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Ghana Upper Guinea and Savannah
Our new upper guinea rainforest and Savannah special tour takes us to the rarely visited unspoilt Ankasa rainforest near the boarder of the Ivory Coast. A beautiful rainforest protecting some wonderful quality species and the only rainforest in Ghana where the white breasted guineafowl is known to be. With over 755 species of birds, Ghana is an ideal birdwatching destination. Your tour leaders have been working and living in and around Ghana’s national parks for over 30 years, studying and recording Ghana’s birds. This local knowledge enhances our guest’s chances of a productive and enjoyable birdwatching holiday. Ghana covers a variety of habitats from coastal wetland lagoons and saltpans on the Gold Coast, moving inland we find primary Guinea tropical rainforest where the world famous Kakum canopy walkway is found. We arrange early opening of the walkway for a number of mornings during our tour. One of the many highlights of our tour is undoubtedly the visit to a yellow headed picathartes nesting site, getting a glimpse of this remarkable bird is an amazing feeling never forgotten. As we are dedicating the majority of our time to rainforest birding, we are enhancing our chances of finding the more sought after secretive species, which all leads to an extremely impressive quality bird tally, a tally we know will not disappoint! Detailed Itinerary Day 1 Our experienced birdwatching tour guides will meet with you on your arrival at the Kotoka International Airport Accra, which is situated on the beautiful gold coast of Western Africa. After boarding our air conditioned vehicle, which will be your mode of transport for the duration of your tour, we transfer you to your hotel, which is situated in Accra. Once we have checked you in, our experienced guides will offer you Akwaaba (welcome) and brief you on all aspects of your trip. You can enjoy your evening meal at the hotel restaurant whilst acclimatising yourself to Africa. Day 2
Our first full day with you in Ghana, the day starts early as we visit the nearby Shai Hills reserve, an expanse of Savannah, grassland and woodland. The bird viewing here is excellent and we hope to find grey hornbill, African hobby, violet and green turacos, mocking cliff chat, Senegal parrot, croaking cisticola, white crowned robin chat and many more species. After a late breakfast, we visit the nearby Sukumona Lagoon where we aim to find black, green backed and grey herons, long tailed cormorant, garganey, black winged stilt, collared pratincole, African spoonbill, ruddy turnstone, black tern, Senegal thicknee and ruff to mention just a few. After some good birding we head west leaving the busy city of Accra behind. Our destination is Cape Coast where we find the amazing Kakum National Park. En route, we will be stopping at a grassland reserve and lagoon. Today, we hope to find siffling, short winged cisticola, copper sunbird, flappet lark, red winged prinia, yellow shouldered widowbird, black necked weaver, yellow crowned gonolek, orange cheeked waxbill, moustached grass-warbler, displaying black winged bishops, black crowned tchagra, plain backed pipit and black bellied bustard. Around the lagoon, we aim to see squacco and purple herons, purple swamphen spur-winged lapwing, African pygmy-goose, western reef egrets, yellow bishop, preuss’s, swallows and many more species before our arrival at Hans Cottage, our base for the next 3 nights whilst we visit Kakum National Park. Our hotel is a very comfortable establishment built over a lake, which contains Nile crocodiles and is teeming with birdlife including vieillot, village and orange weavers, night heron, striated heron, African pygmy, pied, giant, woodland and malachite kingfishers. We retire to our air-conditioned rooms after discussing the day’s sightings over dinner. B, L, D Day 3-4 Early start as we head for early opening of the world famous canopy walkway at Kakum National Park. Over the next two early mornings, we will be spending the most critical bird viewing hours 40 meters above the forest floor on the canopy walkway, which platforms are large enough to support Telescopes. The 607 km² Kakum National Park protects critically endangered primary guinea tropical rainforest and the species we hope to see from the canopy includes green hylia, violet backed hyliota, yellow bellied crombec, little grey flycatcher, grey headed, white breasted and chestnut breasted negrofinch, grey longbill, white headed and forest woodhoopee, West African batis, western bluebills, blue cuckoo shrike, chestnut bellied helmetshrike, large billed puffback, sharpes apalis, rufous-crowned eremomela, brown cheeked, black and white casqued, piping, black casqued and black dwarf hornbills, beautiful preuss’s goldenbacked weaver, red headed and red vented malimbes, rosy bee eater, yellow spotted and hairy breasted