13th January: Back to Africa

Mark Hulme from BTO will be flying out to Ghana in a few days to resume fieldwork with our colleagues from GWS and Paul Watts, our new ringing volunteer. We are all waiting with interest, news on the numbers of migrants that the team finds – and hoping that they are more abundant than two months previously when the team last visited each of the sites.

18th December: Back from Ghana

The Ghana team finished fieldwork on 16^th December after more than 12 weeks continuous fieldwork and travel up and down the country. Tales of bad weather in England began to filter through and Ian Dillon arrived home on Friday 18^th to find a carpet of snow. I was not so lucky though and was sent home from the airport that evening and told they would ‘try again tomorrow’ to get my flight to Heathrow underway…. It was not long though before I arrived back in the UK to a carpet of snow and a heavily pregnant girlfriend, in sharp contrast to the balmy conditions of September that I had left behind!

Despite illness and other assorted challenges our team managed to carry out all of the surveys and ringing activities that we had hoped to during the pre-Christmas period. Although most migrants were still thin on the ground in the south, we had witnessed the arrival of good numbers of Willow Warblers from the north during the month or so since the rains had stopped. Prior to this African migrants (such as White-throated Bee-eaters and Shikras) had moved south with the rains, emphasising to us how migration was a truly pervasive phenomenon and not just restricted to birds coming from Europe. Good numbers of Pied Flycatchers had been present in the two northern sites since October although Spotted Flycatchers, seen in the two most southern sites, seemed to decline after November. The southern-most site, in the area around Kakum National Park, looked good for Wood Warblers as well as the likes of Garden Warblers and Nightingales in the surrounding farmland but was still drenched in rain and mist when we left and the only migrant noted was a single Tree Pipit. The drier scrub on the coast nearby held good numbers of Garden Warblers and Nightingales, though, suggesting that the moister areas inland might become more suitable once the rains had finally stopped there.

Burkina Faso: 1st December. An update from the last two weeks at Oursi

Chris Orsman writes: Since the last update all of the pre-Christmas transects and ringing have been completed at Oursi (we have two more visits after Christmas). Whereas last time we reported that there were fewer Whitethroats than in late October, we have since found them hiding 13km to the north of la Mare, in habitat that was chosen for the study as there were large areas of bare ground, degraded by livestock and wood removal. However this is interwoven by ribbons of at-times dense forest (although with a low canopy), formed where there are almost indiscernible shallow valleys where rainfall collects after running off the otherwise unyielding soils. A ringing site set up here in conjunction with the transects also trapped numbers of Whitethroats that had been absent elsewhere. Seems as though this is their preferred habitat at the moment, and some of them have been sub-singing quite vociferously, but it remains to be seen if this is maintained once the deciduous species have shed their leaves. This is also the best area we’ve found for Rufous Scrub Robin!Lately too Wheatears have become more in evidence, and although primarily Northern Wheatear, have most recently included our first Black-eared Wheatear, and, dare I say, it a “possible” Isabelline Wheatear! Rosemary thinks so! Happy to agree but not 100% from my views of it!!

Subalpine Warblers still present and occasionally singing but mainly around the lake or with a km or so. Bonelli’s warbler numbers continue to surprise, with birds calling and singing, sometimes from isolated shrubs in very open habitats. Even right up to the end of our 16 days at Oursi, there was an Olivaceous Warbler singing in the tree nearest to the camp at Oursi, but very few were pinned down on the transects themselves. The camp individual was at one point joined by a Subalpine Warbler, a Bonelli's Warbler and a Redstart, all in the same tree.

There are still good numbers of Turtle Doves exploding from lakeside scrub early morning, but not the 100's that were around a month ago. Woodchat Shrikes continue to be present in some numbers, whilst Southern Grey Shrike numbers seem to have increased, perhaps with the more local movement of birds from the Saharan zone. Hoopoes are more numerous than in October although numbers may have dwindled slightly since mid-Nov. We are all still struggling to determine the race of these (both African and European Hoopoe occur here), so sadly not all records will be of European birds.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are still not many hirundines! The ringing summary however should indicate that there were enough Yellow Wagtails around to attempt a roost catch with a tape, with moderate success. Lack of experience of larger pipits means that only 2 of 3 seen on transects could be identified with certainty. Wish I’d had a nice long lens on the camera for the third!

