Thursday 24/11/2011 Finding our first “farmland” wood warbler

Full of the aforementioned tea, bread and bananas, we head out at 5am in search of wood warblers – for the 4th time of trying! Will they have arrived?

The start of the transect route suggests not. Today’s mission is not to carry out a complete point count survey, but to determine, including with the aid of playback, whether or not any wood warblers are here at all. Remembering the locations (including the same trees) of the wood warblers from last year, we cover as much ground as possible, using short bursts of song and call from the mp3 player. From 0600 until 0930 we see and hear nothing wood warbler like and are more than a little disappointed, until at last at 0945 we hear a faint “pew” from behind. Turning back, we locate our first study-site wood warbler, in a broad-leaved tree next to the roadside and a cassava field. It moved off a short hop to a different tree, so to get a closer look we find a newly cut path through some scrub on the edge of the field. Quite ironically, the path leads to a felled tree, creating a small clearing in the scrub. With nothing to lose, and considering December is looming and tagging time running out, we decide to attempt to catch this first bird at this first opportunity. The perfect though somewhat regrettable ready-made net ride serves a purpose, comfortably accommodating a 9 metre long net.

Above photo: felled tree creating a perfect net ride

With the mp3 on we retrace our steps to the car, and watch. Sure enough, the bird responds as before, pewing continually, and seemingly getting closer and closer. It then dropped down towards the net! Its call, however, continued, so we guessed it unlikely that it was in the net. Finally it resurfaced back up into te tree where we first saw it, still calling, but now just foraging and no longer attracted towards the net. At this point we decide to close up and turn off the tape, and resolve to come back to the same spot at first light the next day.

Before going back to camp, we stop in Pepease to see if there are any guest houses at all. We are directed towards one, which looks ok, so depending on our success/ failure rates over the next day or so, we at least have some lodgings closer to the study area that we can move to.

Meanwhile, Bee and Chas are continuing in their efforts to catch further nightingales for tagging. As a result they managed to get hold of this fine individual!

Above photo: sulphur-breasted bush-shrike

Wednesday 23/11/2011 Splitting the team

Chris Orsman writes: Last night we finally plucked up the courage to split the team in two. In the last few days I’ve managed to convince myself that I’ve heard wood warblers calling on a couple of occasions, so we need to go and check our site in the Mampongtin Hills. And with 7 nightingales tagged, Bee and Chas have plenty to be getting on with, even if they don’t catch more! Leaving them in Oppong’s capable catering hands, Japheth and I head for Mpraeso with driver Emmanuel promising to cook when required...

After a trouble-free trip, our camp to start the visit is back on the wonderful Odwenanoma Mountain. We plan to make the most of any time here, as certainly we will need to find a camp or lodgings much closer to the expected study site should we catch any wood warblers and therefore need to track them twice or more daily. On this first night we collect some tea, bread and bananas, get the local canteen to boil water for our flask, and hey presto we have a breakfast ready for the morning.

Tuesdays 16-22/11/2011 The nightingale week

Chris Orsman writes: Once back amongst the nightingales the first thing to be determined was what, exactly, might have happened to our first tagged bird. With no signal received at two attempts just before our departure on the 12th it was thought the tag had failed – mainly because the weight of the bird suggested that it couldn’t have suddenly headed off any great distance overnight.

It wasn’t long before a signal was received, and the bird re-discovered some 250m or so from the capture site. Not all that far, but with these birds rather hugging the ground the signal can be easily lost. Later tracking forays showed that the bird was moving gradually further away again, and eventually appeared to settle about 600m from where it was originally caught.

Meanwhile the race was on to catch more, with just 3 so far and 7 more tags to use. We weren’t short of birds, as every now and again a new voice would appear, and fill in a gap amongst the thicket. An awful lot of effort by the team went into selecting suitable sites to place the nets to maximise our chances, such that our particular target bird would at some point catch itself without recourse to any tape-lures! By necessity this meant we were catching a lot of other birds, including a whole host of other migrants using the same habitat, such as garden warblers, melodious warblers, reed warblers, whinchat, spotted and pied flycatchers. All of these were providing us with invaluable information about timing of arrival, condition and moult, but also give some clues as to the overall value of this region and its habitats for a wide range of migrant passerines.

