis ball and with its enormous balloon like abdomen (quite ugly) it made this deafening noise. I watched it for a while with my fingers in my ears but then it detected me and whizzed into its hole with the speed of light. I still have no idea what kind of animal this was!

Above photo: One of the many moths at Odwenanoma

Above photo: This was the size of a paperback book!

Monday 31/10/2011 Last ringing before Mpraeso

2011-10-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta writes: Shortly after 4 am to put up some more nets before it got light. Our six nets caught us the following:
2 Village Weaver
1 Black-necked Weaver
1 Red-headed Quelea
1 Nightingale
1 Little Greenbul
2 Blue-billed Firefinch
2 Veillot‟s Black Weaver
2 Simple Leaflove
2 Red-faced Cisticola
2 Common Wattle-eye
2 Grey-backed Cameroptera
2 Garden Warbler

Above photo: Nicholas extracting a blue-billed firefinch

Above photo: Male blue-billed firefinch

Above photo: Vieillot's black weaver (male)

Above photo: Male and female common wattle-eye

Above photo: Red-faced cisticola

Above photo: A pair of garden warblers

Japheth, Bee and Nicholas at the ringing station

I was just processing the nightingale as a local farmer on a bicycle came past. He stopped and asked what I was doing. I told him about the migrants and why we ring them. He was very interested and amazed at what such little birds can achieve. It was a very nice encounter with a local, especially as he was at ease with us being there. Earlier on a lady had wanted to walk to her field past our car. Unfortunately she mistook one of our net poles for a gun, which of course scared her somewhat. She called out and her friends came running. Moments later we returned and of course apologized profusely, showed her some birds and how we ring them and in the end she was happy again and even asked to have her picture taken.

Above photo: The farmer gets over her shock of seeing our "gun"

Chris Orsman writes: This quick netting session produced the one nightingale in the thick of the hotspot where we had most of them last season. We chose not to use playback but we did for garden warbler, and pulled in two.
Over all then this visit felt a lot quieter for nightingales than from late November last year – well, it was, with 5 encounters over 4 transects, whereas by December we had up to 17 on just one route alone! Still no melodious warblers have appeared.

Birgitta writes: At around 10 am it got quite hot and the bird catch slowed down so it was time for us to pack up. We had a long journey ahead of us: we wanted to reach Odwenanoma Mountain before nightfall.
However, we did not get there before dark. It took us over two hours just to get through Kumasi. The traffic was awful. We tried to do our best to keep up our spirit by singing to the radio and having some ice cream from one of the many vendors that weave themselves through the standing traffic. Not the healthiest job I assume!

Buying ice-creams from the car

Sunday 30/10/2011 Butterfly bonanza but few migrants

2011-10-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta writes: Last transect in Nsoatre for this visit. Best observation was a Lizard Buzzard sitting on a tree and of course all those incredible butterflies!

Migrants-wise, just a single spotted flycatcher, one pied flycatcher, and a lone nightingale croaking from the old roadside.

Saturday 29/10/2011 A change of scene

2011-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta writes: Today we drove further north to do a transect at Fentanta and I saw lots more birds for my Ghana bird list:

Yellow-fronted Canary
Common Wattle-eye
Tropical Boubou
Blue-bellied Roller
Splendid Glossy Starling
Klaas' Cuckoo
Copper Sunbird
Olive-bellied Sunbird
Red-headed Quelea

Above photo: Chris and Nick at Fentanta

Chris Orsman writes: Out at Fentanta, a "control" site some distance west of Nsoatre, we got off to a promising start with a whinchat at point count 1. A little further on we had a pied and a spotted flycatcher from the same spot, a further spotted flycatcher 10m up a Bombax tree, and later again a third was joined in a smaller tree by 2 yellow wagtails. Our only nightingale was hanging out in the same fallow patch as the common wattle-eye, tropical boubou and a brown-crowned tchagra. Towards the end a point count from a small mound in a mixed arable plot gave good views of another two yellow wagtails in some sparse stunted chilli plants, and a second whinchat surveyed us from a nearby perch on the edge of some cassava.

Friday 28/10/2011 First migrant catch

2011-10-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta writes: "Yippee a net full of yellow weavers!

Wow, are they nice!

Ouch, they bite...and they claw...

PLEASE let go of the net!

I don't think I like weavers!!..."

No honestly, they are wonderful and I love them just like I love Blue tits and Great tits. We had a fabulous morning and were able to ring:

3 Veillot‟s Black Weaver
10 Black-necked Weaver
1 Grey-backed Camaroptera
1 Olive Sunbird
1 Green-headed Sunbird
1 Little Greenbul
1 Blue-billed Firefinch
1 Green Crombec
1 Whistling Cisticola

And most exciting of all:
1 Garden Warbler
1 Common Nightingale

Green-headed Sunbird ♂ (which is definitely not green-headed!)

In the afternoon, we went for a walk to explore some other part of Nsoatre. Although we saw a good number of bird species, we encountered no migrants. None the less, I had a great time with four lifers:

Pin-tailed Whydah
Cardinal Woodpecker
Green Wood Hoopoe
Broad-billed Roller

Above photo: Male Pin-tailed Whydah

Back at the hostel we found our chef busy cooking; the bar was playing Ghanaian Hi-life and Hip-life music, with the occasional Rap song or Daddy Lumba tune thrown in. No matter whether you want to or not, within minutes you will find yourself tapping the beat with your foot or nodding your head to the rhythm. All day long, the bar (which has never seen any other customers than us) is playing music from enormous loudspeakers and as it was Friday night, we decided to have a little dance. Everyone joined in and we all had a great time, Oppong is now known as "snake hips"!

Above photo: Oppong lets his hair down

Thursday 27/10/2011 A day for flycatchers

2011-10-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Today's transect takes in a start of mature fallow scrub, then active arable plots, patchy teak, plantain and cocoa plantation, on through part of the local cemetery, and finally more arable and wetter valley-bottom scrub near the southern edge of the town. 4 spotted, 2 pied, and one red-bellied paradise flycatcher are recorded, and with the last 2 spotted flycatchers a willow warbler sang and foraged in the same tree. No nightingales this morning – we might have expected 3 or 4 on this route at times last season. Still a little early. And no sign of any melodious warblers at all, pretty common and vocal here on all visits last year.

Wednesday 26/10/2011 Bug-hunting and chief-chasing

2011-10-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta writes: I really like hot weather and I really like hiking and I love birds so doing a point count survey in Ghana should be just my cup of tea and yes I did enjoy my first morning's work but it was everything else than easy. First of all, there is the wet grass. At 6 am it is relatively cool and pleasant, only downside is the wet grass. Within the first few meters, wading through it, you are soaked from top to bottom, your wet clothes sticking to your skin. Then there is the rest of the vegetation. It is so tall and dense that you have to fight your way through it with the result that once again you are soaked, this time with sweat. Seeds stick to your sweaty throat and make you itch, thorns scratch your legs, pollen makes you sneeze and some tiny insect in the back of your throat is putting up a fight, trying not to be swallowed.

Above photo: transect through Nsoatre countryside

No but seriously, all of this hardship is easily endurable due to the wonderful wildlife you see. If I was out here by myself, I would not make much progress, as there are termites to investigate and butterflies to photograph. Over there the ants are going on patrol, and over here some beetles are having some fun. Not to mention the birds: Western-Grey Plantain-eater, Klaas' and Didric Cuckoo as well as Lanner Falcon were just few of the new ones for me.

Above photo: Bold butterflies

Above photo: Colourful coleoptera

Above photo: Unorthodox orthoptera

Above photo: Ant super-highway

Chris Orsman writes: Our first team transect with Bee, and migrants-wise not too bad at all. Having failed to hear any nightingales yesterday, we picked up on a first, single "croaker" today, some 35m or so from our 3rd point of the morning. Another whinchat made an appearance in a bare tree above a cassava field, then a second nightingale croaked from point 4. This patch last year seemed to have a high density of nightingales. With just 2 recorded today it would seem that they have yet to arrive en masse. We squeeze a third in towards the end of our morning's walk, and also 2 pied flycatchers are recorded on the edge of more mature fallow with taller trees adjacent to arable plots.

Birgitta writes: After a successful survey we went back to our hostel to have some really nice food which our five star chef (and driver, although I much prefer his cooking!) Oppong had prepared for us. Today it was Jollof rice (rice cooked in spicy tomato sauce and red palm oil) and pineapple as dessert, yummy! Full of new energy, showered and dressed neatly we then went in search of the Chief of Nsoatre to introduce ourselves and explain the work we wanted to do. The day before we already had heard that there was no current Chief as the old one had died and the new one hadn‟t been elected yet. We feared the worst case scenario would be having to meet all the candidates, which would probably take all day.

First, we went to an assembly member who was going to take us to the acting Chief's place. As there was not enough room in the car, he jumped onto his bike and cycled up the road leading the way. Then we were all invited into the Chief's house where a group of people sat in a circle. We shook hands with everyone and then were asked to take a seat. As soon as we had sat down everybody else got up and walked past us shaking our hands in return. After that Nick explained why we had come which resulted in a longish discussion between him and the royals. In the end, we were told that the Chief was not present and that we could find him at the Development Chief's house. Hence, our faithful assembly member got onto his bike once more and cycled back down the road to the Development Chief's house with us in tow in the air-conditioned car. Unbelievably, at the DC's house the scene from before repeated itself: two rounds of hand shaking, explanation of our mission and the answer that the Chief wasn't around but back at his place. So our guide got back onto his bike, we got back into the car and... Well to cut a long story short: we did not meet the Chief because by the time we got to his house, he had already left again and neither did we meet him the next day, as he wasn't in either. In the end, the exhausted assembly member on his bike and the rest of the royal family decided that we had tried hard enough and didn't have to meet the Chief after all.

In the evening Oppong rewarded us for our exhausting afternoon of chasing the Chief, cutting net rides and putting up nets by serving fried yam with palava sauce. The sauce is made from cocoyam leaves and looks rather disgusting (it is deep green) but it tasted really nice.

Above photo: Nick and Japheth cutting net rides

Tuesday 25/10/2011 Bee's first fieldwork

2011-10-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Above photo: White-throated Bee-eater

Birgitta Büche writes: After a day in Accra and another day in the car to Nsoatre (dodging potholes easily big enough for me to sit in, and along bone-shaking bumpy dirt tracks) we, that is Chris, Japheth, Nick and I (Birgitta or simply Bee), went out into the field to explore the area. I was thrilled and overwhelmed; the variety of exotic birds is just mind blowing. I did not know where to look first. Everywhere there were bursts of colour and song and it seemed to me a miracle that Chris was keeping on top of things. Some of my favourites are definitely the White-throated Bee-eaters and the African Grey Hornbills and of course our migrants. In between all the new birds I got so confused that I asked Chris what that bird was that looked a bit like a Whinchat. "Whinchat" replied Chris...how embarrassing! No but honestly, seeing "our" birds is awe-inspiring. I imagine them doing the same journey I did in an airplane all by themselves without any help, weighing less than the safety card in the seat pocket of my chair.

Above photo: African Grey Hornbill

Saturday 22/10/2011 Birgitta gets to Ghana

2011-10-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta Büche writes: Akwaaba (welcome) it said on the poster in the customs hall and a wave of humid hot air hit my face. The signs were unmistakable, I had really arrived at Accra airport – and that was exactly were I stayed for the next one and a half hours. The queue at the passport control was endless and moved painfully slowly forwards. Then finally, I walked out into the hall where I hoped to spot Chris who I had never met before. Does he still look like the pictures on the RSPB homepage I asked myself? However, when I finally saw him, there was no mistaking. Chris gave me big hug, as if we were old friends and welcomed me to Ghana. What a wonderful arrival in a foreign country.

Saturday 22nd Oct 2011 - Headed back to Accra

2011-10-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Another disturbed night – this time our neighbour’s ignored alarm rang every few minutes from around half past two! Yawn!!
We open the nets at first light, around 05:45. First out of the nets is a western bearded greenbul, followed by quite a brutish red-tailed bristlebill, although the latter lacking the bare blue skin above the eye as indicated in our field guide. Is this lost by non-breeders, or not apparent in females? Or were we looking at an immature individual? Another 2 caught later, and a second red-tailed greenbul - the first on Wednesday - also lack this bare blue skin. The latter 2 red-tailed bristlebills clearly differ in size, so perhaps a male and a female. The smaller has signs of a late (or early?) brood patch.
Photo above: Japheth with a western bearded greenbul
Photo above: A hard stare from a red-tailed bristlebill
A western nicator, a Finsch’s flycatcher thrush and a Kemp’s longbill are all new species, and the longbill a totally new species that I’d never seen before.
Photo above: Nicholas measuring a little greenbul's wing
Photo above: Finsch's flycatcher thrush
We tried the mp3 playback of spotted flycatcher next to one of the nets, and as a result caught an olive-green camaroptera! Swapping the call for that of pied flycatcher, having heard one calling nearby, was even less productive. We have to try these things!! So alas no migrants caught in Ghana so far, but in a few days we’ll be at our next study area, and with November approaching surely there we’ll have more luck...
Back to camp after taking down the nets and poles, we then pack away all our gear and tents, settle our bill with caretakers Raphael and Ebenezer, and set off for Accra. Tonight our new team member Birgitta arrives, and tomorrow is a day of rest for the team, before our nightingale hunt begins in Brong Ahafo next week.

Friday 21/10/2011 Eve of Birgitta's Arrival

2011-10-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Birgitta Büche writes: Nervously I watched the postal worker walk from the right side of the post office to the left and back again before disappearing behind endless rows of parcels. I held my breath and waited, my heart beating rapidly. Then finally (after what felt like a lifetime but probably was no more than two minutes) he emerged and in his hand, he held the envelope I had so desperately waited for: My passport with my Ghanaian Visa in it! My flight left the next morning at 9am and the passport was the very last thing I had been waiting for to pack. Good thing it arrived on time!

Friday 21st Oct 2011 - Migrants still in Burkina Faso?

2011-10-21T03:59:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: I wake grumpier than I usually am. The other guys suffered a bit too I think - they’re quite used to background noise but without earplugs even they found that loud! After bread, jam, bananas and tea for breakfast, we then aim for Pepease to investigate the forest.
The walk down from the Director of Education’s residence yields some familiar species: pied crows, common bulbuls, northern grey-headed sparrow, tawny-flanked prinias, Senegal coucal. Above us a grey kestrel glides and sits steadily into the wind, and as we drop further and more forest approaches, grey longbill and grey-headed negrofinch are heard. 3 pied flycatchers in all are heard but just one of them seen, olive sunbirds are regular, and a first pair of buff-throated sunbirds forages beneath the “canopy” of a cassava crop. As we walk the farmland margin, Ahanta francolins call from deep within the forest. Sadly, though, no wood warblers, nor any further migrants detected by mid-morning, so we retrace our steps back to the car, and move on to investigate the real nightingale and melodious warbler hotspot that we discovered last season.
This rocky un-cultivated plateau is largely shrubby grassland, cattle-grazed, but otherwise un-managed save for the usual seasonal burning come January. Even post-fires last time out the remaining shrubs were still home to migrants found there in December. This early, however, there was no sign. 2 spotted flycatchers were seen in the more open areas, but this early on there was no croak or song of a nightingale, and no melodious warbling. We can expect both these species to be still in Burkina, so it will be interesting to see when exactly they arrive here for the larger part of the “winter”.
On our return to camp we ask the caretaker if we can set some nets in some ready-made rides alongside some footpaths. The benefit compared to the track-side spot we used on the 19th is that the paths are completely in the shade. On Wednesday the sun struck the nets rather early so the catch dropped off from 08:00. Later we put up 2 short lines of just 5 nets, with a view to using playback of one or other of the migrant flycatchers, depending what’s around in the morning.

