This morning we set off a little earlier, considering the greater distance needed to travel to get to our next-nearest site, where the model predicts wood warblers should be absent. We head north-east-ish, towards the southern shore of Lake Volta, and the road is good right down to the small settlement from where the vehicle ferry departs. We’re not taking the ferry, though, and we drive on past the village and onto the start of quite the worst road that I’ve ever experienced. Progress slows to a snail’s pace at times, and it seems we’de be better off walking. We’re encouraged to continue, however, when we see regular taxis and heavily-laden tro-tros coming the other way. We’re confident that our 4x4 will be up to the job, and it is.
Our first stop is close to an area, supposedly wooded, that is not predicted to have wood warblers. The transect takes us south from the road and lake shore, across fields of pepper shrubs, heading as close as we can get to the highlighted zone some 2km away. Strangely this landscape reminds me of a mix of the sahel of Oursi, with the lake shore on one side and its sandy soils, and some of the rockier parts of the north of Ghana savannahs. No thorny Acacia species here – most of the trees are Neem, and being actively harvested for firewood on our visit. First migrants noted are a total of 6 whinchats on the first point or two, but the arable peters out to fallow and larger burnt grass areas. Only a good flock of house martins (150) and 2 barn swallows add to the migrant list. Otherwise some savannah specialists are in evidence such as Senegal eremomela and Togo paradise whydah, black-rumped waxbill and yellow-winged pytilia. We finish just short of the circled block, and there’s no sign of any forest on the horizon, so we accept that what we’ve traversed is representative of the wider habitat. No wood warblers recorded after the optimum 15 point counts to prove presence, this site is therefore “proven” unoccupied.
On to the next spot further along the lake shore, and as at previous sites we realise that we’re not going to get to the highlighted zone on our predictive map from the UK. There’s arable down to the shore from the road, then inland towards our site there’s dense neem plantation for just a few hundred metres, before the land rises to some steep slopes, which on another day I would have considered climbable. Today, however, one is conscious of one’s own and the team’s welfare – it’s getting pretty hot to be sending anyone up these slopes. We decide to survey the neem “forest” in front of us. Aside from a couple of pied flycatchers and a few willow warblers, there are no wood warblers to be seen here, despite a patch of Albezia along a dry stream.
Continuing on we appear to have passed the worst sections of the road, and eventually we find a tarred road which takes us inland to site 3. We’re led off this main road to enquire at a village for some guidance to some nearby forest. As we’re just about to set off, we spot a wood warbler in a mimosa by the settlement – a proven presence, so we can tick this site off the list. With the afternoon passing, we decide to head back along the main Begoro-Nkawkaw road, to get back before things get too risky on Ghana’s night-time roads.
.
Thursday 26/01/12 Further afield and more forest
Had some success with the web last night and early this morning before departure. It meant getting up at 03:00 though! Have managed to discern decent enough roads or tracks to take us – hopefully – to two more sites after we have re-done yesterday’s. Arriving in good time at 0700 at our target, we again split and take two separate transects. Some good looking forest here, but again in “ribbons” near dried watercourses, and rather large areas of tree-cleared and burnt grassland and shrubland. After an hour Nick and I think we’ve heard a wood warbler, but it was faint and distant so we’re not 100% convinced, and so we continue. Soon after though we get a call from Roger and Japheth – they’re heading back to the car, as they’ve seen one, and then on the walk back they see another two. In all at this site we had 5 melodious, 4 willow and 1 garden warbler, one each of spotted and pied flycatchers, 1 nightingale and 1 whinchat, plus support from a few brown-necked parrots (new for me!), and hundreds of mostly village weavers and orange-cheeked waxbills in the most recently and severely burnt (formerly) grassy areas. Job done, a quick march back to meet up at the car and we’re soon heading off to the next site.
Now, the internet appeared to show a track leading well off this “main” road and towards another highlighted area for us to check. Well, the track did exist, but came to an abrupt end at a village, some 5km from where we wanted to be. We’re assured by a villager that we can continue on foot, but we have no real way of telling if we’ll end up where we need to be, so we opt to head for another site where we are a little more confident that the road passes close by. I hope!
