13th – 24th Feb: The (almost) 12 days of transects

A pretty gruelling trip of roving this time around!  Started off very well with a stop-over at the BTO team’s place (no time to visit the study site itself or help with fieldwork sadly, but great to see everyone) in Nsoatre.  An absolutely mind-blowing creation of various dishes was unveiled by Eric for our dinner.  Never eaten so well in Ghana – thanks Eric!

The next 11 mornings took in a loop from Asukese/Bia Tano and  Ayum forest reserves in SW Brong Ahafo Region, through Western Region’s Krokosua, Dadiaso, Boin River, Fure River and (slight hiccup in the loop here, with a puncture and a missing bridge meaning we couldn’t reach our intended destination of Samremboi, and had to divert some distance and do Fure River first, and then went on to…) Tano Nimiri.

Oppong & Japheth sort out a slight problem with the tyre....

....and find a solution to the missing bridge!



The usual pattern continued with, generally speaking, more wood warblers outside the forests than inside, although the farmland sampled at Krokosua was “thungya” plantain plantation inside the forest, where several wood warblers were located.  This “thungya” system is where plots within a forest can be farmed, provided all of the trees above a certain height are left in place.  In completely ruins the habitat for true forest specialists, as there is no natural understorey, and no mid-level canopy.  However, if sufficient trees of the right species mix are left to thrive then it would seem that wood warblers can be supported in reasonable numbers, just like any reasonably well-wooded farmland outside the forest.

There was mixed success when locating 1km transects at 5, 7 & 10km from the nearest forest, although we were surprisingly lucky in many instances to find good roads leading to good farm tracks that were within exactly the right distance band.  The presence/absence of wood warblers did not always follow the expected pattern however!  Some of the closer-to-forest transects held none, whilst one transect that we reached, at a full 15km from the nearest forest at the Dadieso site, did have a bird.  At this site we also had a bird at 7km, but none at 10km or 5km.  We hope that overall some patterns will emerge!  All of the ground covered is going to greatly improve the model for predicting wood warbler presence and absence in Ghana, ground-truthing for which was a large part of last season’s work.

As if the puncture and search for new tyre weren’t enough, though, a major car crisis emerged on day 7, when all sorts of horrid noises were coming from the clutch.  After a visit to a local garage and a few phone calls to the experts made by Japheth, and the prognosis was not going to be good if we continued to drive the car.  Thus it was decided that Oppong and I would take it gently to the garage at Tarkwa, whilst Roger and Japheth continued with the fieldwork without the car – but with taxis instead!

2 days in Tarkwa for two of us, then, during which a pricey car-job is undertaken. Once sorted, we head north again to meet the other two.  In the meantime, Rog and Japheth have managed to do a taxi-recce from Asenkagrua into the forest at Totua Shelterebelt, taxi to survey their chosen spot the next day, taxi on to Diaso, find accommodation, recce the farmed forest at Upper Wassaw, survey that the next morning, and taxi to and get accommodation at Bibiani.  Such a dedicated team we have that, despite the car being off the road, there’s been no break in the programme of fieldwork (and taxis much cheaper than car-hire too!) Absolutely sterling work chaps!

The final 2 mornings take in Asenanyo and Tano Offin forests in Ashanti Region.  Wood warblers are still present in all areas, but at the latter, a particularly degraded patch of forest, we get more of them inside the forest than outside.  The numbers are pretty small here though, so difficult to draw any conclusions, and the final 10km distance transect, getting pretty close now to Ghana's second city of Kumasi, finds no wood warblers at all.

A solitary Ceiba tree, occupied by a lone wood warbler

With lots of ground covered and little time to spare over the past 11 days, in 11 towns and 11 different guest houses and twice as many chop-bars, we’re looking forward to getting back to base at the study site get some data entered, count “our” birds, and get stuck into the radio-tracking once again. (oh, and wash some clothes!!!)

Prestea, and one of the nicer guest houses visited

Roger on one of the many rickety bridges crossed



Japheth, Roger & Oppong, in perhaps the smallest restaurant in Ghana!

Heading back to Pepease, we are only too aware of the change that is afoot over the next few days. Oppong, our driver, cook and companion over the last 2 seasons, is leaving us for pastures new. Soon after our arrival back at base, his good friend and replacement Derek arrives, to learn the ropes from Oppong before he departs on the 27^th. Fingers crossed Derek can cook at least as well as Oppong!!

