For our
final morning’s birding we visited the Shai Hills, a drive of around an hour
from the hotel. Of course, breakfast was at the usual time of 5am – as it has
been every morning, apart from one we had at 5.30am!. This is a nice, easy way
to end the tour as its along a level, wide trail through the grassland and
bushes. The first bird of note was Blackcap
Babbler, followed by brief views of Buff-spotted
Woodpecker. At some cliffs we saw 4 White-crowned
Cliff-Chats, Lead-coloured
Flycatcher, Bearded Barbet, Lesser Honeyguide, Siffling Cisticola and Cardinal
Woodpecker. Moving on to the grassland there were many Croaking Cisticolas, but our views of a pair of Red-necked Buzzards take some beating
as they displayed right over our heads.
 |
| Red-necked Buzzard - at last! |
Chris had a brief view of Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat, whilst a Yellow-throated Longclaw flew into a nearby tree and posed very nicely indeed - but not close enough for my little pea-shooter of a camera to get a decent image...
 |
| Yellow-throated Longclaw |
There
was also a flock of White-crested
Helmet-Shrikes moving through and Yellow-mantled
Widowbird. At the bat caves Anthony spotted a Barn Owl roosting high up in some
tall trees and we spent some time admiring this fine bird.
 |
| Western Barn Owl |
As we drove back out
a random stop produced Greater
Honeyguide and Plain-backed Pipit
to wrap up proceedings here. And that was it, our final birding in fabulous Ghana. We'd notch up 442 species during our action-packed ride across most of the currently known birding hot-spots. Our success was mainly down to our cracking local guide, Paul Mensah, whose extremely sharp eyes, keen hearing and local bird knowledge are hard to beat. We'd also had a great group as well, which always helps! I'm really looking forward to returning next year!
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