Just back from an epic week in Ghana. We concentrated on two sites, Bobiri Forest for two days and four days at Manso Nkwanta forest with a quick look at Shai Hills en route.
Ebird list from Manso Nkwanta HERE . This is a relatively unexplored area so the main aim of the trip was to set up an Ebird recording area and start recording the birds of the area. We also recorded the butterflies and did a bit of moth trapping at Bobiri too. Hope to return to this target area on a regular basis to carry out further recording.
The team this year was Robert and Isaac Ntakor as our guides ( GHANA BIRDING TOUR ADVENTURES) , Sue Healey, Roger Payne and myself.
MANSO NKWANTA FOREST (Ebird Hot Spot Here)
White-throated Bee-eater- up to 150 of these in the Wetland (Mine workings)
Black Bee-eater
Little Bee-eaters
Chestnut Wattle-eye
African Piculet
Brown-crowned Tchagra
Marsh Tchagra
Vieillot's Barbets
Speckled Tinkerbird
Yellowbill
Blue-headed Coucal
Honey Buzzard
Immature Cassin's Hawk Eagle
Plain-backed Pipit
Greater Swamp Warbler- mainly confined to the south east coast but there have been several records from the forest/transition zone border areas
Common Red Glider
Blue Leaf Pansy
Black Mamba 180324 update- not a Black Mamba according to Anton and Dylan but not sure what it is - we also had Green Mamba, Green Leaf Snake, Spitting Cobra and the unidentified snakes at Bobiri (see below) . Update 080424- it's a Western Black Tree Snake (i-naturalist id)
Gambian Sun Squirrel
Red-legged Sun Squirrel
View looking north over farm bush mosiac from the miner's road ridge
View over the wetland from the ridge
The Jungle Ice Cream Man- this track was the main track to farm communities across the range complete with a regular flow of bush motorbike taxis and the jungle ice cream man who walks along the forest tracks sounding his horn (visible in his hand in this pic) and selling ice cream to the local cocoa farmers who are isolated miles away from the nearest village. A most welcomed surprise!
BOBIRI FOREST
Black Dwarf Hornbill
Red-billed Dwarf Hornbill
Grey Parrot - still a small population at Bobiri despite widespread persecution (trapped for the bird trade)
Brown Nightjar
Male Narina Trogon
African Emerald Cuckoo
Western Blue Beauty
Western Yellow-banded Swallowtail
Citrus Swallowtail
Drinkers- several hundred of these along the paths
Oleander Hawkmoth
Silk moth sp
Tiger moth sp
Hawk moth sp
Moth sp
Snake sp
Roger and Sue at Bobiri
Setting a butterfly trap up with Isaac (Sue Healey)
SHIA HILLS
Yellow-throated Longclaw
Greater Honeyguide
Olive Baboon
Callithrix Monkey
Another great trip to Ghana (more to follow on the 110+ Butterfly species we recorded next and also some sound recordings). Looking forward to the next one where we plan to get deeper into the Manso Nkwanta forest so need to return with machetes and a Land rover next year. (Sue Healey)
Previous Trip Reports
2 comments:
Nice Piculet photo and glad to see Bobiri was kind to you with the Red-billed Dwarf Hornbill and the Brown Nightjar played ball. Look forward to a catch up!
Cheers Jaff- I worked out my Ghana list - 446. What's yours?
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