Above photo: Pied flycatcher

Above photo: Whinchat

Above photo: moulting wing of melodious warbler

Whilst attempting to tag more nightingales the tracking continued, and with the number of tagged birds gradually rising, of course the tracking became a longer job! Most interestingly though aside from some slight “jostling” most of the birds seemed to be settling into their own particular patch. The winter territories are being well and truly established! And amidst all of this Chas and Chris managed to train me in how to fix the tag to the tail. Important to get this right here, but also essential before I attempt the same with a smaller tag on a wood warbler later on. Should we catch any of course...

Above photo: placing tag on nightingale tail
Above photo: tagged nightingale (you can just see the antenna)

Above photo: Bee tracking and taking GPS coordinates

There have been other distractions this past week. Aside from some splendid resident birds caught...

Above photo: female marsh tchagra

...others less splendid have proved quite tricky to identify!

Above photo: black-winged red bishops and red-headed quelea

Some spectacular invertebrates have dazzled and distracted...

Above photo: large moth - any ideas?

Above photo: enormous beetle

...and suggesting perhaps that some may not be working hard enough an impromptu Ghana V England football match took place in the front yard of the guest house. Needless to say England were trounced!

Above photo: Ghana v England football match

Sadly the 8 strong team was reduced to 5 on the 18th when Chris H needed to return to Accra for his flight back to the UK. With Nicholas’s exams looming he too departed for some serious studying. Chauffeured by Emmanuel, unfortunately the car decided to fall part just as they approached Accra. Chris managed to get his flight, but the car was impounded for repairs until able to return on the 21st.

Tuesday 15/11/2011 No luck catching

Chris Orsman writes: Again this morning is foggy, and our start is delayed a little as although it’s post-dawn, things are still a touch dark. We open the same hill-top net, and Chris H stays in attendance as the playback is initiated. Meanwhile, the rest of us head down the hill to the successful spot from March 23rd earlier this year, and right amongst the encounters from yesterday. If it’s going to work, a single net will suffice, provided one or more birds respond to the recording. They should, in theory, head straight for the mp3 player placed beneath the middle of the net.
In almost 3 hours, we see two birds, and up at the top Chris sees one. At one point there was a faint wood warbler voice calling from the high canopy, but our two birds merely continued to happily forage high, and oblivious to the recording. A bit demoralising, but not entirely unexpected.
Considering our failure to catch, and even more so the lack of birds on the lowland site, we resolve to head back to the nightingales. The main concern is that I have not put a radio tag on a bird yet – a skill I need to master before I can do it without Chas and Chris, so our best chance, we feel, is to catch more Luscinias, and come back to the wood warblers in a few days when perhaps they will have arrived at our preferred study areas.

Monday 14/11/2011 Wood warbler-free "farmland"

Chris O: After yesterday’s brilliant count of at least 11 wood warblers, we had an earlier start to get to the “farmland” site and much hope of some more of the same. A poor start did not bode well. 6 pairs of eyes and ears failed to pick up on any wood warblers in the very best spots of last year, even with the song and call playback. We checked every (well, pretty much!) tree-top, but in 4 hours got nothing. All was falling silent by mid-morning, so we headed back to camp, via a possible new campsite in the nearest town. If the birds do return, this place would make much more sense as a base than the hilltop some 50 minutes away.

A single net was erected near the camp this afternoon, after 2 birds were again seen nearby. Having elicited a “pew” from the playback yesterday, would they be actually attracted to it? With no other option at this stage – the birds are so high and mobile – we start the tape and stand back.In an hour of trying, we did see the two birds again, but only very high up, looking briefly slightly interested but not really responding particularly positively. With no birds as yet on the preferred farmland site (thought to be better for tracking any birds caught) we decide to at least try a more concerted effort on the hillside the next day. At least we know the birds are here, and we may get an idea of some movements and tracking limitations with one or two birds caught.

Sunday 13/11/2011 The wood warblers have landed

Chris Orsman writes: Back on the mountain, and what a morning! Oppong dropped us at the bottom of the hill for us to walk back up. The hill top was shrouded in mist as usual, but even down the slope the trees were heavy with cloud. We bided our time, all of us being challenged by a new call or three, until eventually some colours emerged as the skies gradually cleared. On reaching the very-hot-spot on the transects from last season, and having craned our necks looking up at the canopy amongst the finest twigs and foliage for almost 2 hours, we spotted our very first wood warbler of the Ghana 'winter'! This was in a partly leafless bi-pinnate tree, fruiting with long leguminous pods. As it readily foraged in the crown, we walked on expectantly. A few yards later, and another was seen, and this time there were two. With the aid of the mp3 playback (not used on transects or surveys last year) we managed to elicit a feeble pewing from these birds. Perhaps this would help us locate more? Maybe even catch one or two later on? Sure enough, a little later a quick “blast” of the song got a pewing response, and in this instance 5 birds were seen together. Again these birds were pretty high up in the smaller-leaved canopy. Still further along and for the rest of the walk back to the camp at the hill-top, no more wood warblers were seen. A very encouraging start, however.

