30th-31st March

Mark Hulme writes: After some valuable data had been collected at our most productive site we headed north to Bui National Park once more. We were hoping to see if reports that Bui might be an important passage site for migrants on the move in late March were true this year. Bui is currently undergoing some changes as a large Chinese-funded hydroelectric dam is being built down-river, one advantage of this is that roads leading to Bui are now excellent so we made good time! On the way into the park we also saw a splendid male Patas monkey, one of the few monkey species to thrive in the dry savannas. After securing the services of a guard we headed in to the village where we set up camp amongst a large group of curious children and hungry sheep and goats. There was no electricity so the football friendly between England and Ghana had to be followed by noting the reaction of people listening to their radios. It was pretty obvious when Asamoah Gyan scored a last-minute equaliser for Ghana by the spontaneous round of applause!

The following morning we split into two groups with Alex and I taking one route and Nat and Tina the other. We had limited success, with quite a number of Pied Flycatchers and not much else migrant-wise but Nat and Tina also had some Willow Warblers and a Garden Warbler or two. No Wood Warblers, unfortunately. It was interesting to see the variety of species in the riverine forests though, including Leaflove, Square-Tailed Drongo, Puvel’s Illodopsis and African Finfoot (seen by the guard, not by me unfortunately!) as well as White-headed Lapwing on the sandbanks. In the afternoon we decided to have a closer look at the forest bordering the river by taking canoes up the Black Volta into the park. No passerine migrants were detected but there were a number of Common Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers along the river and plenty of kingfisher species, egrets, herons and Sengal Thick-knees to keep us interested. Oh, and the hippos……8 seen in total including one right where the fishermen keep their canoes. The fishermen told us that they have to leave the village to be re-housed in a purpose-build “new town” in May, and the park manager informed us that the water would start rising in June in preparation for the dam to become operational in 2013. This will inundate the riparian forest and flood much of the grazing land the hippos depend on, presumably reducing their population considerably, which currently stands at around 500, by far the largest population in Ghana. If the forests do ultimately provide passage habitat for species such as Garden Warbler and Wood Warbler this may also affect migration routes as well, but that would be extremely difficult to quantify. We just hope that the effect on the park ecosystem will be less extreme than we fear as there is no turning back now. After one more night in the village we left this beautiful place wondering what the future would bring.


Tina and Nat getting a lift back from their survey, Bui


Checking out the riverside forest, Bui National Park


Hippos unaware that their habitat is soon to be flooded by a new dam, Bui National Park

25th -29th March

Mark Hulme writes: Once Chris had sadly left us for some well-deserved rest before starting on the RSPB breeding wood warbler project in Wales I spent a couple of days in Accra catching up on some data-entry and the Ghanaian team members spent a bit of time catching up on other work and with family and friends. We headed north to Nsuatre again with a new team member, my girlfriend Alex, just arrived from the UK. We secured rooms in our now-regular hotel and set about repeating transects close to the old road where we had had so much success before. There were still good numbers of migrants around, although very few Nightingales now and no Wood Warblers or Blackcaps this time. Whinchats, Spotted Flycatchers, Pied Flycatchers, Melodious Warblers, Reed Warblers, Tree Pipits, Barn Swallows and Garden Warblers were all still in evidence. One last ringing session in Nsuatre on the 29th was, once more, very productive for Garden Warblers, this late in the season we wondered if they would still be present in numbers but 8 were caught on a busy morning as well as a Nightingale retrapped from our most recent ringing session, packed with fat. A Spotted Flycatcher, to some a surprisingly beautiful bird in the hand, was also caught alongside a number of resident birds such as Common Waxbill (not very common in Ghana), Marsh Tchagra, African Pygmy Kingfisher and Tambourine Dove, exciting for Alex’s first African ringing on her first trip to Africa.


Common Waxbill, Nsuatre


Moulting Spotted Flycatcher, Nsuatre

24th March

Chris Orsman writes: Sadly, the final day in Ghana for me, for this time at least! This morning worked on the GPS software to ensure that all the waypoint data from all the handsets were saved. The various files need consolidating/rationalising somehow! Meanwhile, Abraham had the car cleaned inside and out, and also had the spare tyre properly checked after our blow-out heading for Burkina! He picked us up to get to the office, and after a quick lunch he was to take his leave – his turn to get some well-earned rest before returning to the field with the team on the 27th. Tina was just finishing off entering ringing and habitat data, and Augustus was present too having recently returned from the US. Great to see him again, albeit just for the afternoon! After sorting through equipment lists and data files, we wrapped up and once again fond farewells were exchanged with Tina and Augustus. A final “last supper” at Tip Top in Accra, before a last beer at Yoko’s, and I waved goodbye to Mark and took my taxi to the airport. Sad to leave of course, especially with Mark continuing with another week or so of further roving! A very successful winter of fieldwork, and with such a brilliant team I sincerely hope I’ll be able to join them next season. In the meantime, I’m heading back to the UK to prepare to greet our migrants when they return in a few weeks. Best of luck to Abes, Alex, Mark, Nat and Tina for the last few days in the field. Have fun guys!!

