Upon arrival, you will be met by our guides who will transfer you to our nearby birder friendly hotel for a good night’s rest and acclimatization.
SAKUMONO LAGOON AND SURROUNDINGS, WINNEBA PLAINS AND BREMSU
Our first stop will be at a Ramsar site with its complex of lagoons and marsh land called the Sakumono lagoo.This lagoon is also surrounded by a coastal savanna. Here, depending on the season, we expect to see both resident and migrant shore birds such as, Collared Pratincole, Common Redshank, Greenshank, Sanderling, Senegal Thick-knee, Wattled Lapwing, African Jacana, various species of Terns, Western Reef Egret and other Herons and Egrets. Weavers, Cisticolas , wablers, Yellow billed shrike, kites(black shouldered and yellow billed) , African hobby, Shikra, Senegal thick knee, wablers, African grey Hornbill, Senegal Parrots , Double spurred Francolin, Night heron, etc.
After our first stop, we will continue to winneba plains, here we will bumped up our numbers by adding the likes of violet turaco, Green turaco, African moustached warbler wabler , Black belied bustard , pygmy king fisher, Sulphur breasted bush shrike , Yellow growned gonolek.
Today is certainly guaranteed to be a perfect start to a memorable birdwatching adventure.
KAKUM FOREST AND SURROUNDINGS
Kakum National Park is the leading destination for birdwatching in Ghana. The incredible canopy walkway which is suspended between seven huge forest trees with its platforms for telescopes is the highlight of this forest birding. Bird watching from this walkway will allow the seldom seen canopy dwelling birds to be closely observed.
Apart from the canopy walkway we shall bird all the areas around the Kakum forest as well as the coastal savannah around Cape Coast. The number of birds we shall see in these areas will certainly exceed your expectations.
The black casqued hornbill, brown cheeked hornbill, yellowbilled turaco, yellow bill, crowned eagle ,long tailed hawk, cassins hawk eagle, African cuckoo hawk, Congo serpent eagle, black dwarf horn bill, pied horn bill, golden greenbul, slender billed greenbul, yellow whiskered greenbul,western Nicator, little greenbul, blue cuckoo shrike,western black headed oriole,western black winged oriole,violet backed hyliota,sharps apalis, black capped apalis,buff throated sunbird,blue throated brown sunbird,olive belied sunbird,collared sunbird,grey long bill,bristle nosed barbet,naked faced barbet,velvet mantled drongo,red belled paradise flycatcher and so much more too numerous to mention, This place is better seen and experienced.
KAKUM AREA AND THE PICATHATES SITE
After a final morning of birding at the Kakum area, we will head for Assin Foso. This is surely the highlight of the tour, where we hope to be able to show you Yellow-headed Picathartes. This enigmatic species has quite recently been rediscovered in Ghana after not having been seen in the country for over 40 years. We are proud to be able to give you the opportunity of seeing this most spectacular forest bird.
ABOABO AND BOBIRI FOREST
We shall go to Aboabo camp in the northern part of Kakum for further forest birding and possibly catch up with some species that we might have missed previously around Kakum’s main entrance. Aboabo is a very productive area. We will leave Assin Foso for Kumasi. On arrival we take up our rooms in our hotel in order to have a good rest before going out for some evening birding at the Bobiri sanctuary.
Bobiri is not as big as Kakum but very productive and serves as a very good stop-over en route to the Mole National Park. Here we expect to see many forest species and it will also serve as a good place to increase our number of forest species as some of those that we missed at Kakum may also be found here, Red-billed Dwarf Hornbill, Blue-throated Roller, Shining Blue Kingfisher, Bat Hawk, Gray Parrot and Red-thighed Sparrowhawk, amongst others, are possibilities.