Above photo: clouds lift, and that podded tree top left

Above photo: the team craning to spot wood warblers

In the afternoon, a flowering tree right next to our camp was a-buzz with insect life, and drew our attention with various sunbirds and common bulbuls attracted to it. Whilst watching, a wood warbler appeared here too, and also a willow warbler popped up. Perhaps a net even by the camp would be productive, we thought. Later a stroll around the hill-top produced 2 more, and also 2 garden warblers. And for good measure, a breeding pair of violet-throated cuckoo-shrikes put in a most welcome appearance.

Saturday-Saturday 05-12/11/2011 Nightingale tracking starts

Chris Orsman writes: Multiple excursions into the bush over this period began with mapping all the possible routes that can be walked, and all of the locations of nightingales, whether seen or singing, croaking or “heeting”. Compared to our last time here a week ago, the numbers have risen quite markedly. We’ve covered a smaller area than did the transects, but have “in-filled” this smaller patch and found a few more good pockets of nightingale activity. More than 45 have been encountered. On the non-migrant front, the best find was confirmation of a red-collared widowbird which we saw on the 25th October. Only glimpsed briefly last time, on this occasion the male was in display flight over the arable mosaic. Our field guide indicates that it is pretty scarce in Ghana, but that this area may be one of the better spots for finding them. Good views were had by all, although I wish I’d had my longer lens with me at the time!

Above photo: Adult male red-collared widowbird (although no red collar on this race!)

Above photo: Male black-winged red bishop flies over red-collared widowbird

The next few days were spent at one of the very-hot-spots to catch as many nightingales as possible. Various configurations of nets were tried, and the first two mornings produced one bird each. Chris H and Chas demonstrated the application of the radio-tags onto the nightingales, and subsequently the methods for using the tracking equipment. Also caught was a single male blackcap, the first to be ringed in Ghana – by this project at least!! Not a common visitor this far south.

Above photo: The project's first Ghana-caught blackcap

The radio-tracking proved to be more difficult than expected, due to the birds moving around a fair bit, and also possibly the density of the vegetation, and probable dips and troughs where the birds could lie undetected

Above photo: Chas and Japheth tracking down some radio-tagged nightingales

On the last two days the first bird in fact disappeared altogether, and we wondered whether it had moved on further south. Surely this couldn’t have happened? When caught it was very light, carrying no fat reserves. In order to move on it would have needed far longer to fatten and strengthen to cover any great distance. Reluctantly we surmised that it could have perished or that the tag could have failed. With time short on the afternoon of the 12th we took Chris and Chas to the wood warbler zone, once again with our fingers crossed.

Bee writes: Despite our hard work we did have fun too. Every day something amusing happened: either it was Chris H telling another one of his stories, or it was the frog in the toilet, or Chris O’s MP3 Player (which should have played nightingale) suddenly blasting an 80’s power ballad over the fields, or the people we met. One morning we came upon a woman farming her plantain plantation. She was very friendly and not shy at all and as soon as she had greeted us she called all of her children to come and have a look. Obviously, she had not told them what was awaiting them. It was so funny to watch their little faces when they spotted us “obruni” standing in the middle of their plantain field. They looked as if they had seen Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny at the same time.

Above photo: Bee and Chris meet the farming family

Oh yes and then there was the day I became a proper Ghanaian, the day I made and even ate (!!!) Fufu with Groundnut sauce. To be fair, Oppong and Emanuel did most of the pounding and everybody else tried the Fufu as well, and Chas even liked it like me. I don’t think I will miss Fufu terribly when I am back at home but it is definitely not as horrible as all the obruni make it out to be. Yes it is rather gooey and you do eat it with your fingers but I quite enjoyed the unusual sensation.

Above photo: Cassava + plantain = fufu

Above photo: Oppong and Emmanuel pounding the mixture

Above photo: Bee lends a hand

Above photo: the finished product