Thursday 20th Oct 2011 - A good day and a stormy night

2011-10-20T03:56:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Today’s point-count transect traversed the farmland patchwork east of Pepease. A fly-past of 2 “red-rumped-type” swallows kicked us off – probably mosque swallows, a yellow-browed camaroptera, and our first red-eyed dove of no doubt many. On our third point a spotted flycatcher foraged from a tree above a cassava crop. A single pied flycatcher was heard some distance from our route, and soon after our first Ghana garden warbler was heard in sub-song within some dense cover. Up a slope away from the wooded farmland valley, into more open shrubland, and whistling cisticolas sang from either side of the track. I find I’m beginning to pick up the different calls of sunbirds again! We hear collared, olive-bellied and splendid sunbirds on the survey. What I think are 2 barn swallows zip overhead, and a second garden warbler and spotted flycatcher appear by the trackside, with a pied flycatcher on the final point-count as we drop back into the wooded valley. An excellent morning, but appears to confirm that here too, as on the mountain, the wood warblers have yet to arrive. Neither have we heard any nightingales or melodious warblers, both of which were reasonably readily encountered from December to March last season.
Back on the mountain top I take some time this afternoon to go through data entry with Japheth and Nicholas, and set about writing this!! Soon after dinner and after dark, the distant sky starts to flicker silently suggesting a storm is brewing. Just as we’re about to turn in for the night, the storm truly arrives! Japheth makes it to his tent, but Nicholas and I hide out in the hired “chalet” with George. The power goes off and with a head torch I try to peek out of the front door. Taking the full brunt of the wind and rain, the covered front porch is soon flooded and the wind is blowing the door open, and once I’ve wrestled it closed the wind continues to force water under the door. Without lights, outside is more often lit than dark, as the sky strobes and the rain pours for over an hour. Once it eases, we tentatively inspect our tents. After quite a battering they – and Japheth – remain intact! And amazingly inside only the smallest drop of water has found its way in. Post-storm our hill-top retreat seems even more peaceful than before – aside from the blaring radio from our new neighbour in the only other room in the chalet. I pop in the earplugs and hope that he turns it off soon...
Awake at midnight, earplugs in, radio still loud! Have words with a sleepy neighbour, who apologises and turns it off.

Wednesday 19th Oct 2011 - Meeting the Queen Mother

2011-10-19T03:54:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Nicholas rustled up a great dinner last night; plain rice and a rich and spicy fish-and-tomato sauce. His title is now officially Top Chef, as coined by Japheth.
So, head torches on we’re up and out at 04:30, setting a line of 6 nets in the same ready-made ride as we used last season (still this year of course – back in March).
Photo above: Our nets mid-morning, catching a little too much sun and not enough birds
Not having seen any wood warblers yet, we’re not too hopeful of any success with our mp3 playback, as we had in Burkina. And we were right - not a sign! However 19 birds caught, including retraps of a little greenbul, green hylia, and a brown-chested alethe. New birds were 7 little greenbuls (mostly juveniles), 2 olive-green sunbirds, 2 white-tailed alethes, and singles of red-bellied paradise flycatcher, Sharpe’s apalis, collared sunbird, another brown-chested alethe, and a red-tailed greenbul – though this was the green-tailed race!
Photo above: Green-tailed variety of red-tailed greenbul
After lunch Japheth, Nicholas and I head to Pepease and on towards the spot we hope to find wood warblers this season. This is a mosaic of scattered arable and plantation, shrubland and remnant forest. We speak to the villagers who’s property lies closest to the transect, and then on to the next, larger town to speak the local authorities. There we meet 2 local assembly members, and are led to the local chief’s palace, but as he is out we have a meeting with the Queen Mother. In some places a ceremonial position, the Queen Mother is sometimes known as the King Maker, as she decides who will become chief when the time arises. The chief holds the power once in position, but here the Queen Mother is able to make decisions in his absence. The meeting is traditional yet cheerful, with now three younger members of the local assembly, and a very jolly elderly gentleman who is the palace official interpreter or messenger. We are all sat in an arc in the shade within the palace courtyard. After shaking hands with everyone twice, and an official welcome from one of the assembly members, Japheth speaks for the group to explain our hopes to work in the surrounding farmland and hinterland. His message is relayed to the Queen Mother (not translated as such – one just doesn’t address the Queen Mother or the Chief directly) by the messenger. He tells us that he Queen welcomes us and says that she finds our mission agreeable – that our desire to care for the environment is to be commended and supported. Of course for the meeting to conclude there is more shaking of hands, and a rather embarrassed request from the interpreter for a gift to the palace and the community. As is tradition, we should have come armed with some local homebrew, and failing that, a cash alternative. Patting my pockets I realise that I may not have enough cash for such a gift. Japheth, Nicholas and I excuse ourselves from the palace and rather protractedly discuss how much we should give. Once decided what would be affordable without being insulting, we re-enter the palace to hand over our gift in an “envelope” hastily prepared from a sheet of notepaper. The Queen Mother assures us that by the time we arrive to start our work tomorrow, the community will have been made aware who we are, should they see us out and about on the farmland. More shaking of hands and well-wishes from the dignitaries, and we are on our way.
With an hour to spare, we stop off in Pepease to seek access to the forest that Jonathan in Mpraeso spoke about. Finding the Director of Education’s residence (as Jonathan suggested) we asked nearby about the forest. It appears that this forest is in fact right next to some of the mixed habitats that we have already been looking at close by. Our new-found local guide shows us the path that leads down from the hilltop towards the forest, and to us it appears that with the number of trees and shrubs on this rocky un-farmable slope, that it will be well worth coming back for a morning’s search for migrants.

Tuesday 18th Oct 2011 - Fieldwork starts

2011-10-18T03:52:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: At last some fieldwork at Mpraeso. George drops us off at the bottom of the mountain, and we start our first repeat transect. Black-necked weavers, a splendid sunbird and a few common bulbuls get us off the ground, in the mixed rural residential and agricultural mosaic, with a few palm, plantain and mango trees here and there. A hairy-breasted barbet and some orange-cheeked waxbills further on into more contiguous plantation, and then on the forest edge our first grey-headed negrofinch. African emerald, Klass’s, Didric and black cuckoos all call en route to the summit, and eventually single pied flycatchers are heard and spotted at point counts 11, 12 and 15. Lots of little greenbuls noted, along with slender-billed and honeyguide greenbuls, and a fly-by white-crested hornbill on the last point of the morning.
George is waiting at the summit to ferry us back down. A great start to the Ghana field season, especially with a couple of migrant species having already arrived. Not yet though, it seems, any wood warblers.
After exiting the hotel, and a final lunch (it seems like we’re holding off the inevitable!) at the resto, we head back up the hill, and set about some tent assembly. An hour or so later and back down the hill to shop for groceries for tonight’s dinner! The market is of course colourful, cramped and pungent, and we home in on a one-stop shop for fresh veg and tinned meats. I’m not surprised to learn that the tins are as expensive as, if not more than, in the UK, but the fresh veg is not quite as cheap as one might have thought. Still, can’t beat the fresh stuff, and am sure the home-cooked fare will be much more satisfying!
Lastly today we check with the caretakers to see if we can set some nets for a spot of ringing tomorrow. With darkness looming we aim for an early start to set the nets just before dawn.

Monday 17th Oct 2011 - Accra to Mpraeso

2011-10-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: After a weekend of improved breakfasts, the wrong rugby results – well, half of them at least for a Welshman like me – and getting on top of finances, and it seems no-one has seen or heard from Abraham since last Thursday. We have to head out today, the date having hinged on Abraham’s availability. Experienced driver George is on hand, at least for this first week, but he assures us that he can’t cook! As luck would have it, we have an extra fieldworker joining us to be shown the project ropes – zoology graduate Nicholas. Apart from being a very welcome new addition to the team, he expresses an interest in cooking too. Nice one Nicholas! We’ll all muck in of course.
Five hours later and we arrive at Mpraeso, via famous Linda Dor’s rest-stop on the Accra-Kumasi road. At our destination we check into the hotel we used last time out, and then pop by the local forestry offices to announce our intentions, and to see if we can camp atop Mt Odwenanoma once again. A great welcome awaited, and aside from granting us all the permission we needed, director Jonathan gave us directions to an area of forest that we’d not visited before, the Northern Ridge East. Well, it sounded new....
We popped up the mountain to check with the local caretakers of the “visitor centre”, arranged to hire one room, and to pitch 3 tents. And all for the bargain same price as one room at the “cheap” hotel. Whilst we were chatting, a spotted flycatcher made an appearance in a small mossy-branched tree next to the caretakers’ house.
Photo above: View of Nkawkaw from Odwenanoma Mountain
Japheth, Nicholas and I took a wander down the hill with George ahead waiting in the car. A useful exercise to tune in to some of the calls we expect to hear tomorrow morning. Sharpe’s apalis, olive-green camaroptera, grey longbill, Sabine’s puffback and green hylia just a few of the calls heard, and on a telephone line strung beside the track another spotted flycatcher is seen hunting the same flying beasties as a nearby little grey flycatcher.
Then a last supper (I hope not!) at a resto before we endeavour to cater for ourselves over the next few days.

Thursday-Friday 13th -14th Oct 2011 - paperwork & equipment

2011-10-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Spend pretty much all Thursday trying to get our permit to work in Ghana sorted out. It’s primarily for working within the national parks and forest reserves, and we may need to visit some of these during the season. Also, as an official document from the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Department, it could help open doors when discussing permissions with local chiefs to work on their land.
Called Abraham, our driver/chef from last season – he’s set and ready to head out into the field on Monday. Great!
Start trying to make sense of all the equipment left at the offices after last season. All seems to be in order, although will probably need extras of this and that when later in the season we will be operating as two teams. Most important is that we get an extra set of ringing gear. End the day compiling a simple spreadsheet of all rings used over the last two seasons, and accounting for all the mist nets too – essential to keep on top of this as a licensed bird-ringer!! Add to this a list of bits and bobs for the next “waves” from the UK to bring over the next few weeks.
In the end all equipment is checked and ready to go on Monday. But are we...?

Wednesday 12th Oct 2011 - Nightingale habitat near the Volta?

2011-10-12T03:45:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Collected early from the hotel, driver George, Augustus, Tina, Japheth and I head north towards Atimpoku, where we cross the Volta near its dam. Incredible just how much scrub there is in the area. Apparently these hillsides would once have been forest of sorts, but most of the timber has been removed. What’s left is rocky terrain that is next to useless for agriculture. There are small pockets where some effort is being made to farm the land, but on the whole, the biggest threat to this expansive scrub is from property development. This part of Ghana is a popular tourist destination, and bit by bit is being sold off to build exclusive residences and holiday accommodation.
We stop at various points along the road, and venture into the scrub via various paths and tracks. A piping hornbill, green turacos and a yellowbill grace one or two of the remnant trees, a grosbeak weaver (new for me!), a western bluebill, and sunbirds and cisticolas (struggle to remember my calls at this stage!) flit and call here and there. No sight or sound of any migrants, but on the whole I think this place has so much promise we should consider revisiting when we know that nightingales have descended this far south.

Photo above: Augustus surveying part-farmed hillside scrub

Tuesday 11th Oct 2011 - Ghana Wildlife Society, Accra

2011-10-11T03:43:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: So disappointed with the breakfast this morning! The hotel price includes it, and a boiled egg and 2 slices of bread will not suffice! I made sure I got at least part of my money’s worth by drinking far too much tea. Words will be had...
First trip to the office today, and great to see Augustus and Tina again. Had a long chat with Tina about the forthcoming season, and us working together again, but then eventually she confessed that she couldn’t join us this year. I was so disappointed! How will we cope? Especially as Nat too is otherwise engaged, now back in the UK for his studies. Well, we will just have to soldier on somehow.
Augustus told me about a place near the Volta dam which he thinks may be worth considering for migrants, particularly nightingales. It’s not far from a spot we passed through last February, and I remember thinking just how potentially good it looked. Many gentle-sloped hillsides are blanketed with this 3-5m high scrub, much like the ever-more fragmented coastal scrub where the team have ringed at Brenu, and have had some success with nightingales, garden warblers and spotted flycatchers. We resolve to head out there tomorrow.
Augustus also introduced one of Tina and Nat’s replacements, Japheth, who I met last year. He’s keen to get stuck in, and also has quite a lot of ringing experience, which will be helpful if we’re going to put in some extra effort this year to catch some of our target migrants.

Monday 10th Oct 2011 - Ouagadougou to Accra

2011-10-10T03:41:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Early rise for a last breakfast at La Source du Sahel, and then whisked off to the airport by Daniel with Aly & Oumar in tow. After being waved off and checking in, I reflected on how lucky we are to have such a team in Burkina. I cannot wait (and nor can they!) to see what they might encounter on the transects and at the ringing sites this season. Having last season caught a few returning migrants from season 1, will they this time find any ready-ringed from Europe?!
A short hop from Ouagadougou to Accra, and a different climate felt when stepping off the plane. Already mid-day, but coastal Accra felt quite cool compared to Ouaga. Off to the usual hostelry, and another afternoon of sorting and playing catch-up with data and emails.

Sunday 9th Oct 2011 - Ouagadougou Forest Park

2011-10-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: An early Sunday morning’s birding at Ouagadougou Forest Park, rewarded first by a couple of pied flycatchers, a smattering of nightingales, and an eventual tally of 13 wood warblers. The largest group was of 6 and these seemed to be associating with (or followed by?) a small group of Red-billed Firefinches. We heard a little bit of feeble winter pewing, but also 1 or 2 moments of winter “twittering” too. This further boosted the confidence re catching later on, although not sure whether they’ll have arrived as far south as our possible study areas in Ghana just yet. A few fruit bats were also spotted huddled together in a tree high above the footpath. I think they were a few of the remaining straw-coloured fruit bats that apparently amass here in August, in trees alongside the busy road at the West entrance to the park. By November they will have gone, and regroup further south in places such as central Accra.

Photo above: Straw-coloured fruit bats in Ouagadougou Forest Park

A late breakfast at a new place for me – un-named, so when asked what we should call it when writing out a breakfast receipt, the proprietor suggested “le Coin des Amis”. I hope it sticks!
The rest of the final day in Burkina is ensuring Aly & Oumar are completely au fait with the laptops, data entry and saving, and emailing. I try and fail to install any software to go with their GPS’s, but no great shakes for the moment.

Saturday 8th Oct 2011 - Wood warblers and nightingales, Ouagadougou

2011-10-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes - Next day back at the monastery, we tried a recorded playback of the full breeding-ground “pew” of a wood warbler. With no luck early on, we then switched to full song, and in the next net round caught 1 right next to the source. Oddly enough no other birds in thatround of 6 nets, except for a nightingale! Very nice indeed.

Photo above: Aly and Oumar with wood warbler and nightingale

Photo above: Nightingale and wood warbler

Next round no wood warblers, but the third and fourth produced 1 each, both in the exact same spot by the mp3 player. Are they easier to catch now on passage when they are vocal, than later on when they seemed, last season at least, to be quieter? Moved the mp3 player to a spot with a nightingale croaking nearby, and subsequently caught a second of these. Another garden warbler was also caught, so not a bad morning for migrants.
Following news of Wales’s win over Ireland in the rugby, a “relaxed” afternoon of catching up on expenditure, and a few pointers to Aly regarding data entry. Not that he needed it – he was well under way with putting ringing data in before I got involved. Good man!

Friday 7th Oct 2011 - Ringing at the monastery

2011-10-07T03:16:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes - Our first ringing session this Friday morning resulted in 63 birds caught, so a good training session, and included 1 garden warbler. There were evidently plenty of nightingales around, and thought early on that I heard something resembling wood warbler “winter pewing”. I was later near convinced, with a clearer more typical breeding-ground call heard, and ultimately saw one bird. Definitely more than one call heard though.

Photo: Busy at the nets at the monastery

This afternoon the Oursi guys had their laptops seen to, getting a French version of the operating system installed. Plus they had all the relevant other software in French too, so nothing lost.

Thursday 6th Oct 2011, Ouagadougou - meetings and monasteries

2011-10-06T03:12:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes - Meetings throughout much of the morning, for various members of the team at different times, but eventually we’ve sorted out much of what little things need sorting for this year’s work to go ahead. Not my favourite activity, discussing budgets and contractual agreements! Some more installing of various spreadsheets for the guys to use on their laptops, but then I hear that tomorrow the Naturama computer technician will be around, and able to change their operating system to French. Great news, but it will mean that all I’ve installed will be lost and will need re-installing post-update!
After getting the go-ahead from the Father Abbot on the phone this morning, he wanted to meet us when we arrived at the monastery to set our nets ready for the following morning. He was delighted to be of assistance. With minimal modification to create net rides (we had one ready-made – a ride cut for putting up telegraph poles: ideal), we put up 6 nets; plenty for a morning’s training. Would we catch more than we did last October though? Only 3 birds each morning then! This site does look promising, with loads of shrubby cover. It seems that the grounds of the monastery are fenced off so that livestock cannot wander in, encouraging plenty of scrubby growth and rank grass. Nets set and furled just before dark, we head back to town.
Back to La Source du Sahel, for spaghetti and tomato sauce, with a baguette of fried minced beef and onions. Same as last night, and would prove to be the same every night! Who needs variety when it’s so tasty and excellent value?

