Ghana 2019 People pics

Final post for Ghana 2019, here's a few holiday snaps. 

 This is how all airlines should be! 

Ghana 2019 Sounds

Here's a few enigmatic sounds of the Ghanian Rain Forest.  The Soundscape is a 2 minute sample of the incredible forest chorus (how many species can you identify- I'm still working on it) .

An out of range indiviudal which we picked up on call 

In order Little Green Bulbul, Tambourine Dove, Common Bulbul, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Green Hylia, Grey-backed Camaroptera, Yellow-throated Tinkerbird, Deidric Cuckoo, Pied Crow, Red-rumped Tinkerbird, 

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Ghana 2019 Moths

We did a bit of moth trapping on this trip but mainly concentrated on birds and butterflies, mainly because we don't have many resources to identify the moths. However got a few here to try and identify to get us started. I've been recommended this website by Martin Honey AFRICAN MOTHS so will try and make a start. 

 Oleander Hawkmoth 

 Tiger moth sp 

 Silk moth sp 

Walker's Owl Moth, Erebus walkeri

Dysgonia species

Ghana 2019 Butterflies

We had approx 110 species of butterfly in the week. Here's a few of the most photogenic ones and most of the other species are in the album (below).  Some great names in there - Policemans, Playboys, Pansys, Jokers and Wagglewings. 

Isaac Ntakor is the butterfly tour leader and expert for GHANA BIRDING TOUR ADVENTURES so thanks a lot to Isaac for the identifications. GHANA BUTTERFLIES FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

Western Blue Beauty 

Western Yellow-banded Swallowtail 

Citrus Swallowtail

Blue Leaf Pansy

Common Red Glider

Tentyris Forrester

Large Fairy Hairstreak

White-banded Red-eye 

Waggle wings (Tiny Grass Blue)

Hebes Forrester

Large Orange Playboy

Common Brown Playboy

Bouvier's Elfin 

Peter's Demon Charaxes

African Joker

Ghana 2019

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) 

GHANA BIRDING TOUR ADVENTURES

Previous Trip Reports

GHANA 2013

GHANA 2017