9th – 12th Feb Record count on study site

An excellent couple of days on the study site with the big team, including an amazing tally of over 60 birds over three mornings of transect. With the department heads seeing the site for the first time all sorts of ideas are discussed as to the future directions and requirements for the project.  I think a few new “lifers” were had by one or two as well!  The highlight it seems was the reliably “resident” standard-winged nightjar that performed brilliantly in the gloom pre-dawn on the 10^th.

Surveying Pepease study site. Front to rear: John, Juliet, Danaë, David, Roger & Japheth

Newly-cleared understorey of denser forest block on Pepease study site

Once Danaë et al departed to investigate sites for roseate terns, the usual team of 4 prepared for a further 12 days of forest roving, but this was soon delayed by one day for a quickie service in Accra for the car.  Here’s hoping the car holds out for the rest of the season...

In the meantime, whilst waiting for the car, Roger goes birding around the farmland near to our lodgings, and amazingly stumbles accross the nest of a greyish eagle owl. What a find!

Back end of greyish eagle owl brooding chicks

Greyish eagle owl chick  - check later post for update!

29th Jan – 8th Feb A massive team on the move!

The wood warbler team heads out once again to the forest zone to recce the area in the very south west of Ghana, around Ankasa national park.  With a team of 8, and for 2 nights 11, we need to be sure we can secure reasonable accommodation along an appropriate transect of sites from Ankasa northwards to Dunkwa, so the first couple of days are spent on this task alone!

Ethiopian Swallows roost at Dunkwa guest house

A Dunkwa eaterie - not the best advertisment for it!

With this achieved, we carry out our first survey at Cape Three Points, and next morning Ankasa, and in all this wonderful forest, we find no wood warblers.  The team of experts cannot arrive too soon!

Bamboo grove within Cape Three Points forest

The team surveying a clearing for power lines in Ankasa

Roger scanning a forest pond in Ankasa: "Is that a white-breasted kingfisher?!"

On the 3^rd of Feb we are joined by driver Duncan, Dr Danaë Sheehan and Dr John Mallord from the RSPB, and Professor Tomasz Wesolowski from the University of Wrocslav in Poland. John has been the project leader on the RSPB’s UK wood warbler project since 2009, and Tomasz has been studying the wood warblers of the Bialowieza Forest in Poland for quite a bit longer than that!!  We return to Ankasa on their first morning, and lo-and-behold, we hear no wood warblers in a transect that starts about 300 metres in from the park entrance.

Tomasz, Roger, Japheth & John trying hard for wood warblers in Ankasa

Upon completion some 3 kilometres later, we head back to the exit  to try a few points of playback in the farmland immediately outside.  Whilst part of the team undertake the count, the keen-eyed Dr Mallord spots his first Ghana wood warbler in a flowering Ricinodendron, next to the river, right outside the park entrance. 

Farmland left, forest right, and (L) the solitary Ricinodendron home of our first Ankasa wood warbler

The recorders, not having seen the bird, then detect this individual themselves once they use the playback, when sure enough the wood warbler responds.  One further bird is found after 5 points in the farmland, and that’s after none across 30 points in 2 mornings inside the forest.

As we move north we are joined for a couple of nights in by Kasper Thorup and Anders Tottrup from the University of Copenhagen, and their driver and our old friend Emmanuel from GWS. With this enlarged team we split into two and cover twice the ground the next morning, in forest near to Tarkwa. Amazingly, the greater number of wood warblers is encountered in a large patch of plantain within one of the two forest blocks that we visit.

Roger & Japheth in farmland within "protected" forest - but it seems good for wood warblers

With this and our Ankasa experience in mind, we decide to change tactics the next morning.  After waving off Kasper an Anders as they head back to Accra, we set off for Nkonto Ben forest reserve near to Bogoso, again with two teams.  This time one team follows a logging track, and the other explores nearby farmland outside the reserve, so we can hopefully do more farmland points in one morning than we’ve managed before.  Although the forest team find 2 wood warblers during 4 hours and 3km of transect, the farmland team, walking along a road through very degraded looking habitat, manage 6!  Seeing as the  farmland is adjacent to forest, thoughts arise as to whether there may be a preference for this forest edge habitat.  We decide with our future transects to include “controls” away from the forest edge, at 5 and 10km distances.