Wednesday 5th Oct 2011, Ouagadougou

2011-10-05T03:05:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes - Breakfast today was at possibly my favourite local eatery, and the only one in the area that’s open twenty-four-seven, La Source du Sahel. Had the “usual”, of a café au lait (a generous teaspoon of instant coffee on top of a large dollop of sweet condensed milk in a glass bowl, hot water added from a well-used flask – to be slurped from a spoon until the bowl has cooled enough to pick it up!), and a delicious Ouaga baguette stuffed with an oily omelette. All served in the shade from the 7am sun, next to the Rue de Charles de Gaul, one of Ouaga’s busiest commuter routes into the city centre.
Handing -over of equipment today, much relief for me as was a considerable bulk! 2 old laptops included, donated to the project for the Burkina team to be able to input all of their data as they go along, and email it to us at opportune stages during the season. Then to the office, to find that Idrissa and Georges are not around, but no matter, as there’s plenty to do. Meet up with Mohamed, who tells us that our hopes for some ringing training in Ougadougou Forest Park may not be possible. It seems a bit of a blow, but apparently they couldn’t accommodate only because the park staff are preparing for a visit of pan-African conservation dignitaries on the 8th, otherwise they were very keen. That’s great news, for next time at least. However, Georges has already armed Mohamed with an alternative to investigate, a monastery some 25km south of the city. Some introductions to the laptops first, and it’s clear early on that the software in English is not going to be easy for Aly & Oumar. Why didn’t we think of that before?!
Lunch next to the office, boiled rice with delicious sauce arachid, or groundnut sauce, seasoned with dried fish. We then head off to pay a visit to the monastery, arriving mid-prayers, so we seek some shade next to a nearby barrage. Despite the heat of mid-afternoon, there’s loads of bird activity, mostly rainy-season breeders, such as weavers, bishops and resident finches, all in and out of the long grasses at the lake shore. From the same grasses the calls of tawny-flanked prinias, and in the middle distance a dead tree in the lake is home to a dozen or more long-tailed cormorants.
Back at the monastery we ring a gong to announce our presence, and one of the elders agrees to see us. Not foreseeing any problems, he does suggest we should speak with the Father Abbot, and in his absence we are given his number to call him first thing the next day.

Tuesday, 4th Oct , London - Ouagadougou

2011-10-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes - Today we know that the season really is underway when I’m woken at 3 ready for my 4am taxi to the airport. Some last minute packing to do of course. Rather a lot of luggage it has to be said. The early flight leaves on time to Brussels, followed by an onward delay, and then a diversion to Cotonou in Benin, before at last I arrive 6 hours late in Ouagadougou. Although it’s been hot in London lately, the 29C greeting me at 2100hrs as I leave the plane for the steps down to the tarmac, well, still a bit of a shock, even after a few trips here now. Through the usual checks, including being beckoned by the surly-looking customs guys who wanted to see in my luggage, and at some rather odd looking equipment within! Just as before, when I said it was for our work with Naturama, our project partners here in Burkina, smiles of recognition arrived and then a quick wave of the hand to usher me through. The familiar faces of Aly, Oumar and Daniel are there to greet me, and a welcome sight too! Lots of catching up to do, and a chat well towards midnight discussing what was to come this season, and, more immediately, during my week in Ouagadougou.

Post-fieldwork discovery!

2011-04-10T02:12:00.000-07:00

Mark Hulme writes: Alex and I then headed off for a week’s travelling in the south east of the country around Keta Lagoon where the rigours of 3 months of fieldwork finally got to me and I spent most of the time feeling unwell by the beach, but, ever-dedicated to my cause half-an-hour’s birding outside where we were staying threw up a Red-backed Shrike in the vegetable fields, a palearctic migrant not seen before in Ghana. A good omen for next winter perhaps……

Red-backed Shrike post-fieldwork, near Keta

1st -3rd April

2011-04-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

Mark Hulme writes: The field season was now drawing to a close but we had time for one more foray into the forest zone. On the way back to Accra we stopped to arrange access to the forest reserve in the Atewa hills, a fairly well-known birding site which had potential for forest-based migrant species as well as some Afro-tropical forest species which are rare or absent from many other forest patches in Ghana. After arranging to come back to see the boss early the next morning we spent several hours trying to find accommodation, mining company employees seemingly having booked up all the rooms in Kibi, we eventually found rooms on the main road towards Kumasi, a bit of a drive in the morning but better than having to put up and take down tents in the dark (or stay in the hotel still under construction which was the only other option!). In the morning we went with a guard and a chainsaw in order to clear the road of any fallen trees and branches since the track is rarely used (indeed it turned out that the guard had never ventured up it before!). On a vegetation-strewn and painfully slow drive up the hill we spotted a White-crested Hornbill and a number of the more common forest birds we see regularly in more degraded forest and once we started walking a few more unusual birds started being glimpsed – White-spotted Flufftail singing, a family party of Red-billed Helmet-shrike calling, Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher, Shining Drongo, Icterine Greenbul, African Broadbill and was that a Yellow-bearded Greenbul over that ant-swarm? Perhaps. Ultimately very difficult but quite exciting birding and, right at the top of the ridge on the very last section of the last survey Tina and I both spotted a Wood Warbler foraging in the canopy of a tree over the track. As usual many signs of logging were evident but not a bad end to the fieldwork for winter 2010/2011 I think. A successful season due to the hard work of Nat, Tina, Abraham, Chris, all in Burkina and everyone else who helped with the fieldwork and funding of this important project. Many thanks to all.

The end of the last survey of 2010/2011, Atewa Forest Reserve

Western Bush Viper, Atewa Forest Reserve

30th-31st March

2011-03-30T02:06:00.000-07:00

Mark Hulme writes: After some valuable data had been collected at our most productive site we headed north to Bui National Park once more. We were hoping to see if reports that Bui might be an important passage site for migrants on the move in late March were true this year. Bui is currently undergoing some changes as a large Chinese-funded hydroelectric dam is being built down-river, one advantage of this is that roads leading to Bui are now excellent so we made good time! On the way into the park we also saw a splendid male Patas monkey, one of the few monkey species to thrive in the dry savannas. After securing the services of a guard we headed in to the village where we set up camp amongst a large group of curious children and hungry sheep and goats. There was no electricity so the football friendly between England and Ghana had to be followed by noting the reaction of people listening to their radios. It was pretty obvious when Asamoah Gyan scored a last-minute equaliser for Ghana by the spontaneous round of applause!

The following morning we split into two groups with Alex and I taking one route and Nat and Tina the other. We had limited success, with quite a number of Pied Flycatchers and not much else migrant-wise but Nat and Tina also had some Willow Warblers and a Garden Warbler or two. No Wood Warblers, unfortunately. It was interesting to see the variety of species in the riverine forests though, including Leaflove, Square-Tailed Drongo, Puvel’s Illodopsis and African Finfoot (seen by the guard, not by me unfortunately!) as well as White-headed Lapwing on the sandbanks. In the afternoon we decided to have a closer look at the forest bordering the river by taking canoes up the Black Volta into the park. No passerine migrants were detected but there were a number of Common Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers along the river and plenty of kingfisher species, egrets, herons and Sengal Thick-knees to keep us interested. Oh, and the hippos……8 seen in total including one right where the fishermen keep their canoes. The fishermen told us that they have to leave the village to be re-housed in a purpose-build “new town” in May, and the park manager informed us that the water would start rising in June in preparation for the dam to become operational in 2013. This will inundate the riparian forest and flood much of the grazing land the hippos depend on, presumably reducing their population considerably, which currently stands at around 500, by far the largest population in Ghana. If the forests do ultimately provide passage habitat for species such as Garden Warbler and Wood Warbler this may also affect migration routes as well, but that would be extremely difficult to quantify. We just hope that the effect on the park ecosystem will be less extreme than we fear as there is no turning back now. After one more night in the village we left this beautiful place wondering what the future would bring.

Tina and Nat getting a lift back from their survey, Bui

Checking out the riverside forest, Bui National Park

Hippos unaware that their habitat is soon to be flooded by a new dam, Bui National Park

25th -29th March

2011-03-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

Mark Hulme writes: Once Chris had sadly left us for some well-deserved rest before starting on the RSPB breeding wood warbler project in Wales I spent a couple of days in Accra catching up on some data-entry and the Ghanaian team members spent a bit of time catching up on other work and with family and friends. We headed north to Nsuatre again with a new team member, my girlfriend Alex, just arrived from the UK. We secured rooms in our now-regular hotel and set about repeating transects close to the old road where we had had so much success before. There were still good numbers of migrants around, although very few Nightingales now and no Wood Warblers or Blackcaps this time. Whinchats, Spotted Flycatchers, Pied Flycatchers, Melodious Warblers, Reed Warblers, Tree Pipits, Barn Swallows and Garden Warblers were all still in evidence. One last ringing session in Nsuatre on the 29th was, once more, very productive for Garden Warblers, this late in the season we wondered if they would still be present in numbers but 8 were caught on a busy morning as well as a Nightingale retrapped from our most recent ringing session, packed with fat. A Spotted Flycatcher, to some a surprisingly beautiful bird in the hand, was also caught alongside a number of resident birds such as Common Waxbill (not very common in Ghana), Marsh Tchagra, African Pygmy Kingfisher and Tambourine Dove, exciting for Alex’s first African ringing on her first trip to Africa.

Common Waxbill, Nsuatre

Moulting Spotted Flycatcher, Nsuatre

24th March

2011-03-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Sadly, the final day in Ghana for me, for this time at least! This morning worked on the GPS software to ensure that all the waypoint data from all the handsets were saved. The various files need consolidating/rationalising somehow! Meanwhile, Abraham had the car cleaned inside and out, and also had the spare tyre properly checked after our blow-out heading for Burkina! He picked us up to get to the office, and after a quick lunch he was to take his leave – his turn to get some well-earned rest before returning to the field with the team on the 27th. Tina was just finishing off entering ringing and habitat data, and Augustus was present too having recently returned from the US. Great to see him again, albeit just for the afternoon! After sorting through equipment lists and data files, we wrapped up and once again fond farewells were exchanged with Tina and Augustus. A final “last supper” at Tip Top in Accra, before a last beer at Yoko’s, and I waved goodbye to Mark and took my taxi to the airport. Sad to leave of course, especially with Mark continuing with another week or so of further roving! A very successful winter of fieldwork, and with such a brilliant team I sincerely hope I’ll be able to join them next season. In the meantime, I’m heading back to the UK to prepare to greet our migrants when they return in a few weeks. Best of luck to Abes, Alex, Mark, Nat and Tina for the last few days in the field. Have fun guys!!

22nd 23rd March

2011-03-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Two pretty interesting days. First we repeated the transects that we last followed about a month ago. Most of the migrant species seen were still present in roughly the same areas. On day two we attempted some ringing on the hillside, with the hope of catching a Wood Warbler or two. Once we’d located the first bird, we set up a single net at the roadside. After quite a wait it seemed the bird either wasn’t interested or that the net and song-playback just weren’t close enough to its patch. We moved the net nearer, stood back, and after about 10 minutes a Wood Warbler popped into the net. Tina sprang into action and ably extracted the bird. After ringing we recorded that it wasn’t carrying all that much fat, so we felt that this individual would be staying around for a few more days before starting any long northward journey.

Tina rings a captured wood warbler

Nat and captured wood warbler

Further attempts were made to catch another, with the net moved twice more, but to no avail. It would appear that even when we find a good spot for Wood Warblers, it isn’t easy to catch them! Nevertheless, this was a fine end to my last day of fieldwork.
So with my return to the UK looming we headed back to Accra, with me waving goodbye to Nat at the bus station as he headed home for some well-earned rest! Mark and I went back to our usual Accra hostelry, as Abraham returned all the equipment to the office before he and Tina headed homewards.

20th & 21st March

2011-03-20T01:56:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: In the event we had two mornings of ringing, largely because on day 1 Mark’s new net caught 8 out of a total 12 new Garden Warblers – a great result. Adding an extra net to the first on morning two we caught a further 8 new Garden Warblers, one retrap from the previous day, and 2 new Nightingales. Of the Garden Warblers a few were still in moult and not carrying much in the way of fat reserves, so not yet ready to head far north. The two Nightingales were well loaded with fat deposits, suggesting they had been around a while, and getting ready for a big push northwards.

A (young?) male Collared Sunbird at Nsuatre

An adult male Vieillot’s Black Weaver, Nsuatre

With lots of very interesting data to pore over, it got us thinking that a re-visit to the wooded Mampongtin hills might show signs of some passage too, so we headed south east.

19th March

2011-03-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Today for the first time we split into three groups, so that we could cover all three transects that were closest to the town. This meant that Tina and Nat were to do one transect together. My route uncovered far fewer Nightingales than the last time, with just 2 of these singing, and Mark, Tina and Nat had similar experiences. Were there fewer males around than before, having started to move North ahead of the females? Also noted were reasonable numbers of Garden Warblers, with Mark finding a particularly busy patch of thicket with several Garden Warblers singing at once! A handful of Spotted Flycatchers, Whinchats, Melodious and a couple of Reed and Willow Warblers also recorded, but perhaps most interestingly, Nat and Tina had TWO Wood Warblers on their transect! Incredible! One was amongst trees near to a patch of cocoa, the other in a wooded area on the edge of a cemetery closer to town, so not entirely unsuitable habitat. However, it’s probably not where they’d been all winter, more likely signs again that this species is on the move. An interesting day for Tina and Nat was made even more so with a female Blackcap, not a common bird in Ghana at any time of year.

Tina putting up nets for Garden Warblers

Encouraged by this morning’s sightings and our previous ringing efforts here, we went at dusk to set some nets up, to be closed and ready to start early the next day. Quite a large area of very overgrown thicket, i.e. old fallow, has been recently cleared and burned, reducing somewhat the available cover for our target species. This is the time of year when new areas are prepared for crops, just before the rains arrive. A Woodchat Shrike was hunting around this newly burnt patch, and a couple of Tree Pipits were disturbed as we passed. The net sites thankfully remained intact, and Mark thought it would be good to try a new net a short walk away where he had the Garden Warblers this morning.

Newly burnt scrubby fallow – no longer any Nightingales, but a Woodchat Shrike moved in!

18th March

2011-03-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

With Jez vanishing early on errands to Tamale, Nat and Tina rejoined the MiA fold, and with a full car once more we headed back to Nsuatre and the spot where we had good Nightingale and Garden Warbler numbers 2 weeks ago. Finding the previous lodgings free, we settled in with the good news that it was now safe to go back into the field.

17th March

2011-03-17T01:53:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: St Patrick’s day had to be a little bit whacky! We left Ouaga with Aly, Oumar and Mohammed for the short hop to Po, for the wedding of the year. Tim & Sophie’s that is. We pulled in at the town hall just in time. Tim looked smart in his cream suit, Sophie gorgeous in white, several very smartly dressed guests and, although I hate to say it, the ceremony was mercifully short. All done by 10am! All then headed back to a friend’s restaurant for the wedding breakfast, of chicken and couscous, salad and chips. Great to see the happy couple again (such a coincidence we could make it). And amazing what can happen when you volunteer for the BTO and RSPB!! Congratulations and all the very best to Tim and Sophie.

Tim and Sophie exchange rings at their wedding in Po

The 2010 Burkina team, from left to right, Mohammed, Oumar, Aly, Tim and Chris

Lots of thanks, best wishes and goodbyes later, Aly, Oumar and Mohammed headed for the bus station (they have important work to do back in Oursi!) Mark, Abraham and I headed to the frontier, and onwards back to Damongo, arriving late afternoon.
Good news from Jez and co – they caught two Pied Flycatchers this morning! Everything crossed for even greater success with future efforts, Jez!