It’s almost 11am by the time we approach the next area, again predicted to hold wood warblers. It’s an area of cocoa production, and the crops are mixed under a canopy of some seriously big trees. We feel that wood warblers should be here, but will we spot them high up in these trees? Taking a track off the road that weaves through some plantations, it soon deteriorates to impassable so we park up and set off from here to start the point counts. Japheth and Roger go on up the bad track, whilst Nick and I walk back to the wooded plantain plantation, aiming to take our transect along the road. At our first point we spot rufous-crowned eremomelas, a collared sunbird and a little grey flycatcher, and then the survey comes to an abrupt end when a wood warbler appears in the same tree. Once again – job done! Having come this far we can’t resist the opportunity to “bird” a little more, and we all take Roger and Japheth’s route away from the road. We walk for just 30 minutes but get to see another 2 wood warblers way up in a 40m+ tree beside the track. It's otherwise quiet this late in the morning, but we have clearly entered a patch of pretty decent forest, with no sign of a cocoa plantation anywhere. If only this place, with this excellent track access, was a little nearer to our base! Some curious small creatures seen on the walk back, I’ll try to post some pics as soon as the internet lets me!
We pass through the town of Begoro and stop off for a bite, (Emma's groundnut soup can keep until we get back later), and then press on to our third site of the day. A site where wood warblers are predicted to occur, the plan is not to survey this late in the day, but to check for access. It’s at the base of the Atewa ridge, a forest reserve very well known to most birders on a visit to Ghana. We ourselves passed by here last season, sampling the east side and a route over the top from the town of Kibi. Today we’re at Kwabeng, and drive through the town several times until we get decent directions off the main road to reach the edge of town at the foot of the hills. Parking the car at the last house, the first part of the path which we then followed cut through farmland, but the remaining trees look familiar, and potentially wood warbler friendly. Soon the path enters denser forest, and begins to thin and look less well-worn. A few small streams are crossed with freshly cut hardwood planks, and at one such bridge we meet a team of men coming the other way in the late afternoon. Greeting us warmly, they do not stop, and so we continue on. Not much further though, and we discover what they were most likely up to in this part of the forest. A small clearing next to a muddy and diverted stream, tubs of chemicals, and the ground all over riddled with very deep man-sized holes, it becomes clear that we’ve stumbled upon the workplace and "mineshafts" of gold prospectors. Unsure of the safety of continuing to explore, when some of the holes are seriously deep, others with not very pleasant looking water at the bottom, and as some of this activity may not even be legal, we retrace our steps and resolve to walk a different route when we return to survey. However, on our return we just happen to spot a wood warbler at the forest edge. Presence, then, is confirmed. Relieved that we need not come back to any potential danger, a shame though as this site too looks as though the birding would be great!!
An even later return home, but just in time to unfortunately see Burkina Faso get beaten, and therefore knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations. Commiserations to our colleagues north of the Ghana border!
Chris O
Now, the internet appeared to show a track leading well off this “main” road and towards another highlighted area for us to check. Well, the track did exist, but came to an abrupt end at a village, some 5km from where we wanted to be. We’re assured by a villager that we can continue on foot, but we have no real way of telling if we’ll end up where we need to be, so we opt to head for another site where we are a little more confident that the road passes close by. I hope!
It’s almost 11am by the time we approach the next area, again predicted to hold wood warblers. It’s an area of cocoa production, and the crops are mixed under a canopy of some seriously big trees. We feel that wood warblers should be here, but will we spot them high up in these trees? Taking a track off the road that weaves through some plantations, it soon deteriorates to impassable so we park up and set off from here to start the point counts. Japheth and Roger go on up the bad track, whilst Nick and I walk back to the wooded plantain plantation, aiming to take our transect along the road. At our first point we spot rufous-crowned eremomelas, a collared sunbird and a little grey flycatcher, and then the survey comes to an abrupt end when a wood warbler appears in the same tree. Once again – job done! Having come this far we can’t resist the opportunity to “bird” a little more, and we all take Roger and Japheth’s route away from the road. We walk for just 30 minutes but get to see another 2 wood warblers way up in a 40m+ tree beside the track. It's otherwise quiet this late in the morning, but we have clearly entered a patch of pretty decent forest, with no sign of a cocoa plantation anywhere. If only this place, with this excellent track access, was a little nearer to our base! Some curious small creatures seen on the walk back, I’ll try to post some pics as soon as the internet lets me!