On to Dunkwa once more (Whilst Danaë and John head back to Accra to meet with David Gibbons and Juliet Vickery, the rest of the team spend the next two mornings at Opon Mansi and Subin Shelterbelt forests respectively.  At the first site the team of Roger, Japheth and Tomasz find just 1 wood warbler in the forest (on the edge) and a few more in the farmland.  They also encounter a stretch which passes the awful mess created by illegal small-scale gold mining.  On our travels we come accross many of these eyesores, not only removing chunks of the forest, but polluting the waterways, and with scant regard for safety endangering the lives of those employed there.

Illegal open-cast gold mining

Meanwhile Oppong and I drive to and then walk Ikm transects at minimum distances of 5km, 7km and 10km from the nearest point of forest.  At none of these do we find any wood warblers.  Some of the habitat traversed is pretty intensive palm plantation, but there are still stands of trees here which one might think would support a wood warbler or two.  For example, in one spot there were 4 flowering Ricinodendron, the same species as was being used for foraging by the first Ankasa bird.  At Subin the roads are so bad that we cannot afford to drop of the team and then race around to the controls at 5, 7 & 10km, and then return to pick them up, so the team stays together to do 10 points in the forest then 5 in the farmland.  Again, the 5 farmland points yield more wood warblers than twice the length of transect inside the forest.  Once done, and now en route to Obuasi, we stop off at the 10km mark from nearest forest, and along 1km in quite badly degraded farmland we get no response from any wood warblers.

One of the many non-migrant highlights: dwarf bittern

Woodland kingfisher

Last leg back to Pepease, and we hear that Danaë, David, John and Juliet are already there.  Most amazingly, whilst waiting outside the accommodation for us to arrive, they are treated to good views of a wood warbler in one of the garden’s trees.  We near-residents haven’t even seen that!! There has been a melodious warbler around here a lot recently though……

15th-27th Jan: Into the forest zone....

After an unavoidable 2 nights in Accra to obtain our permit to work in the forest reserves, we head west along the Cape Coast road. The first bout of roving takes in Kakum national park and adjacent forest and farmland, and 4 other forest blocks in a transect south to north. We have moderate success finding wood warblers in degraded forest edges, but in the closed canopy within Kakum for example, we find none.  Without the playback this would come as no great surprise perhaps, but the output from the playback device is pretty powerful, and we’re fairly sure that we should have had some response if the birds were up there. Do they really not like the forest interior?

Further north near to Lake Bosumtwe we barely touch proper forest, our path taking us through farms within the forest reserve, and timber plantations that are perfectly normal practice in these reserves of resource, rather than those of biodiversity such as the national parks.  Here we detect double figures of wood warblers, with a minimum of 6 calling from within the rather regimented plantation. Again, more questions are raised as to the preferred habitat of wood warblers in Ghana!

Roger & Japheth listen out for wood warblers in plantation within Bowumtwi forest reserve

We return to the study site in Kwahu for a site survey, producing similar numbers of birds to our previous count 2 weeks ago, and also reminding us of just how good the wooded farmland is here with higher densities than all of the 6 sites we traversed in the previous week. With an up-coming visit from Dr Danaë Sheehan and several other luminaries from the UK, Denmark and Poland, we can expect plenty of discussion as to how to progress and answer many of the questions that we are left pondering.

Sunday 6th –Mon 14th Jan 2013 Back to Ghana, and a visit from the experts!

The New Year is underway, and the Ghana wood warbler team is augmented by the arrival from the UK of project manager Danaë Sheehan and head of species recovery Norbert Schaffer from the RSPB’s International department, and Franz Bairlein, from the Institute of Avian Research in Germany and one of the world’s foremost bird migration experts, all here to visit the study site and formulate a programme of fieldwork for the remainder of this season and for those to come.

After a brief visit to Ghana Wildlife Society HQ, we set off for the study site, the old team feeling a little anxious as to what first impressions the ‘new’ members will get from the wooded farmland at Pepease.  For our first morning in the field we walk the usual transect route that we follow to do the regular wood warbler survey.  Our own first impressions are that the vegetation has not dried out anything near as much as it had done by January of last year.  The air is dry, suggesting the harmattan may be just starting, but very little burning has taken place.  Thankfully we’re able to find a few wood warblers for the visitors, but here in the eastern section of the site, where no wood warblers were ringed last month, no colour ringed birds are spotted.  The following morning we head for the western side, where last month we caught and colour-ringed 11 birds.  This time we spot 4 of these, and a decent number of unringed individuals too.  Of note was the number of birds that could be seen with incomplete tails, demonstrating nicely that they are well into their winter moult.  All in all a great introduction to the site, and aside from the field visits some very interesting discussions about the future directions for the fieldwork were had.