16th March

2011-03-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: I forgot not just how hot Ouaga can get, but how dry and dusty that heat can be here. You feel totally desiccated in no time! Sun-block on straight away with the sun barely up, we arrived at the park, and were immediately greeted by a small flock of Lavender Waxbills, and just inside a group of unusually-silent White Helmet-shrikes. Not far in and after a couple of Little Green Bee-eaters flew over we heard the first of a few Olivaceous Warblers, in pretty much the same patch as I had seen some with Tim at the end of last year’s season, plus a single Reed Warbler. Yellow-crowned Gonoleks everywhere as before, Northern Black Flycatchers singing, and more Squacco Herons than you can shake a ‘scope at! Plus the first Nile crocodile that I’ve seen in the park, basking on a weedy bank, and also several Black Crakes, African Jacanas, and a single Black-crowned Night Heron roosting close by. Walking back to meet Abraham, Aly spotted a Bonelli’s Warbler, but sadly not seen at all well by the rest of us!
After a 10p cuppa and an omelette sandwich (I do love those Ouaga-style greasy-spoon cafes!), we popped across town to the Naturama office. A few new and familiar friendly faces were there, including our Mohammed’s. Georges was all smiles, and busy as always! The day passed quickly with various exchanges of data and photos. Mark and I had a chat with Idrissa, keeping him informed of the project’s progress in both Burkina and Ghana, and later we talked with Georges of hopes for continued collaboration in Burkina in seasons to come. A very useful and productive day.

Little green bee-eater in Ouaga

15th March

2011-03-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

After a top-notch and very cheap stay in Tamale (couldn’t possibly name the place as everyone will want to go there!) we didn’t get very far before a rear tyre popped. Fairly easy to replace with the spare, but we had to get this repaired at the next opportunity in case of another puncture. A bit of a wait to get this done in the very next town, but soon we were ploughing on towards and across the Burkina border. We stopped for a VERY long spell at a bank in Po to change a bit of cash, and with the queue barely moving we had to give up and try in Ouaga. A newly-surfaced road gave us hope of an early arrival, but then suddenly it stopped 20km short! The last bit into the Burkina capital was terrible, but at least this is in the throes of repair too. 6pm at our lodgings, and Aly and Oumar were already there. Fantastic to see them again, as I greeted them clumsily with my yet-again rusty French, and expressed our amazement and delight at Mr Walker’s impending nuptials.
Over dinner we planned to spend the next day exchanging data, and a few meetings with Georges and Idrissa. We decided that we could afford a team- building visit to the Ouagadougou Forest Park, especially too as Mark was new to the city!

14th March

2011-03-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Chris Orsman writes: Abes dropped us off this morning a couple of kms outside of town, and Mark led the team on a walk off-road into the well-wooded surrounds. Finding a shady spot for the ringing site, passing a couple of calling Pied Flycatchers on the way, we then set up three nets, scattered around the edge of an open area. Playback of the calls was started at two of the net sites, and we set up the office and waited.
We hadn’t waited long before the quite unexpected happened – a Wood Warbler was singing nearby! Quickly we arranged my mp3 and a small amp to try and entice this fella (for surely he was a male!) down from the canopy and into the net. Well, we tried. And failed!!

Nat stylishly covering up against the Damongo sweat-bees

A long and very sweat-bee-infested morning eventually produced one African Paradise Flycatcher – the wrong species but very lovely nonetheless! No Pied Flycatchers (or Wood Warblers) this time, but Jez was far from discouraged, and was looking forward to trying again in a different spot in a couple of days time.
With Tina very helpfully deciding to stay in Damongo to assist Nat and Jez with some transect work, for Abraham, Mark and me, it was time to pack up again and head to Burkina.

13th March

2011-03-13T01:48:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: Abraham drove Mark through the forest reserve to the village to find Francis, to be led into some of the reserve hinterland. Tina and I walked out from the guesthouse, and very soon heard our first Willow Warbler, close to where we had the bird yesterday. Another two followed, as well as a small surprise in a Wryneck alighting in a small tree next to our path. Very good views indeed! Further on and more good-looking scrub and forest edge, we were beginning to think that something was up. It was almost as quiet bird-wise as it had been late yesterday. With our hopes seemingly dashed, we entered the denser parts of the forest. Even passing a couple of clearings failed to produce what we had hoped for, and besides a few African Grey Hornbills and the odd Green Hylia, no further birds were noted. Very odd!
With time still left to spare we exited the forest back towards our lodgings, and then marched out along a track into the farmland. Collared, Olive-bellied and Green-headed Sunbirds were recorded, plus African Golden Oriole, and Green Turaco. Two Melodious Warblers were heard, and about 20 European Bee-eaters appeared to be heading north in a mix with 50 or so of their White-throated cousins.

Cashew crop in farmland outside the monkey sanctuary

Despite Mark seeing a handful willow warblers, pied and spotted flycatchers, considering the low numbers of migrants seen we could see no point in staying here another day, and we decided that now was the time to head up towards Burkina, with a view to Mark and I getting our passports stamped again, but also to fetch some more data from Aly and Oumar in Ouagadougou. A quick call to the guys and we had assurances from them that they could get to Ouaga for Wednesday night.
By an amazing coincidence, I heard news today that Tim Walker, our fabulous volunteer ringer from last year, was also in Burkina, and due to wed his Burkinabe fiancée Sophie on the morning of the 17th. Surely we had to attend?!
En route we were to stop at Damongo to help out with new arrival Jez from Cardiff University, here to study Pied Flycatchers. We arrived late PM at the lodgings, and were greeted by Jez and our long-lost team-mate Nat, who had accompanied Jez from Accra. A big group dinner was prepared by Abraham, and over a cold beer we discussed Jez’s mission and planned a Pied Fly-catching session for the next morning.

12th March

2011-03-12T01:42:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: This morning we drove with flask in hand for a roadside breakfast before marching across the local farmland. Not a bad spot, though ultimately fewer or less-well established thickets than at Nsoatre. Splitting into two teams as usual, we followed paths and tracks off the main dirt road, recording all species encountered. My first hour or so wasn’t too bad for migrants, with one Whinchat, a Willow, a Reed and two Melodious Warblers, and two Spotted Flycatchers. Three Great Spotted Cuckoos flew noisily overhead, and several Red-faced and Whistling Cisticolas sang from the rank herbage.
Deciding that we weren’t on the best patch, we re-grouped and moved further along the road to find more routes into the farmland. This time I was met at the start by a group of local children, who were very curious as to what I was up to, with clipboard, binoculars and camera in hand! They were especially keen on my mp3 player (a new “must” for me in the field, with quick access to all the local bird calls to aid identification!). I soon encountered a melodious warbler singing, and I told the youngsters to listen (they were chattering amongst themselves a bit!). Then I played back the song of the same species on the mp3, and their faces lit up. They soon cottoned on as to what I was up to. One migrant duly noted, the next one seen was a whinchat, perched atop a dead tree in the middle of some freshly cleared land, ready for ploughing and planting. This I showed them through the binoculars with mixed success I suspect! No matter, for at the very next cleared area, one of the boys shouted and pointed at some movement that I’d not picked up on. Sure enough, another Whinchat was silhouetted against a bright sky in the branches of another leafless tree. Well spotted! After that, every crow and pigeon that moved was the target for one pointing finger or another, as they all tried to out-help each other. Finally, a nightingale singing fluidly from some low scrub drew my ear, and again I played back the song for my assistants to hear. With that, some gown-up farmers passed, also curious as to my mission. The kids explained (not in English, but with lots of gesticulating at my mp3, clipboard and binoculars), and a quick playback of the nightingale, with the bird still singing in the scrub, drew smiles of understanding, if not still a little bemusement. A short while later, and approaching their village, the morning’s survey was over, and I said goodbye and thank you to my team of new fieldworkers! In total 5 Whinchat, 2 each of Melodious, Garden and Reed Warbler, 2 Nightingale, a Spotted Flycatcher and 3 Barn Swallow, with Blue-billed Firefinch and Orange-cheeked Waxbill part of the resident mix, with a similar mix of species being seen by Mark and Tina.

My helpers in the field near Techiman

Meeting back up with Abraham we made off towards The Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary. Here, we read, was a small patch of forest protected by the local communities for the sacred Campbell’s Mona and Geoffrey’s Colobus monkeys, that now thrive there. Our guide Francis gave us a quick tour so we could establish where would be best to survey for migrants the following morning. We had very close encounters with both monkey species, but we were aware how quiet it was bird-wise. We did hear one Willow Warbler in a patch on the edge of the forest, just before the permitted farmland starts. We decided that Mark would explore more of this “buffer” habitat the next day, whilst Tina and I would retrace our steps on the forest edge and interior. Some of the more open areas within looked like easy birding and we were hopeful of perhaps one Wood Warbler, stopping by on its way northwards.

Mona Money after food at Boabeng-Fiema

Geoffrey’s Pied Colobus monkeys at Boameng-Fiema

10 -11 March

2011-03-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

A second visit to our ringing site on the 10th of March was much more bearable weather-wise but not as exciting bird-wise, although we caught one each of Garden Warbler (another in late moult) and European Reed Warbler (with some singing in the shrubs later in the morning). My bird of the day was the rather drab-looking but little-known Baumann’s Greenbul, a skulking species which frequents understory and scrub across a wide area in West Africa, but with a very patchy distribution, whose vocalisations have only been described relatively recently. As ever with our site visits in Ghana the success we have is tempered by concern over the habitat and a large swathe of fallow scrub had been cleared next to the ringing site in the days since we arrived leaving us to wonder how long this at first rather unpromising-looking habitat will last.

Above: The until recently little-known Baumann’s Greenbul, Nsuatre

After scouting out more possible survey sites without much luck it came to our attention that the recent death of a local sub-chief had raised some tensions in the town over his successor and we were advised not to venture into the agricultural land until the funeral had taken place over the weekend, so we decided five mornings fieldwork had already given us a wealth of information and we are now off to look for other transition zone sites. Into the home stretch now with only a few short days and weeks left of roving but with the team on a high now we are raring to go. Until the next update.........

11th March

2011-03-11T01:42:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes: After a pretty productive past few days – including the British-ringed Garden Warbler – today was an enforced day of ‘rest’, as we were informed late last night that it might cause problems if we went into the field. The demise of a local chief appeared to have left a power vacuum and disputes over land. Was this why the army and UN troops were in town last night?! We suspect that they actually stopped by on their way to more serious issues at the Cote d’Ivoire border...
We instead headed east to spend some time in search of some more of the same thicket-y habitat that the Nightingales and Garden Warblers seem to like. We found some potential areas some way south of Techiman. Mainly farmland but with some promising looking scrubby patches, and the same kind of woody herbs as at the good site, creating a dense tangle 2-3 metres high.
Late for camping, our bed for the night was in Nkinkaso, at the only guest house there. Like our last place, again very cheap, but the difference here was this one really looked it! Just one night though thankfully!

8 March

2011-03-08T07:53:00.000-08:00

Mark Hulme writes: On the morning of the 8th of March we opened mist nets close to our old camp site in the thickets and on the first round we were blown away when Tina took a Garden Warbler out of a bird bag, looked at the ring and innocently mentioned “this bird is from London!” Chris and I both knew what this meant, given that we use rings from the Ghanaian Ringing Scheme, and, sure enough, there was the British Natural History Museum address that indicates British rings and, presumably, birds ringed in the UK! There have been more than a dozen recoveries of rings on dead birds across the transition zone but this was, to our knowledge, the first British-ringed Garden Warbler captured and released alive in Ghana. The well-oiled BTO machine was put on the case straight away and we discovered that the bird was ringed on the Suffolk coast on the 25th of August by a now very happy ringer. This means it could be a bird that originally hatched in the UK but it could also be one that was caught on passage from continental Europe.

This highlight apart, the rest of a hot and busy morning’s ringing saw us catch three more Garden Warblers, one just finishing wing moult, and four European Reed Warblers. Afro-tropical bird(s) of the day were a family party of Red-cheeked Wattle-eyes, stunning little birds with a distinctive green-blue wattle around the eyes, particularly impressive in the adult male. We also had good catches of, amongst others, greenbuls, Green Crombecs and Cameropteras, a beautiful Yellow-browed Cameroptera making a change from the ubiquitous Grey-backed Cameroptera.

Above: Garden Warbler with some of the Nsuatre thickets in the background

Above: A stunning adult male Red-cheeked Wattle-eye, Nsuatre

Above: Yellow-browed Cameroptera, Nsuatre

After an exciting, but exhausting morning’s ringing we just about managed to summon the energy to scout for other areas to survey, choosing a more wooded area to the south west, which turned out to be good for Pied Flycatchers, some nice males in breeding plumage now, and OK for some other migrants but nothing that special, or are we now just spoilt?

2 - 5 March

2011-03-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

Mark Hulme: On the 2nd of March we packed up reluctantly and said farewell to our scenic camp in the hills and set off for another repeat visit in the hills further to the north near Mampong. Our previous camp, in the grounds of a guest house, had to wait as we arrived a little late so we treated ourselves to rooms for a night before repeating point counts nearby. Chris and Tina confirmed that the vegetation had changed since they were there in December with a lot more farming activity going on now in preparation for the rains. Migrants were present, including Spotted Flycatcher, a male Pied Flycatcher still moulting into breeding plumage, indicating that it may be around for a little while yet, a number of Melodious and Garden Warblers also. Both Chris and I heard Garden Warblers singing, something I’m not used to in Africa. Some migrants, such as Nightingales, sing throughout the winter but Garden Warblers and many other migrant species can be heard singing in late winter once breeding hormones kick in. Unfortunately our visit coincided with another big Ashanti funeral so the guest house was to fill up and we decided that, with the season ticking on, we would head into Kumasi to prepare to visit the thickets of the transition zone to the north west of the city where the project had a lot of success last year.

After the compulsory trawl through Kumasi for a habitable (and affordable) hotel we ended up at one close to Tina’s old University, which proved to be very comfortable, and a Woodland Kingfisher bathing in a nearby swimming pool added some avian interest as well.

On the 5th of March, well rested and with clean, but still slightly damp, clothes, we headed north west towards Sunyani with a stop on the way to explore Owabi Wildlife Sanctuary, a nice, if small, forest reserve protecting a dam which used to provide all of Kumasi’s drinking water and now also provides habitat for a number of water birds, including some sandpipers which failed to yield to our binocular-aided efforts to ID them. The forest around the dam is a potential future survey site. As we headed into the transition zone we stopped for a very late lunch at Sunyani before arriving at Nsuatre in the late afternoon. After some negotiations we failed to obtain permission to erect our tents in the grounds of the local hotel but got a very good deal on some basic rooms, which was a relief given the current heat and the exposed nature of our previous campsite. Just before the light went completely we visited the thickets that the team worked on last year and found them jumping with Garden Warblers and enough Nightingales that I even got an excellent view of one! Encouraged we retired to plan our repeat work on this area with such potential.

We spent the first two mornings repeating the point counts that Chris, Chris and Tina had surveyed last November and December. The first morning, on Ghana Independence Day, was slightly disappointing Nightingale-wise but that was made up for with good numbers of Garden Warblers, many singing - are some already starting to move north? A fair few Spotted Flycatchers and the odd Pied Flycatcher was seen alongside Melodious Warblers and a Whinchat or two. This was my first visit to the area and the difference in habitat to other areas we had visited was quite stark in places with many more fallow thickets than you usually see alongside cassava, plantain, maize and small teak plantations. The second morning of point counts saw Tina and I head west a little whilst Chris stayed closer to Nsuatre. We had some luck with Nightingales on the first few points before the habitat opened up a little, Melodious Warblers, as ever, were present, as well as a couple of Whinchats close to where there had been a recovery in the past of a UK ringed birds. The birds I saw weren’t ringed, unfortunately! I also has the first singing European Reed Warbler that I’ve heard in Ghana. It was interesting to hear the song in dry grassland rather than the wet habitats we are used to in Europe – Reed Warbler is far from tied to wetlands outside the breeding season. Whilst I was enjoying these sightings and discussing what I was doing with the children heading to the farm on this national holiday Chris was having a Nightingale bonanza at Nsuatre with singing and, mostly, croaking birds common on his point transect, more even than his survey there at the end of last year. Nightingale is another species preparing to migrate and many of the birds we detected here are probably already on the move.

