China: Shanghai - Rudong

After the Ghana tour I had a few days at home before heading to China for a brand new Zoothera tour. I've been travelling to China for many years now but have never had the chance to bring a group in the winter. Well that was all going to change now and it turned out to be a fantastic adventure! 

We had a ten hour direct, overnight flight with Virgin Atlantic and landed just over half an hour late in Shanghai at 8.30am and met up with our guide and my good friend Tang Jun. We then drove north towards Rudong and kept on going for another 50kms further up the coast… A quick stop for our first meal in China was made and then we were off again and driving to the coast where we discovered that the tide was already receding. Everyone was out from the bus quickly and we were all scanning the shorebirds feeding below us. After a few minutes we found a Spoon-billed Sandpiper, the main bird we had come to see at this site.

After a few frantic directions our scopes were trained on the bird and not one but two spoonies. This is such a star bird and even though I see them every year, the thrill is always there. And if it’s a lifer for you, well what better way to start a tour than this. We spent quite some time watching them, before getting distracted by a few Black-faced Spoonbills, before going down the slippery path of gull identification. We had both Vega and Heuglin’s Gulls side-by-side but the lure of more shorebirds was rather compelling. There were a few Red-necked Stints and plenty of commoner waders, but the 15 Dalmatian Pelicans were something of a surprise to say the least.

So from here we drove on along the coastal road, stopping frequently to scan through flocks of ducks in the lagoon. The star birds were the Falcated Ducks amongst scores of more familiar waterfowl, but we also saw Black-necked Grebe, Greater Scaup and Eastern Spot-billed Duck as well. The light was poor by now and the grey, leaden skies cast a grey cast over everything but at our last stop our spirits were lifted by firstly a Dusky Thrush, which was joined a short while later by a Pale Thrush. And that was the end of the day as the deteriorating light stopped us scanning through a large flock of Eurasian Curlew for something better. So with it getting too dark to continue birding at 5pm we headed to a nearby hotel for the night. We'd originally been booked at a hotel near Yancheng but that was still another 3 - 4 hours drive away, but thanks to Tang Jun we were able to switch to this great hotel, just 30 minutes away.   

Ghana Day 19: Shai Hills

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!

Ghana Day 18: Atewa Farmbush - Sakumono Lagoon

We weren’t expecting much from this morning but you can never tell. And so we were proved wrong as we had nice views of several Red-headed Quelea feeding in a small marshy area. There was also Little Greenbul, Whistling Cisticola, Northern Grosbeak Weaver, and both Diederik and African Emerald Cuckoos. 

Little Greenbul

Then we took a different track down to another marshy area where West African Wattle-eye was seen en-route. 

West African (Chestnut) Wattle-Eye

We were looking for Compact Weaver, a bird that had eluded us until this morning when we found a small group feeding, although it took a while for everyone to get on to the male. There was also Marsh Tchagra, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, Western Bluebill, Little Bee-eater and Red-vented Malimbe here as well. Our last stop produced a Cassin’s Hawk-Eagle and for the hardy few that walked up the hill a little were rewarded with fine views of a Black-throated Coucal.

After lunch we drove towards Accra, stopping at Sakumono Lagoon but due to strong winds the birding here was difficult and most of the birds were distant. But we still saw Northern Pintail, Yellow Wagtail, Grey Plover, Wood Sandpiper, Reed Cormorant, Squacco Heron, Western Marsh Harrier and others. We were glad of an early finish today and some extra time at the hotel for a change!

Ghana Day 17: Atewa Forest and Ridge

This was the day of the big hike up to Atewa ridge, a walk of around 3 miles uphill. This turned out to be one of our best day’s birding of the entire tour as the forest, especially once we reached the ridge at around 740m, as we found quite a few new birds as well as some special species we’d seen earlier in the tour. It was a relatively gentle uphill walk and we began with Cameroon Sombre Greenbul before reaching the ‘quarter way’ point where rather surprisingly we found a pair of Blue-moustached Bee-eaters this low down the hill. And what a superb bird, showing amazingly close to begin with before relocating into the higher tree above us. 

Blue-moustached Bee-eater

We then struggled to see Black-capped and Brown Illadopsis, with only Chris seeing the former species and nobody getting on the latter. A White-tailed Ant-Thrush showed briefly before we reached the top, where a superb Little Grey Flycatcher posed along the track. 

Little Grey Flycatcher

The forest was very good up here with some huge trees and dense lower understorey where Golden-backed Weavers, Rufous-crowned Eremomela were present and we all saw a Pale-breasted Illadopsis quite well. A Crowned Eagle flew over but we only heard a Many-coloured Bush-Shrike and Olive Long-tailed Cuckoo. At lunch Ron found a flock with Little Green Woodpecker and Narina Trogon, although the rest of us searched we couldn’t relocate the same flock. However we did find a couple other flocks with Little Green Woodpecker, Purple-throated Cuckooshrike and Rufous Flycatcher Thrush being the best birds. Walking back took several hours but along the way we had nice looks at Olive Long-tailed Cuckoo, Sharpe’s Apalis, Lemon-bellied Crombec, Chestnut-capped Flycatcher, Black-capped Apalis and a West African (formerly Bioko) Batis. 

Black-shouldered Nightjar

Upon reaching the coach we only had a short wait until dusk, when we spotlighted a superb Black-shouldered Nightjar that perched on a stump right next to the track. What a great way to end a fantastic day.

Ghana Day 16: Bobiri Forest - Atewa

We spent a few hours back in Bobiri Forest this morning and found the birding to be really, really slow. There wasn’t much bird activity and only a few ‘old friends’ calling, however our morning was saved as we drove out when a Forest Wood-Hoopoe was found. We had great views of it through the scope, calling repeatedly from the top of a bare tree. The only other birds of note were a Cassin’s Honeybird, Sharpe’s Apalis, Chestnut-capped Flycatcher, Red-vented Malimbe and Yellow-mantled Weaver with a few other previously seen species also seen. We also heard a Brown Illadopsis here.

We had a 2.5 hour drive to lunch and then visited the nearby Atewa farmbush where several Viellot’s Black Weavers, Black-and-white Mannikin, Tit-Hylia, Square-tailed Saw-wing, Red-fronted Parrot, African Emerald Cuckoo, Klaas’s Cuckoo, White-throated and Black Bee-eaters, Chestnut-breasted and White-breasted Nigritas, and best of all a Lemon-bellied Crombec were seen.