Tuesday 11th Oct 2011 - Ghana Wildlife Society, Accra

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.