24 Feb – 1 March

2011-03-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

Mark Hulme writes: After a couple of days catching up on some rest, office work and (for Chris) blog-writting we resumed our search for migrant hot-spots. The town being invaded by a huge number of mourners for a typically grand funeral (for a lady who’s importance and productivity was obvious from the number of attendees) accelerated our decision to get back to fieldwork and find somewhere else to stay. We happened upon a very nice campsite on top of a rather heavily-forested hill with wonderful views over the lowlands to the West, and some TV towers that Alec Eiffel would have been proud of. We could even just-about see one of the Atewa sites we’d visited a few days earlier. We then embarked on some repeats of sites visited last year and a few other areas were also sampled, including our hill, which turned out to be rather good for forest birds with the the hither-to-unrecorded-by-this-project Sabine’s Puffback and the range-restricted Sharpe’s Apalis both being common, although, as ever, encroachment on the forest habitat made us wonder whether these birds would remain here for long. A couple of attempts at ringing were also made close to our camp, picking up some dastardly-difficult Andropadus greenbuls which seemed to be evenly split between Little Greenbul and Cameroon Sombre Greenbul, hard enough in the hand this is one of the more difficult ID challenges in the field. We also caught a Brown-chested Alethe, a new bird for Chris, and some more common forest under-storey species but no migrants were attracted down by our trusty playback equipment.

Above: Tina with Nkawkaw below her

Above: Some Forest/farmland mosaic habitat in the Mampongtin Range

Brown-chested Alethe

Any suggestions moth fans?

Whilst the fieldwork continued apace so too, it seemed, did the early onset of the rainy season, with more stormy weather hitting us whilst we were camping, very dramatic looking out over the clouds building across the escarpment but we weren’t worried this time, we’d learnt our lesson from Kogyae and the tents remained dry.
After a successful stay on the hill we decided to try some more lowland habitat and were directed by the helpful folk at the forestry office to a partially-protected area near Nkawkaw where there is a 40-year cycle of legal logging, which results in a fairly open forest reserve where there is active logging but still plenty of forest-interior species which are rare outside protected areas. It was interesting doing fieldwork whilst a group of loggers went by on their gigantic contraptions but we were encouraged by the presence of birds such as Red-billed Helmet Shrike and parrots (most likely Red-Fronted). Some European Bee-eaters were also spotted along with a large flock of Barn Swallows drinking from pools left by the recent rain, perhaps larger numbers than I’ve seen since our visit to the forests at Ankasa, south west Ghana, in March 2010.

A (legal) logging team off to work in a lowland forest reserve

14th – 23rd Feb 2011

2011-02-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

Report from Chris Orsman:
After the final repeat transect visits at Brenu on 9th, it was time to head back to Accra for a “mid-term” rest, and a quick once-over for the project vehicle. There were thankfully no issues to be addressed on the car, so we had it back the following day. A weekend in Accra followed, for all to take a well-earned break (and to catch up on paperwork and blog-writing!).

Whilst in Accra, we supplied the UK HQ’s with all the GPS coordinates for recent migrant sightings here in Ghana. The wizards back at base used some clever GIS mapping to find other parts of Ghana with potentially suitable habitats for these birds. They were able to produce a map of “hotspots” of potential areas to explore for each species which we used as a guide to plan our next couple of weeks in the field.

A refreshed squad re-convened early on Monday 14th, and headed inland and north-east into the Volta Region, bordering Togo, and home to Ghana’s highest peak and a scattered ridge of hills along its length northwards. The “hot-spot” map indicated the possibility of suitable habitats here, but aside from this, Volta Region had not previously been explored by the team. Arriving late afternoon we found ourselves a place to camp in the grounds of a mountain lodge, pitching our tents in the ample shade of mature mango trees. A view from the hilltop overlooked some good looking forest habitat for our first forays the next morning.

Above: The hills of the Volta region

15th Feb An awful but mercifully brief “inconvenience” meant that I wasn’t able to help the team with surveys on our first morning in the Avatime Hills. Apparently the culprit was my lunch yesterday. All I will say is that okra stew is not recommended: I hear (somewhat belatedly!) that even Ghanaians can have problems with it. Leave well alone!!

Mark, Tina and Nat covered some 5 or more kilometres along the hill road to the south, and returned near mid-day having had little luck on the migrant front, save for 3 Willow Warblers after the survey proper had finished, all in Albizia trees. Later in the day Mark explored the road to the north and returned having seen a Spotted Flycatcher.

16th Feb Back to full (?) strength, I set out north this morning with Tina, as Mark and Nat explored the wooded hillsides still further south. We came across 3 Spotted Flycatchers, and a Pied Flycatcher was glimpsed deep in the shadows of a cashew plantation up the hillside to our left. African Harrier Hawk and a Long-tailed Hawk were overhead highlights as we finished off the last hour of the timed species count. No further migrants, though, and sadly none from Mark and Nat.

In the afternoon we headed out even further north to discover whether any good looking habitat was to be found where the hot-spot map indicated. This was around a narrow and not-too-high ridge running north-south. With distinct possibilities evident on the eastern side, we selected our areas for work the next day.

17th Feb Mark and Tina covered an area at the foot of the ridge, where there was a fair amount of disturbance and hence tree-removal. Nat and I walked along the dirt road a little further south where it cut through a much more wooded area. There was still a lot of disturbance here though, but in the shape of mainly cocoa and banana plantations beneath the trees. We still had hopes for a few migrants. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. After seeing plenty of Naked-faced Barbets, Green Hylias and Grey-headed Negrofinches, we met up again with Mark and Tina, who had had better luck, with Melodious Warbler, Willow Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher.

Above: Mark and Tina return from fieldwork in the hills of the Volta region

A final afternoon’s look around a scramble of a path in the valley below the camp-site produced no further migrants, but at the head of the group, Mark was lucky enough to spot a White-crested Hornbill in the dense canopy. With the tents packed late afternoon we headed for a night in a guesthouse before trying another potential site just west of there in the morning.

18th Feb With a flask of hot water supplied by the guest-house, we set out to explore the aforementioned site, a low ridge with what looked like reasonable “green” patches, on the satellite images at least. Once there just after dawn, we supped a quick breakfast before fieldwork. Habitat-wise, here we had to “make do” with what appeared to be the best bet for migrant exploration, the least-disturbed portions of the higher parts of the ridge.

Above: View east from the ridge

It was a largely modified arable landscape, with the promise of more wooded patches in the near distance. Tina and I had a few Tree Pipits, and three Nightingales in what few uncultivated corners we passed.
En route a Violet-backed Starling sang from a tall but solitary and leafless tree. On the way to the higher woods, though, we got rather stuck, hitting a veritable brick wall of dried grass and a tangle of weeds.

Above: Tina working in the dense, scrubby farmland

With no path to follow, we had to turn back, and hope that Mark and Nat had more luck in the other direction. They’d managed to get a little further than we, but it seems that every promised “purple patch” was in fact fairly heavily modified, and that the very best looking parts were totally inaccessible (probably on slopes too steep to farm). They still managed to locate several Willow Warblers, Tree Pipits, Melodious Warblers and a Nightingale. Bird of the morning, though, must have been a Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrike, seen by Mark and Nat.

Cutting our losses, we decided to head for our next target, to re-visit and further explore a part of the Mampongtin Range that we’d looked at last December.

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Nat, for the time-being at least, as he had other pressing business to attend to in Accra. We dropped him off at the tro-tro stop and continued on towards Koforidua. A quick lunch in a cafe, and a brief shop for food supplies, and then the heavens opened. We headed through the lashing rain to set up camp. Still raining, and with less than a warm welcome, the site was a sea of mud and looked like a building site. Learning that there were no facilities on site at all, we turned our tail and went back to town. Another (cheap!) guest house, and a view to revisiting a December site in the morning.

19th Feb What an interesting morning! Between us, Mark, Tina and I revisited the same patches of woodland/farm mosaic as in mid December, and amazingly the exact same migrants were present. A Spotted Flycatcher was in the same tree-felled clearing, Nightingales were in the same thickets and Melodious Warblers sang from the same cover. Were these the same birds as in December? This was all pretty heartening. Galvanized after this first success of the day, and lunch at the Linda Dor Rest Stop on the main Accra-Kumasu road, we called in at the Bunso Arboretum, as mentioned in the guide book, in the hope of setting camp. We were given a fine welcome, and guided to where we could stay, perhaps a little riskily in the shade of some very large monkey pot trees. It’s no palm, but these trees produce a very large seed husk, akin to a coconut in size. Thankfully, though, most had already dropped.

Above: Our camp in the Bunso Arboretum

Over dinner we planned our assault on the unsuspecting farmlands and forests over the next few days.

20th – 23rd Feb Mixed fortunes with most migrant species. Hard to come by in the more forested hills, most were near cultivation, or the scrubbier parts of this. Tree Pipits on the plateau, with Nightingales and Melodious Warblers and a few Spotted Flycatchers here, with fewer seen at lower elevations nearer the camp. And just where are all those Garden Warblers?!

Above: Surveying in the forested hills

Above: Highly degraded hillside habitat….

Above: …and habitat degradation in progress

After 9 days straight of fieldwork, some catch up time was in order, somewhere near the next target area. We bade a fond farewell to the guys at the arboretum, and left for one good site from last December and some exploration of some new spots both in the hills and the plains below.

It was a spectacular climb up a windy road from Nkawkaw, through it would seem some protected forest (there was the hint by way of a sign by the roadside!). No National Parks here, but as with the rest of Ghana there are numerous forest zones where timber extraction is limited and controlled. Perhaps this could be worth a visit? On our travels we spotted the Forestry Division’s regional offices, so we decided we should pay them a visit the next day in our search for advice about patches of good forest, and possible access to these.

In the evening we visited a hotel right next door to our guest-house - a night off from cooking for Abraham and a well earned rest for our most excellent chef and chauffeur! In the knowledge that Thursday would mean a “lie-in” (what’s one of those?!), there were tired smiles all round as we strolled back to our lodgings.

Ghana repeat transects (plus a little roving...) Jan 21 to Feb 9

2011-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

Mark Hulme writes: After a week of bateleurs, bishops, buntings and bubale (hartebeast) in Burkina we headed back into Ghana, my passport heavier with the weight of a new stamp. Before starting the transects we paid a return visit to the area around Tono dam near the Burkina border. Some pleasant birding was, never-the-less, not exceptional for migrants, with a brace of Wryneck, a handful of Melodious Warblers and Willow Warblers, a couple of Booted Eagles, a few House Martins and a Common Whitethroat in some thorny scrub being seen over a morning of timed species counts. Leaving our lodgings in Navrongo we set up camp at our regular guest house in Damongo and started transects on the 22 February. Once again Willow Warblers, Melodious Warblers and Pied Flycatchers were pretty common in the woodland/farmland mosaic around the town, a few more Tree Pipits also being seen this time around. The area was dry considering the particularly wet rainy season that had just passed with much burning having already taken place, in short very similar to this time last year except for a few more leaves on the trees.

Above: Nat recording vegetation in Damongo

Our two transects in and around Mole National Park were fairly quiet bird-wise, surprisingly dry again, although our ever-helpful guard Zach calling in a Black Wood-hoopoe was a highlight, and a male elephant wandering around camp made for a bit of excitement, as did the unexpectedly prompt service when we ordered our lunch!

A dry-season bloom in Mole National Park

We decided to take the opportunity to re-visit the Daka floodplain and see if the Whinchat density was similar to our visit in the first half of December. There were still plenty of Whinchats, though we detected slightly fewer than last time, and I was impressed by my first visit to this area – a small group of Blue Quails was great to see, to add to the one I saw at Kogyae last year, a gigantic Denham’s Bustard flying in the distance and my first Beaudouin’s Snake Eagle, an excellent view of a female, made for a nice morning’s transect.
After some well-needed rest and office work in Tamale we stopped off at Buipe on the Volta river, the waters having receded a little since the floods last year, and did some timed species counts which produced particularly high numbers of Willow Warblers along the edge of the waterlogged woodland as well as some Wood and Green Sandpipers, a Ruff and a Painted Snipe. A pair of roosting nocturnal Bronze-winged Coursers were flushed by Chris Orsman and Tina, but not by Nat and myself, it’s alright for some, I’ve been looking for that bird for years! It could be an interesting site to keep an eye on in the future.

Educating the Buipe youngsters in birdwatching: Nat, Chris and Tina

Between the 28 January and 1 February Kogyae camp, Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve in central Ghana, welcomed us warmly, as ever, and the fruit bats decided to be a bit quieter this time around, enabling us to get a bit more sleep than usual, until the last night that is.... There had been less burning than at this time last year, perhaps due to the increased rains, and the grass was very tough to walk through, some of it up to two and a half times higher than Tina......Melodious Warblers were perhaps the most common migrant amongst a small number of Willow Warblers and Pied Flycatchers, fewer Whinchats were seen than last year. I detected a Great Reed Warbler close to some burnt grass in which I’d heard one at the same time last year, which was interesting, but overall rather disappointing from a migrant point of view. On the plus side I managed to ride out a rather ominous illness but the elements had their revenge by unleashing a tropical storm on the last night which, whilst it put out a nearby bush fire, uprooted our tents (OK, uprooted my tent, that will teach me not to guy it properly), left Nat and Abraham wondering what was going on when their tents collapsed on them (Aha! So I wasn’t the only one) and had us running around like headless francolins trying to ensure things stayed dry whilst having what seemed like several swimming-pools poured over us all at once. Thankfully no damage was done and we managed to reach Kumasi the next day in one collective piece, and even managed to dry the tents in the morning sun. Tropical sun has its uses.

Buying provisions in Techiman prior to Kogyae

Grass in Kogyae 2.5 times taller than a Tina

From Kumasi, Ghana’s second biggest city and old capital of the powerful Ashanti kingdoms, we decided to investigate some areas on the way to our next transect site, Kakum. Lake Bosomtwi, formed in an ancient meteorite impact crater, is surrounded by rather lush hills which looked promising but we managed only a Melodious Warbler in a short walk along the road so we carried on to Obuasi, the heart of Ghana’s gold-mining industry, not blessed with decent habitat itself but a base to explore nearby hills the following morning. Once again the odd Melodious Warbler and a few Barn Swallows were seen, and we got a refresher in forest birds in anticipation of Kakum, but otherwise not of much of interest to us.

February 4 to the 7 at Kakum was, as always, very interesting in terms of the forest habitat and the different variety of Afro-tropical species on offer. A pair of Tit-hylias were nesting above our tents in some hanging vegetation, and we caught a glimpse of some Mona Monkeys from the canopy walkway this time, indicating that the disturbance caused by it’s presence and the tourists using it wasn’t completely putting off the larger animals from using the area. We also bumped into Justus, who was doing some work on his project looking at stress in birds at the edge of forest fragments, who had re trapped some of the birds we had ringed earlier in the project, mostly Yellow-whiskered Greenbuls. As for migrants, Barn Swallows were fairly common but little else was detected so we headed for Brenu hoping that Nightingales and Garden Warblers were still present.

Above: A Yellow-whiskered Greenbul re trapped at Kakum from last year.

A Velvet-mantled Drongo seen from the canopy walkway, Kakum.

At Brenu, between February 7-9, we had a refresher course from Justus in blood-sampling and detected a small number of Nightingales and a Garden Warbler in the scrub. The degradation of this habitat was even more marked than on my last visit here with developments springing up all over the place. The grassland held a few Whinchats but no Spotted Flycatchers were seen, fitting in with observations from last year suggesting that most leave this area in mid-winter.
So, with the transects successfully repeated we headed back to Accra to re-group, refresh and study the spatial data on likely habitats for Nightingales and Wood Warblers in order to plan our next few week’s roving. We should be in for some exciting times!

2011 Fieldwork begins: 9-19th January

2011-01-19T05:28:00.000-08:00

Chris Orsman writes:

09 Jan
Arrived in Accra late this evening with no delays. We headed for the taxi rank and discovered that the fares had gone up quite a lot since last time (only in December!), from 15 cedis to 20 to get to the city centre. The guy explained that fuel prices had gone up. It turned out to be the first of many price hikes as a direct result of a 30% rise in fuel prices nationwide. We arrived close to midnight at the hotel, where more fun was to be had waking the staff to let us in, and then trying keys in several doors until finally the chap found us rooms that weren’t already occupied! Luckily no-one was actually IN their room when we burst in!

