All goes to plan and we leave Accra by 0900, and after a shop in Mpraeso for groceries we make it to our digs mid afternoon.
Straight out into the field to show Roger the lay of the land. The whole place seems a whole lot drier, not surprising considering the desiccating effects of the harmattan winds, and large parts of fallow have been burned. There’s a strange arid, dusty stillness about the place, and scarcely a bird to be seen or heard. I hope things improve tomorrow.
Chris O
Friday 13/01/12 Back with Bee
Arriving for breakfast we spot Bee sitting outside with a cuppa. It was brilliant to catch up with Bee again, and to hear all about her past month, finishing off the nightingale tracking, and touring around Ghana with Ed. And to cap it all, a decent breakfast too! Seems there’s been a change of management – thank goodness!
A morning at the office to sort through the gear, meeting up with Japheth, Nick and Oppong once more, and then a trip to Legon Uni in the afternoon to discuss the possibilities of a supply of satellite images for the wood warbler study site. A few sundry purchases at the nearby Accra Mall (it could be any-mall in any-town) and we’re ready for the off tomorrow.
Chris O
A morning at the office to sort through the gear, meeting up with Japheth, Nick and Oppong once more, and then a trip to Legon Uni in the afternoon to discuss the possibilities of a supply of satellite images for the wood warbler study site. A few sundry purchases at the nearby Accra Mall (it could be any-mall in any-town) and we’re ready for the off tomorrow.
Chris O
Thursday 12/01/12 Leaving the cold behind
After a pretty mild spell of weather in the UK over the Christmas break, it looks like there may be a rather cold snap on the way. Just about the right time then to be heading back to West Africa! A meeting on Tuesday ahead of departure was attended by new volunteer Roger, a very experienced fieldworker and ringer in Africa, having spent several years in both Cameroon and Uganda. Whilst I head for Heathrow for a leisurely afternoon flight, Roger is already in the air from Norwich to Accra via Amsterdam. Fingers crossed we can find each other at the other end!
With everything going smoothly up to arrival, a few nervous moments as the crowd thins at my carousel – has my luggage made it? Roger arrives very soon after my flight, and he finds his bag straight away. Mine must have been at the bottom of the pile on the plane, as thankfully it eventually appears! A blast of heat on leaving the airport – is it supposed to be this hot at this time of year? 29°C seems excessive at 10pm! (Despite escaping the UK cold, I admit I was grateful for the a/c at the hotel later on) A short cab ride to the hotel, followed by the inevitable mix-up with the booking, now all that remains is to find Bee in the morning.
Chris Orsman
With everything going smoothly up to arrival, a few nervous moments as the crowd thins at my carousel – has my luggage made it? Roger arrives very soon after my flight, and he finds his bag straight away. Mine must have been at the bottom of the pile on the plane, as thankfully it eventually appears! A blast of heat on leaving the airport – is it supposed to be this hot at this time of year? 29°C seems excessive at 10pm! (Despite escaping the UK cold, I admit I was grateful for the a/c at the hotel later on) A short cab ride to the hotel, followed by the inevitable mix-up with the booking, now all that remains is to find Bee in the morning.
Chris Orsman
Wednesday 14/12/2011 Accra and mid-season summary
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!
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
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.
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: 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
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
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!
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 barbetA 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!
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