Nightingale Team: 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!
Posted on behalf of Vicky
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