10 Jan
Today was a day for sorting equipment, replenishing or just buying anything we felt was needed, and for Mark to get his visa for Burkina. With the Burkina embassy walking distance from the hotel this was amazingly straightforward. A form to fill in plus 145 cedis (for multiple entry 3 months this is cheaper than getting in the UK), a return later in the afternoon, and all done. Abraham came to pick us up from the hotel after the embassy, and headed to the GWS office and met up with Tina and Nat. The rest of the day was spent running around to get a “green card” for the car (to get it through the border with Burkina), but after being given the run-around, we ended up without one and having to head for Burkina card-less. Well, we survived the border crossing last time without it, so... Less time spent sorting through equipment but we ascertain that all is in order.

The plan for the team this first few weeks is to revisit all of the transects we covered last winter, starting with Nazinga in Burkina (the Oursi transects are being capably re-done once a month right through the winter by Aly and Oumar), and then back down to Ghana to Mole, Kogyae and Kakum/Brenu.

Photo Above: Nat, Tina and Mark surveying from Nasia Bridge

12 Jan
After our early morning departure from Accra yesterday, we got to Tamale last night and stopped at a new (but indifferent) guest house outside of town. Post-breakfast we headed north, stopping on the way at the same spot, over the river at Nasia, as with Juliet in October. The area is a whole lot drier now, and the less interesting for it, although one Willow Warbler was spotted in the bank-side shrubs. Ploughing on, we by-passed the last-time lunch spot at Paga, believing that we needed to head to the border sharpish in case of any delays. This time we had no problems, seeing as we already had our visas, and the lack of a green card for the car didn’t matter either. Thus we were heading into the Burkina Faso border town of Po soon after mid-day. A quick lunch stop here, and with a text from Aly, Oumar and Mohammed that they’d just departed Ouaga on the bus, we headed westwards towards Nazinga.

With no space in the car, we needed to get to the camp, drop off, then back to Po to get the other three, AND then back to camp before dark! No elephant encounters on the way in, then upon arrival our rooms allocated (only just though, after an apparently very tardy booking!), and soon Abraham and I headed the 50km back to Po. Needless to say it was later than we expected by the time we got there, but a quick shop for last minute provisions, and with Aly, Oumar and Mohammed on board, back to camp we went. A little after dark when we got in, but just in time to join Tina, Nat and Mark at the restaurant, and a reminder, to me at least, of the “special” Nazinga restaurant experience, i.e the usual “riz et poulet sauté”!

Whilst there, we heard from our friends and regular guides, Mama and Sakaro, with whom we hoped to set out on the first transects in the morning. Turns out their boss did not know we were coming, and also the Director of the ranch needs to be informed! A bit of a spanner in the works, but what we decided was simply to postpone transects until the 14th with no great loss of time. All felt that a day of familiarisation of the terrain and of the birds would be beneficial before work started anyway. This was all dependent on the director allowing us to go ahead!

13 Jan
This first morning at Nazinga we endeavoured to track down the Director of the camp. We arrived at his office at 0700, as instructed, but as he wasn’t there his deputy set out to find him. A short while later he drove up, and a brief meeting convened, during which the now properly informed man-in-charge gave authorisation for us to continue, happily including the assistance of Mama and Sakaro.

Above: The team at Nazinga Camp Observatory

Above: ...and the view from the Observatory!

Not surprisingly, the ranch was looking a little sorry for itself. Much had been recently burnt, later in the season than previously (as there had been more rain than usual, so grasses staying greener later). Still, this also meant that the lakes and “barrages” held more water than even in December of 2009, making birding pretty fruitful. As usual, lots of Bush Petronias were just about everywhere, and it seemed there were more Pygmy Sunbirds around than previously (almost as many as Scarlet Chested). Long-tailed Glossy, Purple Glossy and Lesser Blue-eared Starlings were noisily abundant near the water, and Orange-cheeked Waxbills, Red-billed Fire-finches and Yellow-fronted Canaries hopped busily on any open ground.

Above: The team looking for migrants from one of the barrages at Nazinga

Above: Black-headed Plover, Nazinga

Above: Aly taking notes at Nazinga

Pied Kingfishers piped overhead, as Squacco, Grey and Green-backed Herons lurked on the lake shore. Here too were several Swamp Flycatchers, sallying from shrubby overhangs. Larger trees held Bearded Barbet, Grey Woodpecker and Northern Puffback, with distant Fork-tailed Drongo and Northern Black Flycatcher providing a bit of a test of identification skills (the translated French name for the latter is, I believe, Drongo Flycatcher!). In the drier patches of wood, especially of Anogeissus, Pied Flycatchers were readily spotted and heard. It felt as if these trees were in fact greener than at the same time last winter, so would we see more Pied Flycatchers on the transects?

We were to do two transects per morning, so they would be done in half the time, with Mark recording the birds for one “team”, me the other. Over the five days, Aly, Mohammed, Nat, Oumar and Tina sorted out all the habitat and vegetation recording across the two groups, with Mama and Sakaro providing the trusty security.

Above: The team at the picnic site at Nazinga, a site that held Pied Flycatchers

14 Jan
Breakfast was a head-torched gathering in the pre-dawn gloom, round at Tina’s, then all in the car for the short drive into the village zone outside the ranch. As expected all the crops were already harvested, with the usual scattering of low-intensity stubbles of millet, maize, sorghum, ground nut, sesame and cotton. Usual suspects ,too, on the bird front. Senegal Eremomelas twittering occasionally, a Brubru “wheezing” here and there, and seemingly plenty of wing-clapping Flappet Larks. Not always the usual migrants, however. A few Whinchats, 2 Woodchat Shrikes and a Northern Wheatear were not such a surprise, but the flushing of 3 Eurasian Wrynecks was, as we’d not seen any at Nazinga before.

15 Jan-18 Jan
Four further days of surveys this time sampling the mix of habitats to be found within the ranch. With the extent of the burning, I was most surprised at the lack of Hueglin’s Wheatears. Last season they appeared to enjoy the very worst-burnt zones. Maybe this year we were a little too early? Bush Petronias everywhere, of course, Pale Flycatchers and White-winged Black Tits seen now and then in the wooded savannah, the occasional Bateleur overhead, and on one transect along a river, a couple of Woolly-necked Storks took flight from a tree along with 3 Grey Herons, 2 Hadada Ibis, and a Hamerkop. Migrant-wise, however, a Black Stork was pretty good too, and also a few Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers were noted near water. The few migrant passerines noted over the 4 days included just 2 Pied Flycatchers, a Whinchat, a solitary, but singing, Willow Warbler, Yellow Wagtails and Barn Swallows.

Above: A male Bataleur soars above Transect 6

Although it seemed at first the field teams were a bit on the large side, with four or five at a time, it worked brilliantly and efficiently, and everyone gained from the shared experience and exchange of ideas.

19th Jan Our final morning at Nazinga, and a day to test and train those bird-ringing skills. Having prepared the site and set the nets last night, the full team (of 10!) arrived at about 06:30 to open up. This was the same site that Tim Walker, Aly and Mohammed (with Sakaro and Daniel) ringed at last year, on the very last day of the work programme in March. That day they were very busy with 130 birds, almost all in the first net-round (mostly sunbirds!). This time would be different, wouldn’t it? 6 nets opened, and another 2 put up on arrival. The team did amazingly with over 150 birds caught – 70 of them Scarlet-chested Sunbirds, with a few Beautiful and Pygmy Sunbirds too. Also caught were Red-billed, Bar-breasted and Black-faced Firefinches, Northern Red Bishops and Yellow-mantled Widowbirds, a few Brown Babblers, and the recapture of two Red-throated Bee-eaters from last year. The highlight perhaps was the sole migrant caught – Western Olivaceous Warbler. The first I had seen at Nazinga (at least, confirmed. I thought I saw one very late on during the March spell last year). An excellent morning of team-work – very well done to all. Thanks especially to non-ringers Abraham, Mama and Sakaro for the extra pairs of hands!

Above: Mohammed takes down the data during the Nazinga ringing session

Above: Olivaceous Warbler - the only migrant caught at Nazinga

With the sun getting too strong to continue, we packed up at 10:30 and made our may back to camp to prepare to leave Nazinga after lunch.

Before parting company, Aly and Oumar first handed over their data from Oursi so far (3 visits to 8 transects, and multiple ringing sessions). A sterling job by them, in particular in their modification of the ringing sites (so much water at Oursi meant 3 of last year’s 4 ringing sites were under water!), and in their determination to reach the most distant ringing site several kilometres over the dunes to the North. With a very few nets they have caught 561 birds to the end of December, including 118 migrants. These have been mostly Common Redstarts, Whitethroats and Chiffchaffs, Western Olivaceous, Western Bonelli’s, Melodious and Subalpine Warblers, and also a few Garden Warblers in early November. New birds to be caught have included Tree Pipit, Sedge Warbler and Blackcap. Also interestingly they have retrapped a few Whitethroats from last winter, all of them at the “Oursi North” site.

Above: One of the Oursi ringing sites - under water

Above: Oursi captures: Grey-headed Kingfisher...

Above: ... and female Blackcap

A check of the transect data sheets and everything looked immaculately presented. A few queries ironed out and the Oursi guys were all set to get the next round under way upon their return home. Some quick goodbyes in English, French and a mix of the two, and the three Burkinabes piled into the car, with Abraham chauffeuring them back to their Ouagadougou-bound bus at Po.

3 hours later Abraham returned, then more goodbyes to the ranch staff followed by our hasty escape, in an effort to get out and south across the border before its alledged closure at 1800hrs. We arrive at 17:30, and are through into Ghana at 18:00 exactly! We return to the CEDEC guesthouse at Navrongo, ready to revisit the Tono Dam area the following day.

26th November - mid December

2010-12-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

After work in Bia NP on the morning of 26th November, the team moved north and set up camp in the zone where grassy savanna gives way to forest. It very quickly became apparent that this area of thickets and scattered trees within an agricultural landscape was excellent for Nightingales (about 40 located within 2km of the camp) and Melodious Warblers in particular, with reasonable numbers of Spotted Flycatchers and Whinchats too as well as some Pied Flycatchers and Willow Warblers. Only numbers of Garden Warblers were a little disappointing but we managed to tape lure two on our final morning of ringing here. We visited the site where a British-ringed Whinchat was recovered (with a catapult….) a few years ago, discovering a large maize field – with 2-3 Whinchats foraging within it!

Above: Tina (GWS) surveys migrants at the site where a British-ringed Whinchat was recently recovered.

Our next stop, on 4th December in the hills north of Kumasi that form a relatively sharp boundary between the forest to the south and west and the savannas in their rain shadow to the north-east, was intended primarily as a search for sites where the likes of Garden Warbler were more apparent. Garden Warblers were certainly easier to find than to the west – they could often be found feeding around the flowers of the towering leafless Bombax trees, in the company of sunbirds and bulbuls. On one occasion, a single tree held a party of six.
Our next mission was a dash north to check out the Whinchat population of the Daka floodplain, close to the old merchant town of Salaga. This entailed a trip across the Volta in a ferry that had no timetable or guaranteed sailings, a frustrating state of affairs that lead to an overnight stay in the port of Yeji waiting for a chance to cross. When we did reach Salaga we found a slightly strange and run-down place with a cheery sign saying ‘Welcome to Salaga Slave Market!’ next to the baobab tree that slaves were once tied to before being sold on to coastal traders, and a guesthouse called ‘Prison’ – we, however, opted for the alternative ‘Home At Last’. At the floodplain we counted about 50 Whinchats from the road that crosses it. There were also good numbers of waders, especially Wood Sandpipers but also some Common Snipe, Greenshank and one Painted Snipe. We were mesmerised by the brilliant Carmine Bee-eaters that roamed in flocks and lined bushes, trees and overhead cables and enthralled by the diverse avifauna of the surrounding savanna woodlands that provided such treats as White-shouldered Black Tit, African Hobby, African Blue Flycatcher and African Darter.

Time, however, was running short and it was soon time to head south again, our plans to colour-ring Whinchats having been thwarted by a lack of bait for our spring traps. Despite arriving in what should have been plenty of time, we arrived at the port of Makanga on the north side of the Volta to see the ferry leaving the quay on its way back to Yeji! Horrified but wishing to be free of its erratic sailings, we turned straight round and began to the long drive round to Kumasi via Tamale and arrived at our next destination around the middle of the next day (12th December). Here we found an excellent mix of migrants by surveying both forest remnants amongst the farmland and more open habitats and recorded totals of 11 Nightingales, 8 Garden Warblers, 7 Willow Warblers, 5 Melodious Warblers, 5 Spotted Flycatchers, 4 Whinchats and1 Pied Flycatcher in a morning’s surveying.

Keen to make best use of our last four remaining days we then headed to the southern end of the Mampongtin Range to check out a relatively small area that had produced no less than 5 recoveries of BTO-ringed Garden Warblers over the years. The area had high human population density and correspondingly small amounts of semi-natural habitat remnants in the landscape so we were not surprised that the area proved a little disappointing over all but were amazed at the migrants that were sometimes crammed into the tiny patches that remained. The sight of 6 Willow Warblers that could be found throughout an entire morning in a single medium-sized flowering tree was quite enthralling, especially as the birds seemed to be having such a productive time there, hanging from flower clusters, clinging to the bark of the trunk and giving occasional bursts of song.

Moving west towards the forest zone we surveyed both the lowlands and the hill forests before heading to Winneba on the coast for our final morning of work before the Christmas break. A quick look at the lagoon, a RAMSAR site designated for its tern accumulations, in the evening produced good numbers of waders (especially Greenshanks) and terns, the highlight being a Terek Sandpiper – a very scarce visitor to Ghana and West Africa. The team headed back to Accra on 16th December after finding some Nightingales, Whinchats and Melodious Warblers in the scrub and grasslands behind the lagoon next morning and began preparations for our return home.

Above: The ‘Magic Tree’ that held six Willow Warblers and a Spotted Flycatcher.

Above: One of the Bombax trees that towered above the forest im places, covered in reddish flowers but without leaves. These attracted Garden Warblers and Willow Warblers amongst the sunbirds and bulbuls.

14th November - 26th November

2010-11-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

The evening of 14th November saw my (Chris Hewson, BTO team co-leader) arrival from the UK for a month’s fieldwork before Christmas. This coincided precisely with the remnants of the existing team (Chris O, Tina and driver Abraham with Mohamed having returned north to Burkina) arriving back in Accra to regroup and have the car repaired before returning to the field. Unfortunately the latter turned into something of a saga – when we took the car to the Toyota dealership on Monday morning we were told that fixing the source of the leaking oil was not a simple task and that although work would begin later that day, the following day was a public holiday so we shouldn’t expect it to be finished until the end of Wednesday. A Thursday morning start didn’t seem too bad a proposition but Wednesday afternoon became Thursday and Thursday became Friday morning before we were told the car was ready for collection. Our patience was tested to the limit upon arriving at Toyota on the morning of Friday 19th to be told that in fact the car wasn’t ready and not only that, its completion required a part that the dealership didn’t have! To cut a long story short, we were promised the car would be ready if we came back after the weekend and Monday afternoon was agreed.

Taking pity on our plight, GWS kindly loaned the team a car for the weekend so we could at last get some fieldwork done and we headed down to Brenu Beach, west of Cape Coast, where we had arranged to meet Justus Deikumah, a PhD candidate from University of Cape Coast, so that he could train us in blood sampling techniques as part of a project looking at chronic stress in birds in forest fragments. Upon arrival the whole area appeared much greener than at even a month earlier the previous year. Despite being rained off on two of the three mornings we tried to ring here, we did catch an array of Afrotropical species as well as two migrants – a Garden Warbler and a Nightingale. A quick look around the hill immediately behind our accommodation produced 3 Nightingales calling, 3 Spotted Flycatchers and about 8 Yellow Wagtails. Other birds in the area included Slender-billed and Orange Weavers (two species restricted to the coastal zone in West Africa - an active colony of the latter with nests hanging from mangroves over a nearby lagoon providing pleasant distraction), Brown-headed Tchagra and a Snowy-crowned Robin-chat seen repeatedly chasing a Spotted Flycatcher from one particular woodland edge – the territorial behaviour of the intra-African migrant has previously been well documented but we were surprised to witness a Spot Fly rather than the expected Nightingale being on the receiving end!