Danaë, Norbert and Franz continued their Ghana visit with a trip to the lowland forest zone, whilst over the next 3 days we undertook a full site survey, with additional waypoints through a site extension encompassing the area inhabited by Black Star, our second tagged bird from last November. We then tackled the issue of some habitat recording for the areas occupied by the three tagged birds from November and December, and also spent time dissecting some of the whole-site habitat survey from the end of last season, before we embark on mapping any changes in late March.  Throughout this period we note that after the dry air of the 7th and 8th of January, the humidity levels have risen again.  There really is no sign of the harmattan yet....

Our study-site tasks completed, we then planned our own foray into the forest zone.  With the local wood warblers in moult rendering them near un-taggable, and after our experience last season of failing to catch any in January and early February (save the one tail-less individual!), our next job is to visit as many of the forest blocks in the south as possible. The aim is as last season – to prove or otherwise the presence of wood warblers in the forests that we have not yet visited, to improve the model that will help to predict the presence or absence of wood warblers elsewhere.  On top of this, we will attempt to measure wood warbler densities in the varying forest types and qualities, and where time permits, the adjacent farmland.  Should prove pretty interesting!!

1st - 12th December - Final push to catch more birds

These last two weeks have flown by!   After expressing a wish to catch more wood warblers in our last post, on the 2nd December the team managed to get a third, and was named Cocoa.  Unfortunately with one of our two radio receivers out of action, it did mean that we had to leave it at 3 birds to track - enough to keep the team busy with 3 tracks per bird per day.  This only lasted until the 6th, however, as by then Roger and Japheth were having problems with Black Star. The problem was solved when they found its tag on the ground, attached to a moulted tail feather.  This is about the time when they should be starting their moult, and so it came as no great surprise.

With Black Star now out of the picture, so to speak, and just 2 trackable wood warblers remaining, we wondered whether it was wise to try and tag another bird with just a few days left, when a tag can last up to 3 weeks.  We decided against it after carrying out a site survey on the 7th.  When using playback to illicit a response from birds otherwise not seen, both Asante and Cocoa were detected, their colour rings clearly visible.  Also, a much greater number of birds appeared to be around, compared to our earlier counts on the 16th & 17th November, and, it seemed, more than were around even since Cocoa was caught.  Therefore some more trapping effort was embarked upon to just colour-ring as many as possible.  Having learnt last season that we can resight November & December-caught birds even in late March, the more colour-ringed birds around, the better. 

Asante's tag eventually failed on the 9th, which allowed Roger and Japheth even more time to try catching and colour-ringing.  In the last few days in the field, in between tracking, R & J colour-ringed another 8 wood warblers - a testament to their great effort, but also perhaps to the genuine increase in overall numbers now present.  We now have 10 colour-ringed birds on the main site, plus Black Star a few hundred metres outside.  Should provide us with some extra home-range info if we get any resightings from January.

We wrapped up on the study site on the 12th, with Japheth and Oppong returning to Accra, hopefully for a good rest!  Now back in the UK, Roger and I will re-group with and expanded team on the 6th of Jan, and will hopefully be back in the field on the 8th.

For the time being, have a Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2013!

21st-30th November Tracking gets tricky, and more birds are required!

Lately things have been proving difficult.  On the evening of Asante’s capture on the 20^th  the signal from his transmitter disappeared altogether, and we were worried that he may have fled the study site.  However, on the 21^st some extensive searching picked up on a signal, some 500m from where he was caught, and eventually led us to a spot a full 1km from the catch site.  Over the next couple of days he was fairly mobile, but eventually he settled down, roosting and feeding in one area, and spending much of the day in a wooded area some 300m away.  Meanwhile, a second bird was caught on the 22^nd.  Named Black Star, after the star on the Ghana flag and the name of the national football team, he proved to be even more difficult to pin down upon release.  In this case he moved 1km away to the west, way beyond the bounds of the study area defined last year.  Moving into more difficult terrain for us trackers, we could only estimate his position for a few days, if indeed we could get a signal for him at all.  On the 27^th the signal was strong enough for us to discern more readily which direction to head for through the forest. In uncharted territory, we finally spotted him in an Albizia some 850m from his release site, so a fair bit closer than our earlier estimates (we’re pretty sure he’s moved closer than he was on earlier dates).  Since then he’s been spotted once each day (the time and effort it takes to get to where he’s hanging out precludes any more frequent search attempts, with Asante trackable 3 times per day).  With one team tracking, the other (and occasionally Oppong helping out too!) has been attempting to catch more wood warblers for tagging, but with no luck after many hours of effort.  The 2 tagged birds are giving us some great data, but it would be nice to get at least another 1 if not 2 to keep us busy with tracking until we leave on the 12^th of December.