Other regional migrants have largely disappeared, such as the White-cheeked Bee-eater, whose numbers were increasing at our last visit late October, but are largely absent now. In early November we had begun to see them at Nazinga, so perhaps larger numbers are to be found there in the next couple of weeks. Highlights from the Mare itself include mostly things I didn’t see (!), including apparently 1000's of Collared Pratincoles (before our return to Oursi), Caspian Tern and Osprey. Numbers of Garganey are slowly rising, and many more Ringed and Kittlitz’s Plovers are making the most of the ever-larger expanses of grazed lake margin as the water recedes and the dung piles up! Marsh Harriers have been almost daily.

Ghana: 20 November. Transects looking better!

After struggling to see a migrant on the transect counts in the previous round in October, Chris Hewson says the mood of the team is looking up. He emails "Things looking up on the migrant front here - 5 Melodious and 4 Willow Warblers, 1 Whinchat, 1 Tree Pipit seen on 1st transect - 2 Willow, 1 Melodious and 1 Whinchat actually on points which makes a pleasant change!"

A note from Chris Orsman in Burkina Faso says they were struggling to find Melodious Warblers further north, whereas they were the commonest migrant in October. Melodious Warblers were in the last stages of moulting their feathers in the Sahel when the team arrived in October. Now they have finished they are filtering down further south. We suspected this might happen but it is great to actually observe these patterns - Phil Atkinson

Ghana: 20 November. Ringing at Damongo

Text message received from Ian Dillon reads: Pretty good catch of migrants this morning during the CES session - caught 13 Willow Warblers, 3 Melodious Warblers, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Whinchat, 1 Pied Flycatcher and 5 resident African species.

Ghana: 15-18 November. Accra, goodbye to Mick, hello to Ian!

Danaë Sheehan writes: The team is back in Accra for a couple of nights before heading back to Damongo. The last few days have been tough going - Nat having been in hospital with a bout of malaria (a real problem in these parts), and both Emmanuel and Mick with malarial symptoms. Having worked extremely hard for the last month, Mick has now come to the end of his stint and flies back to the UK, to a comfortable bed and a well earned rest! In his place is Ian Dillon, who has taken a break from his usual work at the RSPB for a months sabbatical to work with the team. As with Mick's arrival, Ian only gets a few hours rest from his flight before the team again heads north for the second round of counts.

Burkina Faso: 17 November. Start of the second visit to Oursi

Chris Orsman writes: We've managed to find the only cyber pc in Gorom-Gorom, the nearest town to our camp! Briefly, we've completed day 3 of our second visit to Oursi, and with Rosemary's help have managed to put up more nets, at least at site 1 (east of the Le Mare d'Oursi). On day one they caught 103 birds, but there were a lot of Quelea amongst those. Site two hasn't been expanded as there is less scope to do so, but this morning they still managed to catch 54 birds. There aren't huge numbers of migrants in the catches, but there are lots of unidentifiable juvenile weaver types which are having to be released "sans bague". Migrants present at the moment include plenty of Olivaceous, Subalpine and Bonelli's Warblers, more Orphean Warblers and Yellow Wagtails than before, but fewer Redstarts than last month, and no Whitethroats or Melodious Warblers (that we know of!). The transects are producing very few Wheatears in the more open plains than was hoped for, in fact they're rather barren of birds at all now that most of the resident species appear to have finished breeding. No hirundines have yet been seen on any of the transects this time round, although we have seen a few about otherwise. The crops are now largely in and the grass is now being grazed heavily since the livestock are more free to roam. This also means that the ringing team have to take extra vigilance at the nets as there are no warning signs that livestock are approaching as there was before!

Sleeping arrangements are much as before - a mozzie net on a wooden platform is all that is needed!