We pass through the town of Begoro and stop off for a bite, (Emma's groundnut soup can keep until we get back later), and then press on to our third site of the day. A site where wood warblers are predicted to occur, the plan is not to survey this late in the day, but to check for access. It’s at the base of the Atewa ridge, a forest reserve very well known to most birders on a visit to Ghana. We ourselves passed by here last season, sampling the east side and a route over the top from the town of Kibi. Today we’re at Kwabeng, and drive through the town several times until we get decent directions off the main road to reach the edge of town at the foot of the hills. Parking the car at the last house, the first part of the path which we then followed cut through farmland, but the remaining trees look familiar, and potentially wood warbler friendly. Soon the path enters denser forest, and begins to thin and look less well-worn. A few small streams are crossed with freshly cut hardwood planks, and at one such bridge we meet a team of men coming the other way in the late afternoon. Greeting us warmly, they do not stop, and so we continue on. Not much further though, and we discover what they were most likely up to in this part of the forest. A small clearing next to a muddy and diverted stream, tubs of chemicals, and the ground all over riddled with very deep man-sized holes, it becomes clear that we’ve stumbled upon the workplace and "mineshafts" of gold prospectors. Unsure of the safety of continuing to explore, when some of the holes are seriously deep, others with not very pleasant looking water at the bottom, and as some of this activity may not even be legal, we retrace our steps and resolve to walk a different route when we return to survey. However, on our return we just happen to spot a wood warbler at the forest edge. Presence, then, is confirmed. Relieved that we need not come back to any potential danger, a shame though as this site too looks as though the birding would be great!!
An even later return home, but just in time to unfortunately see Burkina Faso get beaten, and therefore knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations. Commiserations to our colleagues north of the Ghana border!
Chris O
26th Jan: A tot up
Nightingale Team: Our third morning in succession, ringing in the eastern patch produced yet another Nightingale. So a nice cluster of four new birds to radio track from now on in this area. One Snowy-crowned Robin Chat was a new bird for the totals. As a resident and potential competitor to the Nightingales (work by Peter Jones has previously suggested that Nightingales are interspecifically territorial and move south within West Africa at the same rate during the dry season) this individual was radio-tagged too, to provide information about its movements relative to the neighbouring Nightingales.
A low overall catch grave me a chance to do what ringers do and tot up the migrant score in the 10 days since my arrival on the 16th Jan, so here goes: Garden Warbler (40), Reed Warbler (10), Nightingale (7), Melodious Warbler (5), Willow Warbler (4) and one each of Grasshopper Warbler, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat and Great Reed Warbler; 70 individual migrants in all; 57% Garden Warblers. According to the field guide, several of these species are well out of range here close to Berekum, especially Grasshopper Warbler! The Melodious Warblers are among the personal favourites for Vicky and I since this is not a species we bump into every day in the UK
The Afro-tropical species number 49 from 10 species, plus one or two released immediately when we are pressed for time, so perhaps 50:50 ‘residents’ to migrants? Whatever, the ‘volume’ of migrants is an interesting reminder that here too the composition of the bird fauna is dramatically altered by their arrival or departure, in manner we are entirely used to in Europe in summer.
Posted on behalf of Ian
A low overall catch grave me a chance to do what ringers do and tot up the migrant score in the 10 days since my arrival on the 16th Jan, so here goes: Garden Warbler (40), Reed Warbler (10), Nightingale (7), Melodious Warbler (5), Willow Warbler (4) and one each of Grasshopper Warbler, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat and Great Reed Warbler; 70 individual migrants in all; 57% Garden Warblers. According to the field guide, several of these species are well out of range here close to Berekum, especially Grasshopper Warbler! The Melodious Warblers are among the personal favourites for Vicky and I since this is not a species we bump into every day in the UK
The Afro-tropical species number 49 from 10 species, plus one or two released immediately when we are pressed for time, so perhaps 50:50 ‘residents’ to migrants? Whatever, the ‘volume’ of migrants is an interesting reminder that here too the composition of the bird fauna is dramatically altered by their arrival or departure, in manner we are entirely used to in Europe in summer.