barbet, red fronted, brown necked, and grey parrots, velvet mantled drongos. The raptors we aim to see include red necked buzzard, palm nut vulture, African cuckoo hawk, congo serpent eagle, cassins hawk-eagle to mention just a few. During the heat of mid afternoon, we have the option of birding around the forest of our hotel, resting around the hotel pool and bar or you could choose to go on a cultural excursion to Cape Coast visiting Cape Coast and Elmina castles. We visit the Antikwaa section of Kakum National Park for late afternoon and early evening birding hoping to see little, rosy and black bee-eater’s, blue throated roller, piping and white crested hornbills, red and yellow rumped tinkerbird’s, kemps and grey longbill’s, ussher’s and fraser’s forest flycatchers and if we are lucky white-spotted flufftail. Our evenings will be spent at Han's restaurant and bar discussing the day’s sightings, adding to our checklist and enjoying the atmosphere of our surroundings. B, L, D Day 5
Another early start this morning, we will be concentrating our attention on the many trails within and surrounding the park, which should prove to be very productive. We can aim to find fire crested alethe, common and grey headed bristlebills, collared and olive bellied sunbirds, blue headed wood dove, red rumped tinkerbird, black dwarf and red billed dwarf hornbills, black headed paradise flycatcher, finches flycatcher, blue shouldered robin chat, olive long tailed cuckoo, pale breasted illadopsis, forest robin, red chested goshawk, yellow billed and guinea turacoś, long tailed hawk, fire bellied and gabon woodpeckers, black throated coucal, western black headed oriole, African finfoot and if we are lucky we may spot congo serpent eagle, African pitta, forest francolin forest scrub robin and spotted honeyguide. After a late breakfast, we set off for Ankasa in the western region of Ghana for what should be a major highlight of your time with us. Ankasa is a rarely visited pristine tropical upper guinea rainforest protecting some wonderful species. We arrive in the late afternoon to check into our accommodation before heading to Ankasa for early evening birdwatching, We hope to see Fraser’s, Akun and African Wood owls before returning to our accommodation in preparation for the next mornings birding. B, L, D Day 6-7
Early starts as we dedicate day 6 and 7 to birdwatching in Ankasa, species we hope to find are Olive ibis, hautlaubs duck, African finfoot, African crowned eagle, great blue and yellow billed turaco’s, yellow casqued, red billed dwarf and black dwarf hornbills, chocolate backed kingfisher, red billed helmetshrike, purple throated cuckoo-shrike, black capped, puvel’s, rufous winged and brown illadopsis, red and green tailed bristlebills, yellow bearded and red tailed greenbul’s and if we are lucky during early evening birding we may spot shelly’s owl and nkulengu rail. Day 8 After a final mornings birding at Ankasa on day 8 we set off for Brenu Beach where our main target will be Preuss’s Swallows before returning to Han’s cottage for the evening in preparation for an early start the following day. B, L, D
Day 9 Our final day at Kakum and an early start, we head towards Aboabo on the north east boarder of the park. We arrive before first light and hope to find plain and long tailed nightjars on the road leading up to the camp. We will spend all morning trying to add any species we may have missed previously. After lunch, we set off for a remote village in the Ashanti region of Ghana for what should be the highlight of our birdwatching tour. On our arrival we trek into the forest our destination is a nesting site for yellow headed picathartes. There are around 30 nests at this location and catching a glimpse of this remarkable bird is an amazing feeling, we transfer to Kumasi, check into our hotel and reflect on a wonderful day’s birdwatching. B, L, D Day 10 We leave Kumasi early after breakfast heading north towards Mole National Park. We can expect to see different bird species en route as we gradually enter the Sahelian Savannah plains of northern Ghana. On our arrival at Mole National Park, we check into the Mole hotel, which is the only accommodation in the area. Situated on a 250 metre high escarpment over looking this 4840km² park, it offers breathtaking views. It is an amazing feeling to be sitting around the pool on the hotel terrace watching African savannah elephants bathing in the two nearby watering holes which are inhabited by crocodiles. After our evening meal, we shall set off for an evening of birding around the Mole Airstrip where we hope to see displaying standard winged and freckled nightjars, the airstrip is also productive for owls. B, L, D Day 11-12-13 We awake early and move to the hotel terrace, which is an excellent spot to set up our Telescopes and watch the dawn activity where we hope to see chestnut-crowned sparrow weaver, lavender and orange