Above: Tina (GWS) juggling yams on our way to Bia NP.

The team returned to Accra and finally collected the car late on the afternoon of Monday 22nd. With tyre changing / balancing / wheel alignment still to come, as well as packing our equipment and doing our food shopping, it wasn’t until Tuesday late-morning that we left Accra behind and were off on the next phase of our field mission. We made good progress along the coast but wouldn’t make our destination that day. However, after refuelling and resting overnight in Takoradi, on Wednesday morning the team headed on to the Bia NP with only one thing on their minds: Phylloscopus sibilitrix.
Given that the Wood Warbler has declined by 61% on the last 13 years alone in Britain and by 26% in 17 years in Europe, it was with hope rather than expectation of finding this species that the team set up camp at New Debiso, at the northern end of Bia NP. The winter habits of this species are not well-known and although they had been reported as fairly common at this site 5-6 years ago, they had not been found by the same team last winter. Our first morning excursion in the forest on 25th reminded us why we knew we would do well to find any, even if they were around: birds of any species are not easy to spot, let alone identify, in the forest canopy. Armed with the knowledge that we were most likely to find Wood Warblers around flowering trees (where like other species they feed on insects attracted to the flowers) we set off looking for clearings from which we could view the canopy. We didn’t find any sign of Wood Warblers at all but did record a good selection of forest-zone birds including Usher’s Flycatcher, Blue Cuckoo-shrike, African Emerald Cuckoo and African Goshawk. Whether Wood Warblers were present and we failed to find them, whether we were too early in the winter or whether they don’t occur in Bia in significant any numbers any more we just didn’t know….

6th - 14th November 2010 - roving fieldwork continues. From Wechiau to Bui

2010-11-14T03:35:00.000-08:00

6th November - Chris Orsman writes: After 24 hrs more rest than was planned at the Catholic Guesthouse in Wa (one team member a little under the weather, i.e me), at mid-day we headed off towards Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary in our continuing hunt for migrants. The town of Wechiau is itself just over 40 km from Wa, and here is where one finds the information centre for the sanctuary. Upon arrival, the place looked decidedly closed, but a man soon came bounding along to open up to tell us all about the reservation, and the fees to stay. After explaining the purpose of our visit (and of our hopes to get a discount) he called in the manager. A few minutes later he arrived, agreed on a small reduction in the price, and arranged for a guide to accompany us to the accommodation. By the time we were back in the car, our guide had sailed past on his bicycle, pedalling his way the 18km further to reach the sanctuary boundary.
The sanctuary lodgings were just on the fringes of a scattered array of buildings, making up Talawna, the last settlement before the reserve, and set in very open but largely un-grazed short grassland. With the tents set up, Abraham and Tina cooked and we all ate with the lodge caretaker, Yusuf, and our guide, Joshua.
The sanctuary is a community based project, protecting about 40km of the Black Volta along Ghana’s western border with Burkina Faso. Although there are about 50 hippos here, we didn’t have our hopes up of seeing any. Water levels were so high after exceptional rains, so the hippos had plenty of places to hide out. Besides, we were there for the birds!

Wechiau grasslands

7th November - Chris Orsman writes: For our first timed species count, Joshua took us from the lodge, down to the river, and aiming for a walk along the riverside, assuming any riparian forest, like Gbele, would perhaps have the best habitat for migrants. On the walk to the start we had Tree Pipit, a couple of Sun Larks, and some other typical Northern savannah sp, such as Vinaceous Doves, Black-billed Wood Doves, Pale Flycatcher and Bush Petronia (all very familiar to me from working in Burkina Faso’s Nazinga Ranch last winter). 20 minutes later we reached the boundary of the “protected” zone, a 1km buffer along the riverbank, within which no human activity, save fishing, takes place. We decided to start the count here. The walk through this open wooded savannah produced just 1 Willow Warbler and a Pied Flycatcher on the migrant front, but amongst the local residents, we spotted a colour-ringed Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu. No metal ring, but yellow left leg, green right, should anyone be missing one from their caged collection!! A half hour later, and we were into the riparian woodland. Heading south with the river, amongst the Violet Turacos, African Thrushes, Grey-backed Camaropteras and single Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrike, we came across a further 10 Pied Flycatchers, 4 Willow Warblers, and a single Melodious Warbler in song. Joshua then led us through the dense grass away from the river, to find a footpath and a shortcut back to the camp.
At lunch we were entertained by a Zitting Cisticola, which was clearly holding territory in the grass next to the camp. Every few minutes it was up and overhead, quite high but also so small that you could barely see it against the bright blue mid-day sky. A short rest later, and Tina, Mohammed and I set off to check on other possible areas for survey the next day. Following a track through otherwise un-promising grassland, we encountered 3 Whinchats all within 100m or so of each other. Information on a board within the sanctuary does mention that it is an important area for them. This, combined with our eventual discovery of a wooded stream (maybe good for Willow and Melodious Warblers?), led us to conclude that this route would be worth pursuing the following day.

River Volta at Wechiau

Where a Melodious Warbler was singing at Wechiau

8th November - Chris Orsman writes: No Whinchats! Maybe we were just a little too early to find them in the same grassland as yesterday, as there was a slight mist which left everything cool and damp. This did eventually burn off but by then we were heading into slightly more wooded savannah areas. Here the grass was home to Northern Red Bishops, Yellow-mantled Widowbirds, Orange-cheeked Waxbills and Bronze Mannikins. We did hear in the distance a Willow Warbler singing, and a further 3 were seen before arriving at the stream. Full of hope we diverted off the track to follow the stream. It’s sparse ribbon of short trees and shrubs yielded but 1 Pied Flycatcher. Perhaps not surprisingly another 3 were seen in the last half hour of the survey, by which time the stream had arrived at the main river, and the associated open forest habitat was more suitable.
That evening we went in search of yet more options for surveying. Joshua took us some 7 km further along the morning’s track, south along the reserve boundary, to the next but one village. Although Joshua didn’t know the area well himself, he told us that another of the guides (sadly absent on a computing course in Accra) was a real local bird expert, and that he would take groups to this area for birding. I volunteered to drive, as Abraham was busy preparing the evening meal. My first bit of “off-roading” in Ghana! The drive along the tram-lined track was fine to begin with, but in places it was a pretty rough and overgrown, so much so that I barely noticed when we began to cut through someone’s maize field! Assured by the farmer (who came to give us directions) that we were still on the track, we continued on, with further occasional stops for confirmation from passers-by that we were on the right road. It came to an end where a group of folk were sat under a large baobab. After exchanging pleasantries, our mission was explained, and the local chief was summoned (for a change! Normally we’d be summoned to him!). It turned out he was the sanctuary ranger for that stretch of the river, and wanted to guide us along the path to it. So off we went, on a short hike that took us through a few crops and eventually the 1km buffer to the river’s edge. Some of what we saw habitat-wise looked promising, and we thought it would be worth going straight in to this section of the river with a point count transect, perhaps after point counts at the first river section (visited yesterday). A walk back in the half light to the baobab (tip-toing at speed along a 15m stretch of path covered in small but very bitey ants), our thanks were given to the ranger, and of course hi-fives to the local kids, then headed back (in the near-dark on that same track!) for a another delicious meal from Abraham, this time boiled yam and a fish & tomato sauce.

9th & 10th November - Chris Orsman writes: Having already spent 2 mornings at Wechiau, we were fairly confident that we were unlikely to encounter any other migrant species, and that we weren’t missing any skulkers that could be found by setting up nets for a morning’s ringing. We might have been wrong of course, but the next 2 days of point count transects further confirmed that the area was being used by Willow Warblers, Melodious Warblers and Pied Flycatchers (plus the Whinchats of course) and probably not much else on the migrant front – at least not at this time of year. Also, there was no obvious place to put the nets within the buffer zone without the need for a lot of vegetation clearance, likely to be a big no-no. On the plus side, on the point counts, including the “new” section we explored on the 8th, were new species - for me at least - such as Oriole Warbler, Yellow-breasted Apalis and Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike.
With one eye on the time that was left before having to return to Accra, we packed up camp on the 10th, and after our goodbyes to Joshua and Yusuf, we headed back to Wechiau town itself in order to pay our bill at the visitor centre. An unusally quick exchange of cash and receipt, and we were back on board the 4x4 and heading for Wa. The journey, as always, took longer than expected.
The latest tip from the ever-helpful Augustus for somewhere to check for migrants was the shrublands on the banks of Lake Volta in the vicinity of Buipe, on the border of Northern and Brong-Ahafo regions. We didn’t expect to get quite that far, and as it was we could only manage to get as far as Damongo. We stopped at the same guest house as last year’s team, when they were in the area for a week each month for transects and ringing. After some difficulty finding a place to eat (to give Abraham a night off the catering duties!) we settled on Palace View restaurant - perfectly reasonable – and then back to what by now, under fluorescent lights, were our bug-infested lodgings.

11th November - Chris Orsman writes: This morning I tried in vain to get my own computer working. It is what I’ve been mostly using for data entry and email, and Tina has been using the other. However, for some reason my own blew a fuse with the car charger, and now I can’t even charge by the mains. Need to get this sorted in Accra. Having established it’s un-useable, I gave Juliet a quick call for an update on everything else, and spoke to Chris H just ahead of his arrival in Accra on the 14th. So it was after mid-day by the time we set off towards Buipe. Upon arrival, we set about investigating the suitability of the habitat on the lake shore for our work, but when crossing the bridge south from Buipe to take a look, we soon realised that the water levels were extremely high. Many of the lakeside buildings had been completely swamped, with just the rooftops visible. Uncertain as to whether it would be practical to survey the flooded scrublands, we next paid a visit to the District Coordinator’s office, where we had been told we could find out what permission was needed to work on the lake shore. Speaking to the coordinator’s deputy, it transpired that there is a dispute between local chiefs as to the ownership of land, and after a phone-call to the DC himself, he suggested that in his absence we best forego any work until such time as he could be around to fix things for us.
Thus with time marching on, we decided to cut our losses and instead make for Bui National Park, which meant a trip south from Buipe to find a place to overnight en route. Kintampo looked like a sensible spot, and we reached it just before dusk, in time to have a quick look round for a cheap hotel (and spot my first African Pied Wagtail!), a quick bite, and an early bed with a view to setting off early the following day.

Buipe floods...

12th November - Chris Orsman writes: Set off this morning from the Life Hotel in Kintampo at 5am. For a full morning’s fieldwork an earlier start might have been in order, but we realised that we still had to get permission to do any work from the Wildlife Office at the park itself. Driving what appeared on the map to be poor roads, we were pleased to find that the journey took just under 2 hours. The second half of the road as far as Bui town itself was very good, and we guessed this was new due to a new dam being built at the southern end of the park. I did in fact wonder whether we’d be allowed to do any research here at all, as although protected, the park is clearly not protected enough if a dam can be built which will swamp all of the riparian forest. Would our research be treated with suspicion? I was gearing up to underplay our significance (not easy!!) when explaining our work to the Wildlife Office. I needn’t have worried.
Beyond Bui town we rolled up to the community which surrounds the park admin centre, a small collection of large wooden huts, some homes, some noisy classrooms, and some offices, stopping at the latter to find someone to ask for permission for our work. We first met a young woman, who wasn’t quite sure what to suggest. Then a young chap rode by on his bike and thought he knew who to ask, so we jumped back in the car and followed him a short distance to the other side of the “camp”, where an elderly gentleman greeted us and seemed happy to see us. He then vanished, and returned with a young chap dressed in park ranger gear. He too welcomed us, but it still wasn’t clear how we were to get permission. Eventually, we were taken to the home of the park manager, who agreed quite cheerily to meet us back at the first office to discuss our plans. At our meeting, Paul, the said manager, was absolutely delighted that we had come, in particular to study birds. It turns out that he spent some time birdwatching during his training and absolutely loved the experience, only wishing that he could do more. So we were staying! Next, Paul called upon Peter, who had a pretty good knowledge of local birds, to be our guide. We ventured on in the 4WD to reach the edge of the park (another 2km or so on some pretty rough track) with a view to trying at least part of a survey that morning. What we weren’t expecting was to find the track passed right through a last small community at the park boundary. Following another friendly greeting from a few of the locals, I wondered whether in this idyllic setting it would be possible to pitch our tents, and save the rather rocky road back and forth to the camp. Yet again we were surprised when we were guided through the heart of the village, and invited to set up camp right in the middle of someone’s front yard! Delighted with this location, but hesitant because of the apparent imposition, we politely accepted, adn in order to make the most of the rest of the morning, we left Abraham to set the tents whilst Peter took us into the park.
The route from the village took us once again through wooded grasslands, but on the whole with more trees and shrubs than was evident at Wechiau. Crossing into the park immediately you were in denser savannah woodland, and denser still as we dropped down towards the Black Volta. As we walked we had to duck frequently to avoid spider webs which were invariably at face height, and home to some particularly ferocious looking beasts! En route were a few new species, including Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Green-headed Sunbird and Green Turaco. Also we disturbed a Pearl Spotted Owlet, the first that I’d seen, even though I heard them almost daily during our visits to Nazinga last year. Despite the late start, we still encountered a Willow Warbler and a total of 5 Pied Flycatchers.
Returning to camp we found the tents set and our lunch ready, and looking on were the some of the village children, wondering who we were and what we were up to. Tina soon had the children entranced, with her story-telling, singing and games, but was quite firm when it was time for us to eat, and the kids obligingly vanished. After our early start, and in the heat of the afternoon, some rest was in order, before a walk late afternoon to look for another route for the next day. On this stroll a White-breasted Cuckoo-shrike was a new find.
Later that evening even more children turned up to be entertained (by Tina), and remained until well past the team’s bedtime! Once again they had to be sent packing. It was a Friday night so they were in no hurry to get to bed with no school the next day. We chatted for a while with one of the community leaders, Maxwell, Peter’s brother. He is a lonely voice in the community (and even in the group of communities) that will be displaced when the Bui Dam is constructed and the valley flooded. In spite of the impending displacement, Maxwell’s deepest concerns are for the hippo population in the Volta, and he fears that the flooding will render useless the habitat for the hippos, and feels he hasn’t had sufficient reassurances that they will be relocated to safe and suitable ares downstream Without this, he believes they will either perish locally, or become bush meat as they wander in search of better habitat up-river in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

Bui parkOne of the Bui spiders!....

The local youth at Bui

13th November - Chris Orsman writes: A full morning search in the Bui forest yielded Blue-bellied Roller, Splendid Sunbird and Tropical Boubou in a list of just 29 species, and disappointing numbers of migrants – just 4 Pied Flycatchers. Piping Hornbill was new. Our final afternoon in the field before heading to Accra was spent catching up on all our notes for the previous few days. A rather sad handover from Mohammed of the bits of equipment he’d been using preceded his departure for Burkina the next day.

14th November - Chris Orsman writes: Following a quick breakfast and to the cheery waves of what appeared to be the whole village, we left Bui on the Sunday morning, and made for Terchiman and the bus station for Mohammed’s return north. A large, loud and rude man barked nonsense at us about how long the bus would take, so I wasn’t that confident in the service we were paying for, but fortuneately French-speaking Mohammed found another Burkinabe to sit with for the journey, and he promised that he’d get to Ouagadougou!! Waving farewll once more, Tina, Abraham and I hit the road to Accra. We dropped Tina at bus station on the outskirts so she could get home west of Accra, whilst Abraham and I went on to the GWS office to unload, and prepare the car for its service the next day. Returned to the Pink Hostel and Abraham headed home, and later Augustus kindly dropped me at the airport to meet up with Chris Hewson. Chris appeared through arrivals at 22:20, and both a little wiped out we retired, agreeing to wait til the next day to discuss the next phase!

The Gbele Resource Reserve, Ghana 29th October to 3rd November 2010

2010-11-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

Tina Mensah-Pebi writes: The Gbele Resource Reserve is located at Walembele in the Sisala district of the Upper East region of Ghana. It is under the protection of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission and has two base camps, one in the north and a second in the south. The research team settled at the Wahabu Rangers’ camp.