Posted on behalf of Ian
Wednesday 25/01/12 Our first search beyond the study site
We set off at our usual time this morning, east towards the nearest of the highlighted areas for us to survey, a cluster of 1km squares where wood warblers should occur. We drive through our study site along the dirt track to the next town, and according to the internet there’s a road east of here which will take us close to the spot in question.
The road isn’t the best, and progress is slower than hoped. It soon transpires that the road also skirts some distance around the preferred spot. As we appear to be driving further away, and the morning too is slipping by, we decide to stop and survey a 1km² which according to our GIS map has the same level of probability for wood warbler presence as the target area. Splitting into two teams to maximise coverage, we set off from the roadside into the bush. It’s a fairly similar farmland mosaic to our study area, although perhaps with larger areas which have been cleared of trees. However the pockets where trees remain look promising.
In total we encounter 5 nightingales, 5 willow, 5 garden and 4 melodious warblers, 3 spotted flycatchers and the same number of whinchats, as well as non-migrants such as yellowbill, African cuckoo hawk, lead-coloured flycatcher and red-shouldered cuckooshrike.
After almost 2 hours, we spot a wood warbler, in the usual species of tree where we tend to find them back at base. This record means that the site scores a confirmed “presence”, and as such we can move on to the next site. However, it is already after 10am, so we decide to do a “recce” on the next site so that were’ better prepared for the next morning.
Continuing east along worsening roads we keep a look out for any potential track that will lead us up to the next site, but none appears. Also, the road as described by Google is quite wrong anyway! Seeing as things aren’t going too well so far, we decide to head back to re-evaluate these methods of attack. On the way, we take a different route back west, and discover that this route passes right through the site we were aiming for in the first place this morning. As this is the nearest site to our base, we simply have to do this site properly if we know we can get to it! We will return tomorrow.
Despite a lack of any real legwork this morning, we’re all shattered after so many slow hours on bad roads, and after a very late lunch there’s very little else to do but sleep! Besides, the planning for tomorrow is best sorted when the internet works properly much later on.
Chris O
The road isn’t the best, and progress is slower than hoped. It soon transpires that the road also skirts some distance around the preferred spot. As we appear to be driving further away, and the morning too is slipping by, we decide to stop and survey a 1km² which according to our GIS map has the same level of probability for wood warbler presence as the target area. Splitting into two teams to maximise coverage, we set off from the roadside into the bush. It’s a fairly similar farmland mosaic to our study area, although perhaps with larger areas which have been cleared of trees. However the pockets where trees remain look promising.
In total we encounter 5 nightingales, 5 willow, 5 garden and 4 melodious warblers, 3 spotted flycatchers and the same number of whinchats, as well as non-migrants such as yellowbill, African cuckoo hawk, lead-coloured flycatcher and red-shouldered cuckooshrike.
After almost 2 hours, we spot a wood warbler, in the usual species of tree where we tend to find them back at base. This record means that the site scores a confirmed “presence”, and as such we can move on to the next site. However, it is already after 10am, so we decide to do a “recce” on the next site so that were’ better prepared for the next morning.
Continuing east along worsening roads we keep a look out for any potential track that will lead us up to the next site, but none appears. Also, the road as described by Google is quite wrong anyway! Seeing as things aren’t going too well so far, we decide to head back to re-evaluate these methods of attack. On the way, we take a different route back west, and discover that this route passes right through the site we were aiming for in the first place this morning. As this is the nearest site to our base, we simply have to do this site properly if we know we can get to it! We will return tomorrow.
Despite a lack of any real legwork this morning, we’re all shattered after so many slow hours on bad roads, and after a very late lunch there’s very little else to do but sleep! Besides, the planning for tomorrow is best sorted when the internet works properly much later on.