cheeked waxbill, red throated bee eater, grey woodpecker, red billed and bared breasted firefinch, Senegal batis, stone partridge, beautiful and pygmy sunbirds, abyssinian ground-hornbill. The watering hole attracts Senegal thick knee and greater painted snipe, saddle billed and wolly necked storks and hadada ibis. Raptors are common in Mole and we hope to add to our list white headed, hooded, and white backed vulture, African hawk eagle, Ayres’s hawk eagle, bateleur, short toed and brown snake eagle, lizzard buzzard, African hobby, lannar falcon and several species of harrier. We will take guided walks into the woodland that surrounds the waterhole in the cooler early morning and late afternoons. We will expect to encounter bruces green pigeon, purple and long tailed glossy starlings, white shouldered black tit, Senegal eremomela, oriole warbler, violet turaco, golden tailed and grey woodpecker, blackcap and brown babbler, snowy crowned robin chat, yellow breasted apalis, spotted creeper, northern puffback, rufus cisticola, swamp and lead coloured flycatchers and yellow fronted tinkerbird. During the heat of the afternoon, we have the option of a cultural excursion to nearby Larabanga and the 14th century mud and stick mosque or birding around the hotel grounds. Alternatively we could relax on the terrace around the pool. In the afternoon and early evenings we will search for the amazing Pel’s fishing owl. B, L, D Day 14 After a final morning birding on the terrace of the hotel and after a hearty breakfast, we depart for Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. As we venture northwards the landscape becomes more savannah woodland. We pass through many villages and stop at Tamale for lunch and refreshments. Tamale is Ghana’s 3rd largest city and is the capital of the Northern Region. We arrive in Bolgatanga in the late afternoon and check into our guesthouse for the evening. We will set off for late afternoon birding at the Tongo Hills where our main target species will be fox kestrel and rock loving cisticola before returning to our accommodation in the evening. B, L, D Day 15
An early start as we watch the dawn activity around the Tono Dam. We hope to find a variety of egrets, waders and herons. In the late afternoon we shall bird the surrounding woodlands looking for dark chanting-goshawk, stanley and white bellied bustards, forbes plover, red winged pytilia, swallow-tailed and northern carmine bee-eaters and many more species before our dinner and a final evenings birding around the Dam which is particularly productive for owls. B, L, D
Day 16 After a hearty breakfast, we set off for Kumasi retracing our journey of a few days earlier. En route we will stop for lunch and to stretch our legs before we set off on our final leg to Kumasi, we hope to spot some different species during our journey. If time permits on our arrival in Kumasi, we will visit the Owabi reservoir for early evening birding before transferring to our hotel to relax and enjoy our evening meal. B, L, D Day 17
We wake early to visit Bobiri Forest Reserve which is actually a butterfly sanctuary. Upon our arrival, we will search this lush forest for swamp palm greenbul, bronze naped pigeon, red chested cuckoos, green headed sunbirds, red billed dwarf and white crested hornbills, white headed, woodhoopee, brown illadopsis, western nicator and some of the many raptors present include cassins hawk eagle, red thighed sparrowhawks, African cuckoo hawk, long tailed hawk to mention just a few. After breakfast, we set off for Atewa, we arrive in the afternoon, enjoy our lunch before we set off for afternoon birding, after which we will transfer to our hotel for our evening meal and to relax. B, L, D
Day 18 Sadly your final day with us in Ghana and an early start this morning as we return to the Atewa Range, this is the only site in Ghana where we can see the blue headed bee eater. Other specialities include the endangered rufous-winged illadopsis, narina trogon, great blue turaco, dusky crested and olivaceous flycatchers. We will set off for Accra after lunch on our arrival we enjoy our evening meal before your transfer to the airport. B, L, D
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Itinerary: Duration: 18 days Limit: 6-12 Date: 2-19 December 2010 and 2011 Start: Accra End: Accra Price:£2800 per person sharing, single supplement £358 Price_Includes: Collection Accommodation All meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks Mineral water Park entrance fees All guide fees Excursion costs Professional care and attention Transportation in and around Ghana Fuel Price_Excludes: Flights Travel Insurance Ghana entry visas Soft and Alcoholic drinks Items of purely personal nature
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© 2008-2010 Birding Ecotours · www.birdingecotours.co.za was updated March 2010 |
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