MOLE NATIONAL PARK AND EGYPTIAN PLOVER SITE
Mole National Park which is situated in the north of the country is the best place in Ghana to see savannah birds. Our arrival at Mole will be in the evening and depending on our arrival time we may be able to do some night birding. Such nocturnal species as Scops Owl, Pel’s Fishing Owl, Spotted Eagle Owl, Standard-winged Nightjar, Freckled Nightjar, Plain Nightjar can often be found here. Green Wood Hoopoe
MOLE NATIONAL PARK
Bird watching at Mole is outstanding; the ease with which one can see the birds will amaze you. All Ghana’s savannah birds are to be found here. Among the most interesting species one can mention:Egyptian plover, Forbes plover ,Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Saddle-billed Stork, Bateleur, Martial Eagle, African Hawk Eagle, Hadada Ibis, Long-tailed Starling, Purple Glossy Starling,Spotted creeper,yellow bellied hyliota,oriole warbler,white crowned robin chat,Red pytilia,red headed love bird, African Golden Oriole, African Hobby, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow, Stone Partridge, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Giant Kingfisher, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Red-throated Bee-eater, Broad-billed Roller, Exclamatory Paradise Whydah, and water fowl such as African Jacana, Spur-winged Goose, White-faced Whistling Duck, Senegal Thick-knee, Common Sandpiper are found around the water holes in the park . Pel's fishing owl,Grayish eagle owl,African scops owl,pearl spotted owlet and northern white faced owl are also present.
However the full list of birds for this exceptional site is too long to be included here, but on request we would happy to let you have a fuller list of the birds that can be seen in the Mole National Park.
Birding watching here is impossible without also coming face to face with large mammals, over 800 African Elephants are present in the park, and some around the village near the park entrance are extraordinarily tame. Many species of antelopes, several species of monkeys can also be seen and the remarkably tame Warthogs and troops of Baboons are always to be seen around the hotel. Crocodiles and Water Monitors are also frequently encountered around the water holes.
MOLE TO KUMASI
This morning we will depart Mole national park for Kumasi. We will bird our way down south stopping at water holes and attractive spots. We will arrive Kumasi in the evening and if the time is good we will go to Bobiri forest . This forest is a nice way to return to the forest area again after two days of savanna birding.. Long tailed hawk, red billed dwarf horn bill, black dwarf horn bill are all present here. forest wood hoopoe, white headed hoopoe, velvet mantled drongo, African piculet, Afep pigeon, western bronze napped pigeon all adds to the endless list of species here .
BOBIRI TO ATEWA FOREST
After our morning birding at Bobiri and recovering all our missed species we will drive down to Atewa range. This renge is somewhat hilly so this afternoon we will bird the farm land at the foot of hill in preparedness for the following day when we will do long walk up the hill for the blue headed bee eater . Compact weaver, little greenbul, slender billed greenbul,longtailed hawk,puvels illadopsis,brown illadopsis,red cheeked wattle eyes, western bluebill,black necked weaver ,naked faced barbet,bristle nosed barbet, klass's cuckoo are all found in the foot of the hill.
ATEWA FOREST TO ACCRA
Today is normally one of the best day of birding in Ghana, There is nothing like the walk up the atewa range in pur previous trips we have seen about 70 species of birds in this range. The big target here though is the Blue headed bee eater . But seeing this birds means means that we normally encounter many bird waves, The Green tailed bristle bill, grey headed bristle bill, red tailed bristle bill, red tailed greenbul, western bearded greenbul, the magical yellow bearded greenbul all show off here. The shining drongo is always seen and heard leading large group of birds, the icterine green bul, yellow spotted barbet, yellow billed barbet, white tailed ant thrush, white tailed alate, Finch's flycatcher thrush are all here. The congo serpent eagle, cassin's hawk eagle,ayre's hawk eagle,African goshawk are all seen here. We have also seen both the Letham's forest francolin and Ahanta francolins here. The list here is endless .
SHAI HILLS AND DEPARTURE
This morning we visit the Shai Hills Resource Reserve for our last birding. Here we will have the opportunity to see some of the savannah birds that we may have missed at Mole National Park as well as observing some birds that are particularly associated with this location such as, Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Senegal Parrot, Red-shouldered Cuckoo Shrike, Violet Turaco,Cliff mocking chat,yellow wiged pytilia, etc.we have also see the green twin spot in this area. the stone patridge, helmeted guinea fowl and black bellied bustard,yellow crowned gonolek, brown babblers, yellow billed shrike, rosy bee eater , little bee eater, blue bellied roller etc are all seen here.
ADDITIONAL EXTRAS