22nd 23rd March

Chris Orsman writes: Two pretty interesting days. First we repeated the transects that we last followed about a month ago. Most of the migrant species seen were still present in roughly the same areas. On day two we attempted some ringing on the hillside, with the hope of catching a Wood Warbler or two. Once we’d located the first bird, we set up a single net at the roadside. After quite a wait it seemed the bird either wasn’t interested or that the net and song-playback just weren’t close enough to its patch. We moved the net nearer, stood back, and after about 10 minutes a Wood Warbler popped into the net. Tina sprang into action and ably extracted the bird. After ringing we recorded that it wasn’t carrying all that much fat, so we felt that this individual would be staying around for a few more days before starting any long northward journey.


Tina rings a captured wood warbler


Nat and captured wood warbler

Further attempts were made to catch another, with the net moved twice more, but to no avail. It would appear that even when we find a good spot for Wood Warblers, it isn’t easy to catch them! Nevertheless, this was a fine end to my last day of fieldwork.
So with my return to the UK looming we headed back to Accra, with me waving goodbye to Nat at the bus station as he headed home for some well-earned rest! Mark and I went back to our usual Accra hostelry, as Abraham returned all the equipment to the office before he and Tina headed homewards.

20th & 21st March

Chris Orsman writes: In the event we had two mornings of ringing, largely because on day 1 Mark’s new net caught 8 out of a total 12 new Garden Warblers – a great result. Adding an extra net to the first on morning two we caught a further 8 new Garden Warblers, one retrap from the previous day, and 2 new Nightingales. Of the Garden Warblers a few were still in moult and not carrying much in the way of fat reserves, so not yet ready to head far north. The two Nightingales were well loaded with fat deposits, suggesting they had been around a while, and getting ready for a big push northwards.


A (young?) male Collared Sunbird at Nsuatre


An adult male Vieillot’s Black Weaver, Nsuatre

With lots of very interesting data to pore over, it got us thinking that a re-visit to the wooded Mampongtin hills might show signs of some passage too, so we headed south east.

19th March

Chris Orsman writes: Today for the first time we split into three groups, so that we could cover all three transects that were closest to the town. This meant that Tina and Nat were to do one transect together. My route uncovered far fewer Nightingales than the last time, with just 2 of these singing, and Mark, Tina and Nat had similar experiences. Were there fewer males around than before, having started to move North ahead of the females? Also noted were reasonable numbers of Garden Warblers, with Mark finding a particularly busy patch of thicket with several Garden Warblers singing at once! A handful of Spotted Flycatchers, Whinchats, Melodious and a couple of Reed and Willow Warblers also recorded, but perhaps most interestingly, Nat and Tina had TWO Wood Warblers on their transect! Incredible! One was amongst trees near to a patch of cocoa, the other in a wooded area on the edge of a cemetery closer to town, so not entirely unsuitable habitat. However, it’s probably not where they’d been all winter, more likely signs again that this species is on the move. An interesting day for Tina and Nat was made even more so with a female Blackcap, not a common bird in Ghana at any time of year.


Tina putting up nets for Garden Warblers

Encouraged by this morning’s sightings and our previous ringing efforts here, we went at dusk to set some nets up, to be closed and ready to start early the next day. Quite a large area of very overgrown thicket, i.e. old fallow, has been recently cleared and burned, reducing somewhat the available cover for our target species. This is the time of year when new areas are prepared for crops, just before the rains arrive. A Woodchat Shrike was hunting around this newly burnt patch, and a couple of Tree Pipits were disturbed as we passed. The net sites thankfully remained intact, and Mark thought it would be good to try a new net a short walk away where he had the Garden Warblers this morning.


Newly burnt scrubby fallow – no longer any Nightingales, but a Woodchat Shrike moved in!

18th March

With Jez vanishing early on errands to Tamale, Nat and Tina rejoined the MiA fold, and with a full car once more we headed back to Nsuatre and the spot where we had good Nightingale and Garden Warbler numbers 2 weeks ago. Finding the previous lodgings free, we settled in with the good news that it was now safe to go back into the field.