River and riparian forest at Gbele

The early morning of Saturday, 30th October looked promising for Gbele reserve to accommodate large numbers of migrants, with the team recording about 10 Willow Warblers and 4 Pied Flycatchers. The Kawlpaw River that runs through the reserve served as an important place for diverse birds in the reserve. Taking a walk in the afternoon across the bridge in the reserve revealed splendid numbers of Willow Warblers and Pied Flycatchers happily moving from one plant to another - we even saw the amazing sight of five Willow Warblers on one small shrub in the middle of the river and two Pied Flycatchers moving-to-and-fro on a fruiting tree on the bank of the river close to the bridge.

Five Willow Warblers in one bush!

A second day’s search for Palaearctic migrants in the reserve still proved promising for both Willow Warblers and Pied Flycatchers, with a count of 16 and 11 respectively during one timed species count.

Mohammed and Tina habitat recording at Gbele

The team carried out point count transcets at Gbele on 1st November 2010. Out of the ten points counted, 7 Willow Warblers and 5 Pied Flycatchers were recorded.

Another point count transect was undertaken the following day (five minutes of counting every 200 metres). This recorded 4 Willow Warblers and 12 Pied Flycatchers on the points, with a further 5 Willow Warblers and 7 Pied Flycatchers between points.

Ringing followed early morning of Wednesday 3rd November 2010 and the first and only (for this site) Pied Flycatcher was caught on the first round of net inspection after opening at 6:00 prompt. A total of 63 birds were ringed, with a total of 10 Willow Warblers amongst a good number of Afro-tropical species, including the Snowy-crowned Robin Chat, Northern Puff-back, African Thrush, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Black-necked Weaver, Village Weaver, Common Wattle-eye, Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu, Red-billed Firefinch, Bar-breasted Firefinch, Yellow White-eye, Northern Grey-headed Sparrow, Blackcap Babbler, Orange-cheeked Waxbill and Black-winged (red) Bishop.

African Pygmy Kingfisher (above) and Common Wattle-eye (below)

We can thoroughly recommend the Gbele reserve to birders who visit Ghana - you will see an incredible diversity of species here, such as violet turaco, western grey plantain-eater, African golden oriole, giant kingfisher, pied kingfisher, lead coloured flycatcher, northern black flycatcher, yellow fronted tinkerbird, Senegal eremomela, African paradise flycatcher, wire-tailed swallow, vieillot’s barbet, brown babbler, red throated bee-eater, pin-tailed whydah, exclamatory paradise whydah, pygmy and scarlet-chested sunbirds, grey wood pecker, red shouldered cuckoo-shrike, lavender waxbill, common sandpiper, white-headed lapwing, green-backed heron, many egret species, Senegal coucal, Senegal parrot, Abyssinian roller, rose-ringed parakeet, bruce’s green pigeon, yellow-crowned gonolek, laughing, vinaceous and red-eyed doves, black-billed wood doves, black-headed tchagra, common bulbul, red-billed and African-grey horn bills, long-tailed, greater blue-eared and purple glossy starlings, cinnamon-rock bunting, bush petronia, red-winged pytilia, grey-backed camaroptera, Bataleur, village indigo bird, bronze manikin, northern red bishop, klaas’s cuckoo, double-spurred francolin, yellow-billed shrike, fork-tailed drongo,, and many more.

At Tono Dam and the irrigation project sites, Ghana 24th to 29th October 2010

2010-10-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

Tina Mensah-Pebi writes: Seeking permission from the traditional authority of Navro-Pio and permission from the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR) Management, the project team were offered use of the dam area and a camping space at the Tono Guest house. On the first day of arrival the team visited the dam, noting that the habitat around the area looked promising for migrants. Three days of time species counts were carried out in the early mornings for about four hours. Day one recorded one Willow Warbler and a Reed Warbler, day two another Willow Warbler and a Common Sandpiper and day three a Spotted Flycatcher and a Willow Warbler. Among the surrounding reeds were Tawny-flanked Prinias always calling and Eurasian Marsh Harrier in flight. Willow Warblers were found foraging in fresh looking Madrax Thorns, both with and without flowers. The Reed Warbler’s call was heard in the reeds at the bank of the dam. The Common Sandpiper was seen at the fishpond area located in the Southwest of Tono. One silent Spotted Flycatcher was spotted between two trees of about 11m tall with a great cover of forbs underneath. A Levaillant’s Cuckoo was also seen on the 27th during the timed species count. On 28th, the search was carried out on a semi-natural agricultural area and migrants encountered were a Willow Warbler, a Yellow Wagtail (calling in flight), and the Eurasian Marsh Harrier. Unfortunately the numbers of migrants found in the good looking and promising area of Tono was not encouraging and so no ringing was undertaken.

Photos - 1) surveying from the top of Tono Dam, 2) the agricultural mosaic near the dam and 3) a rather bird-poor plantation near Tono

At the airstrip, Kulbia, Ghana 20th to 24th October 2010

2010-10-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

Tina Mensah-Pebi writes: Searching in a range of habitats the Ghana team started roving fieldwork, beginning in the northern parts of Ghana, and then heading southwards, with the purpose of getting some idea about how migrant occurrence varies away from the sites that were studied last year. Habitats that we will be looking at include areas such as stream courses, forest edges, patches of semi-natural habitat in agricultural lands, forest edges, open areas, patches of dense herbage and grasses as well as fruiting and flowering plants which are appealing areas for birds (as well as man!) to spend their time.

Grassland habitat near Navrongo

Driving between Navrongo and Bolgatanga in the Upper East region we headed to a disused airstrip, which served as the first camping area for the Ghana team (with permission from the local chief and elders of the nearby village of Kulbia).

The airstrip campsite near Kulbia (above) and meeting the local chief (below)

After four days stay, four migrants were recorded including three Willow Warblers, one Pied Flycatcher and one Hoopoe. This area covered a broad vegetation of Grassland and Opened woodland. Willow Warblers were found on a flowering tree along a stream on 22nd October during a time species count.

One of the Willow Warblers (above) and Tina extracting a captured bird (below)

One Pied Flycatcher was recorded out of 29 birds ringed at one site. The terrible experience on the airstrip was the inaccessibility to portable water, intensive hot temperature and insect bites.

Activities at Ouagadougou from 15th to 20th October 2010

2010-10-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

Tina Mensah-Pebi writes: Muhammed from Naturama, and Oumar and Ali from the Oursi Site Support Group joined the group from Accra on a five-day activity in Burkina Faso which included meetings on fieldwork methodology for the second phase of the migrant project, birding and two days of ringing. The lowest number so far captured in one mornings fieldwork was recorded at Gonse, with three birds; a Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu, a Black-rumped Waxbill and a Long-tailed Glossy Starling from five mist nets in an opened wooded savannah on the 16th of October. A good looking vegetation still looked promising for a second trial of ringing at the same site on the second day and two birds; Grey-backed Camaroptera and a Common Redstart were trapped. Juliet left Burkina Faso for London shortly afterwards with her enthusiastic and encouraging effort.

The Nature Park at Ouagadougou housed interesting, melodious, chanting, diverse bird species such as the Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Western Grey Plantain-eater, Vinaceous Dove, Laughing Dove, Village Indigo Bird, Little Bee-eater, White-billed Buffalo Weaver, Yellow-billed Shrike, Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu, Red-billed Firefinch, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, Common Bulbul, Double-spurred Francolin, African Paradise Flycatcher, Pied Kingfisher, Senegal Coucal, Hamerkop, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Northern Puffback and numerous species of sunbirds and weavers. Walking through the tumultuous path of birds, an attentive ear heard the calls of the Common Nightingale and the Western Bonelli’s Warbler.

The field team - Chris, Aly, Tina, Oumar, Mohammed and Abraham

Thanks to technology, Chris kept to his explicit leadership role and soon got both teams set for work in their respective places in Burkina Faso (Aly and Oumar) and Ghana (Chris, Tina, Mohammed and Abraham) by Wednesday the 20th of October.

The new field season has started!

2010-10-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

Juliet Vickery writes: Field season two for the Migrants in Africa team is underway – though 80% of the first 5 days was either in a car or an office. I am joining the team for the first week to help with setting things up, before heading back to the UK.

12 October 2010 - Chris Orsman (the RSPB field team leader) and I spend all day with our colleagues at the Ghana Wildlife Society, agreeing contracts , sorting insurance and licensing for the vehicle and driver to cross the border into Burkina Faso and arranging permits for the team to work in Forest Reserves and National Parks. We also had the task of inspecting equipment that had been stored in Accra since it was last used back in March – some sleeping bags were in serious need of airing!

13 October 2010 - The team leaves Accra before dawn to avoid the traffic, setting off on a 12-hour drive north to Tamale - a distance of almost 800km. Although good progress can be made on some roads, with surprisingly good tarmac, others needed more care with depressingly bad pot holes being very common. It's one way to see a lot of Ghana - albeit in a very narrow strip! The ‘team’ comprises Tina (who was with the team last years) and the driver Abraham who will be with Chris for the first month of roving field work (along with a Naturama field worker who we will pick up in Burkina Faso)

14 October 2010 – Crossing the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso at Paga. Having spent 12 hours in the caryesterday, we mae sure we made a few stops during the journey today, particularly as we crossed water bodies. We saw our first Palearctic migrants - a male Pied Flycatcher at Nasia and a few kilometres further north a group of juvenile Barn Swallows at Kukubila. A quick stop at Paga (minutes from the border) for rice and beans - a bargain at 2 cedis (just under £1). Paga is relatively famous for its pools of 'sacred crocodiles' - you can buy a sacrificial chicken to feed to them - this will apparently bring you good fortune. Perhaps more good fortune for the chicken salesmen than the chicken! It was all we could do to concentrate on our rice and beans - forget scrounging dogs and cats, we ate lunch with a large crocodile (ca 4 metres long) sitting motionless with a gaping jaw and a fixed stare just yards from our table.

Crossing the border was an expensive and rather protracted battle, with recent changes in visa charges meaning we faced a cost of 94,000 CFAs per visa (rather than the expected 10,000). With the alternative being to drive back to Accra and buy one cheaper there, we swallowed our frustration and delved into our pockets for the extra cash. This is where you are hit with the double whammy - the money changers at the border have an absolutely captive audience - stranded in no mans land between Ghana and Burkina, the nearest bank or cash point 200km away – they can set their price. We finally entered Burkina 3 hours later and ca £280.00 worse off! From here onwards the savannah landscape becomes more open and dusty - Acacias scattered across bare ground with farmed patches of millet and sorghum before reaching the outskirts of Ouagadougou (Ouaga for short) and being hit by the flood and buzz of a multitude of mopeds and bicycles. The end of another 12 hour journey.

15 October 2010 - Another day of negotiating contracts, this time with Naturama, our partner in Burkina Faso. Also, more equipment sorting, with the able help of Mohammed (our Naturama team member), Omar and Aly (members of the Oursi Site Support Group - the northern most site we worked at last winter). Sadly, and following FCO advice, our site at Oursi is now out of bounds to our UK project staff as there are risks from terrorist activity in Mali and Niger spilling over the border. In order to continue the work there, we are employing Aly and Omar to undertake a full schedule of ringing and point counts at Oursi, allowing the project to continue to collect data from the site. Through there work with Naturama and others in the past, and having worked and trained with the project team last winter, they are both highly competent and we are extremely thankful to have them on the team again.

16 October 2010 - An early start to set up a few nets in farmland at Gonsa, ca 15km west of Ouaga. Almost 80m of net and 3 hours of ringing yielded only 3 birds - the first bird of the 2010/2011 field season being a Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu, closely followed by a Black-rumped Waxbill and a magnificent Long-tailed Glossy Starling. Late in the evening Chris and the team drop me off at the airport - I must say goodbye here and return to the UK. It's been a hectic few days...

17 October 2010 – Sitting at Casablanca airport waiting for my flight connection and I receive a text from Chris Orsman - the first bird of the day in the net - a Common Redstart!

13th October 2010: starting the season - a team members perspective

2010-10-13T02:43:00.000-07:00

Tina Mensah-Pebi writes: The second phase of the study of Palaearctic migrants over-wintering Africa; Burkina Faso and Ghana with partners from RSPB and BTO commenced on the early morning of Wednesday, 13th of October, 2010. Driving on an even and alternating jagged road from Accra, a team of four including the driver (Chris Orsman; Juliet Vickery, both RSPB and Ernestina Mensah-Pebi ; Abraham Dotche, both Ghana Wildlife Society) travelled 700 kilometres and passed the night in Tamale. The journey to Burkina Faso continued the following morning till the team decided to stop for birding upon the sight of a busy vegetation cover around the Nasia Bridge on the Sisim River. The first migrant bird for the season was spotted on a tree at the bank of the river close to the bridge – a Pied Flycatcher. Soon the team arrived at Ouagadougou and at NATURAMA office and we were warmly welcomed by the staff and management Dr. George Oueda and Mr. Idrissa Zeba.

Naturama head office in Ouagadougou

Initial meeting of the season

Burkina Faso: last ringing update of the first field season

2010-04-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

Tim Walker writes: This, my final Ringing Report from Nazinga, is actually being written from the comfort of my own home. We have been back almost a week now and I am just about refocused on matters local. No longer am I woken by Laughing and Vinaceous Doves cooing their monotonous repertoires, but more by the harsh tones of the local Song Thrush. Exchange daily walk pasts through our camp by massive Elephants with the occasional slink across the lawn by the local moggie then you can appreciate the substantial lowering of the tone with regard immediate environment! However, I am grateful to return to 'normal' temperatures as it was becoming intolerably hot towards the end of our stay, not only for us Brits but also for the locals. Our stalwart trainees from the north, Aly and Omar, were suffering the humidity as they are used to a more dry heat.

On the ringing front, I've calculated that we did 10 sessions spending 36.5 hours with nets open, which averages out at 3.65 hours per session. This may not seem a lot, but one has to take into account the rapidly rising temperatures during the morning and the necessity to close nets before it gets too hot. The four sub sites each had the scheduled eight sessions between them plus the Village site had an extra session thrown in due to logistics with transect surveying. Having completed the ninth session, we were rather surprised to have only processed 227 new birds and 18 retraps. Furthermore, this total included but one new Redstart (the same as the previous visit), so we were scratching our heads as to where were all the migrants? Reports from the transects indicated that migrant numbers were still good, with more sightings in the latter few days.

So, more in blind faith, we set five nets at a new location for the final morning's session. This was on a promontory bisecting a small barrage (reservoir). Thirty minutes after unfurling the nets we undertook the first round and were rewarded with good numbers of birds, including two new Willow Warblers, a species that Chris had noticed an increase of on his transect work. Most birders will know of Sunbirds, which are an integral part of African fauna. Well this catch yielded what I suspect might be a record catch of one particular species, the Scarlet-chested Sunbird in one round. We caught an unlikely 56 individuals as well as 7 Beautiful and 2 Pygmy Sunbirds! (74% of the catch) Other gems included a sprinkling of Yellow White-eyes, 2 Senegal Batis, a Lead-coloured Flycatcher, and 2 Red-faced Cisticola.

Prior to this last session, we were entreated to some wonderful local species eg. a retrap Shikra, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Greater Honeyguide, Yellow-billed Shrike, Red-throated Bee-eaters, a Rufous-crowned Roller and an Abyssinian Roller, both from the same net at the same time about 2 feet apart!

Rufous-crowned Roller (top) and Abyssinian Roller (lower)

Other delightful local resident species were Brubru, Bronze Mannikins, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Pale Flycatcher, Grey-headed Kingfisher, African Blue Flycatcher, African Paradise Flycatcher, Brown-rumped Bunting, White-shouldered Black Tit, Lavender Waxbill, and Brown Babbler to name but a few!

African Blue Flycatcher - certainly stands out more than Spotted Flycatcher!

And a trio of Grey-headed Kingfishers....

Both Aly and Omar worked incredibly hard and were quick to learn. They are both well on the road to mastering extraction from mist nets and processing techniques and we look forward to working with them again next season. During the final days of our stay it seemed like perhaps more migrants still were beginning to filter through into the area from further south, so next year the project may continue fieldwork well into April. Six days after returning to the UK I have had my first Swallow north in the local water meadows. However, I am far from impressed by the most un-spring like weather and am having to wear gloves on the dog walk!