Chris O
25th Jan: Watch your fingers
Nightingale Team: Repositioned the nets from yesterday into some adjacent new habitat. More Afro-tropical species today, including a magnificent though seemingly incandescent Double-toothed Barbet. This species has the weaponry to do permanent finger damage and so was handled with great respect by both Bee and Vicky! To cap it all, one more new Nightingale made up for low numbers of migrants overall and sent us home very pleased, and somewhat relieved, with the progress so far.
Posted on behalf of Ian
Posted on behalf of Ian
Saturday 21/01/12 – Tuesday 24/01/12 Reassessing priorities
Over the past few days, we have 3 more catching attempts, each revisiting places where we’ve tried and failed this year, but where we had success last year. Still no luck, and precious little else caught either, a garden warbler the only migrant, again when the playback was switched to garden warbler song!
It’s time to reassess some priorities. After all the effort made to catch wood warblers, and all the failures, we think we’re unlikely to catch any so long as they’re continuing to moult. This may go on for at least another 2 weeks for even the earliest finishers. Another major job for us to consider then is to visit several other sites, both nearby and scattered through the southern part of the country, in a further search for our target birds, but for different ends.
Back in the UK our colleagues have been taking all of the GIS information available to produce a map of predicted occupied and unoccupied areas for wood warblers, based on all the GPS waypoints for observed presence and absence so far. What we need to do now to help strengthen this model is to visit as many as yet un-chartered (by us!) areas of predicted presence and absence as possible. We have a map of all the possible highlighted areas, but unfortunately our road map leaves a lot to be desired. In our efforts to find the best routes to these targets, we’re back to relying on Google etc. In places the aerial photographs aren’t too bad, but in others no roads or tracks can be discerned at all. Add to this the fact that we can barely use the internet except at times of low internet traffic in the early hours of the morning, and it’s not the most straightforward of tasks!
More pressing for some of our team is the small matter of a certain football match tonight. Ghana’s first group match in the Africa Cup of Nations, ending Botswana 0 Ghana 1, so spirits should be high tomorrow!
Chris O
It’s time to reassess some priorities. After all the effort made to catch wood warblers, and all the failures, we think we’re unlikely to catch any so long as they’re continuing to moult. This may go on for at least another 2 weeks for even the earliest finishers. Another major job for us to consider then is to visit several other sites, both nearby and scattered through the southern part of the country, in a further search for our target birds, but for different ends.
Back in the UK our colleagues have been taking all of the GIS information available to produce a map of predicted occupied and unoccupied areas for wood warblers, based on all the GPS waypoints for observed presence and absence so far. What we need to do now to help strengthen this model is to visit as many as yet un-chartered (by us!) areas of predicted presence and absence as possible. We have a map of all the possible highlighted areas, but unfortunately our road map leaves a lot to be desired. In our efforts to find the best routes to these targets, we’re back to relying on Google etc. In places the aerial photographs aren’t too bad, but in others no roads or tracks can be discerned at all. Add to this the fact that we can barely use the internet except at times of low internet traffic in the early hours of the morning, and it’s not the most straightforward of tasks!
More pressing for some of our team is the small matter of a certain football match tonight. Ghana’s first group match in the Africa Cup of Nations, ending Botswana 0 Ghana 1, so spirits should be high tomorrow!
Chris O
24 Jan: Two new Nightingales
Nightingale Team: A rewarding morning for us all, ringing just east of the core area in new habitat, though still within the patchy mosaic of scrub, crops and areas of plantation. A small catch overall, mainly comprising European migrants, but with two new Nightingales included. We’re puzzled by the lack of activity among the ‘residents’ but perhaps the very dry weather we are experiencing at present is playing a part; quite a few Afro-trops are in full moult, with little evidence of breeding activity at this point in time, among the cisticolas, crombecs and greenbuls. Overall, Garden Warblers outnumber all the other migrant species put together. All of the Garden Warblers are moulting heavily and currently look rather dishevelled, with fat scores predictably low.
Posted on behalf of Ian
Posted on behalf of Ian
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