Thursday 18th Oct. City park visit

We take a long-planned break from tracking this morning.  Aware from previous experience that disturbance can be a bit of an issue on Thursdays with noisy children around the ringing site, we leave for Ouaga forest park early  to check on presence of wood warblers there.

After a quiet start, with a flock of lesser blue-eared starlings overhead and later foraging for berries in some low shrubs, we hear a first nightingale, soon followed by another, and then a couple of melodious warblers.  A willow warbler is seen, but for a while no wood warblers respond to the mp3 playback.  Things pick up a little as the sun rises and mixed Estrilda finches flit around low on and near the path.  At about 0630, we hear our fist wood warbler call.

A stroll around a fair section of the park over the next 3 hours yields an amazing 54 wood warblers, including at one spot over 15 birds – we actually lost count as they kept arriving in response to the playback!  To me this is a truly amazing tally, especially when one considers the total lack of records from Burkina in our first year of surveys – the park was clearly the place to be back then, if perhaps only during October!  It seems hard to believe these birds will remain here once the site begins to dry out, and one would expect them to head south to more-humid zones as the days pass.

After a quick shop for breakfast things and a visit to the office, we head back to attempt tracking again after the difficulties of last night.  We have absolutely no problem whatsoever!  All 3 birds are easily located, so our worries about a hastened departure are assuaged for now.

We’re invited to dinner with Henri this evening.  A very un-African sausage and mash!

Wednesday 17th Oct. Decoy wood warbler works wonders!

Following last night’s rather stormy weather, we manage to find the tagged birds quite easily; bird “10” is in a surprisingly low bush, happily preening away, and the other two are also quickly located.  We wonder whether the lost tag from the 14^th/15^th may have made its way down from its suspected lodgings in that tree.  Using the radio receiver, it is very quickly pin-pointed on the ground – once again still attached to a pair of moulted tail feathers.  It does seem odd that these birds should drop their feathers quite so readily.  The Ghana birds, which didn’t arrive on site until well after mid-November last year, retained their tags until we left the site on the 13^th of December, which was actually just after the start of moult witnessed in other birds in the area.

Our trapping effort with the mp3 playback is yielding very little, so we decide to try our wood warbler decoy one more time.  Oppong deftly straps it to a “branch” of a small “tree” (a fallen piece of brushwood) and then sticks this vertically in the ground right next to the net with the mp3 song playing.  Not really expecting much, after all the song alone is not working and the decoy has not appeared to work before, we are therefore surprised when 20 minutes alter Japheth returns from a net round with 3 wood warblers.  I’m not even sure I’ve seen 3 wood warblers in a net before – in fact, definitely not!  We colour-ring and fully process these birds, but we won’t be tagging any more birds for now.  We need to move on to other potential wood warbler sites in southern Burkina within the next week.  Ideally we’d like to get some gauge of the importance of the region as a staging post before the birds head further south to the more humid forest zones, in Ghana and beyond.

This evening Roger and Japheth report that one bird has apparently completely disappeared, and the other 2 are getting tricky to find!  Well, this rather brings our potential departure date forward!  The “vanished” bird’s tag was due to last well into next week.  If this is the case, then more exploration for potential wood warbler sites will begin over the weekend – but where should we go?  Time to consult some satellite images, and our colleagues at Naturama!

10th Feb: Pepease Wood Warbler Site

Has a good hour’s drive down through Mpraeso to determine presence of Wood Warbler through point count surveys, the site chosen through a predictive model which determines the areas likely to support Wood Warbler. Sure enough after some impressive off road driving on some rough tracks, and over a few rickety wooden bridges, Chris spotted one.


The plan was to check out another site afterwards but unfortunately the car broke down, but no matter –this is Africa, a local man with a woolly bobble hat saw our difficulties and mended the car right there at the roadside. Once fixed the journey down the rough track continued (gingerly) but it was too late to do a second survey so we contented ourselves with trying to catch some of the Nightjars that sit on the sandy tracks near the guesthouse. Unfortunately they were just a bit too twitchy on the windy moonlit night. 

Above: The car being fixed