Ghana April 2023 Part 5: Mole National Park

 

Forbes's Plover

We arrived at Mole Motel in Mole National Park in the northern savanna belt of Ghana late in the afternoon of Day 13 of our tour of the country for a four-night stay. Our rooms overlooked the surrounding savanna and a large waterhole. The first bird I saw from my room was an Abyssinian Ground Hornbill near the waterhole. Our first full day at Mole saw us in the morning along the Brugbani Road in sparse woodland that had not long been burned.

Mole Motel

View from the room

On the way we encountered a party of Patas Monkeys, a Striped Ground-Squirrel and a sole bull African Elephant feeding.

 

Strriped Ground-Squirrel

One of the star birds of trip was encountered in the woodlands early in the day in the form of a group of 4 Forbes’s Plovers (below).

A few other sometimes difficult specialties followed soon after. Rufous-rumped Lark(below) is an unpredictable migrant but a single bird showed well. Sun Larks were seen soon after.

A few White-fronted Black Chats perched atop stunted trees. Gambaga Flycatcher and Denham’s Bustard were welcome additions to the list.

Denham's Bustard

White-fronted Black Chat

We returned to the lodge for the heat of the day to find a family group of African Elephants in the pool below the motel. They spent several hours in the water, the younger animals clearly enjoying themselves. The elephants were back in the water the next day.

White-faced Whistling Ducks were abundant around this and other pools in the park. We were surprised to find a pair of Pied-winged Swallows feeding below the rooms with Wire-tailed Swallows.

Whire-faced Whistling-Duck

In the afternoon we visited pools and woodland below Zina Lodge. Here we had good looks at a pair of Stone Partridges. Senegal and Spotted Thick-knees were in close proximity to each other. Bruce’s Green Pigeon was common. As dusk fell, African Scops-Owl was tracked down and Red-necked (which should be way out of range here) and Long-tailed Nightjars both showed. 

Stone Partridge

A Spotted Hyena silently watched us distantly from the road; we encountered this species on two other occasions in the park. On the way back we saw the first of many Greyish Eagle-Owls to be encountered in the park.

Spotted Hyaena

Throughout our stay, raptors were much in evidence and included Bataleur, African White-backed and White-headed Vultures, Wahlberg’s and African Hawk Eagle, Gabar Goshawk and Grasshopper Buzzard.

Bataleur

Other birds seen during this and following days included Rose-throated and Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters, Beautiful and Western Violet-backed Sunbirds, Greater Honeyguide, African Grey Woodpecker, Abyssinian Roller, African Blue Flycatcher, Lesser Honeyguide, Senegal Batis, Northern Black Flycatcher, Violet Turaco, Red-chested Cuckoo, Blackcap Babbler, Little Weaver and Yellow-crowned Gonolek (we had seen the gonolek several times during the trip but it showed particularly well here). Black-faced and Black-bellied Firefinches were among the seedeaters seen but these were relatively sparse due to an abundance of water in the park from recent rains.

Abyssinian Roller

Beautiful Sunbird

African Grey Woodpecker

Little Weaver

Red-chested Cuckoo

Rose-throated Bee-eater

Senegal Batis

Yellow-crowned Gonolek

The morning of our second day in Mole had us in scrub by the Magnori River in the morning. Western Square-tailed Drongo was a key target here and the bird obliged. An eclipse plumage paradise-wydah was likely an Exclamatory Paradise-Wydah but birds in this plumage can not be distinguished from Togo Paradise-Wydah. Other more common dry country birds included Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Brubru and Yellow-breasted Apalis. We heard Thick-billed Cuckoo.

Birding the savanna in Mole

Pearl-spotted Owlet

He had good looks at a roosting Long-tailed Nightjar and less satisfactory views of a flushed Plain Nightjar.

Long-tailed Nightjar

In the late afternoon we scoured the grasslands near the airstrip where we tracked down a sometimes tricky cisticola pair: Rufous Cisticola and Dorst’s Cisticola. A pair of White-throated Francolins were unusually visible as sunset approached.

White-throated Francolin

With the fall of darkness came the finding of a superb male Standard-winged Nightjar in full plumage on the now disused airstrip that once serviced the park. A female Standard-winged Nightjar was found road-killed nearby.

Standard-winged Nightjar

Our third day in Mole National Park took us to the Samole Loop and fine looks at a family of two adult and two well-fledged Four-banded Sandgrouse, another much-wanted target. Late in the afternoon we were back below Zina Lodge, where Rock-loving Cisticola and Violet-backed Starling were among the birds that showed nicely.

Four-banded Sandgrouse

Other mammals in the park included Olive Baboon, Patas and Green Monkeys, Kintampo Rope Squirrel, Common Warthog, Oribi, Central Bushbuck, Buffon’s (Western) Kob and Western Hartebeest.

Central Bushbuck

Western Kob

Western Obiri

Olive Baboon

Common Warthog

Yellow-winged Bats and and smaller bats, probably Gambian Slit-faced Bat, were roosting in creekside thickets.

Probably Gambian Slit-faced Bat

Ghana April 2023 PART 4: In search of a pangolin

 

White-bellied Pangolin

Following our successful encounter with the White-necked Picathartes (following post) our minds turned to another creature well-known from rainforests in the vicinity of Bonkro in central Ghana: the White-bellied Pangolin. Pangolin sits high on the wishlists of many critter lovers. The only mammal to be wholly covered in scales, the survival of several species is in the balance as pangolins are slaughtered in their tens of thousands. Pangolin scales are considered to have considerable value as traditional medicines in east Asia, especially China and Vietnam, but there is no evidence supporting this. Shy and harmless, the pangolin is believed to be the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal. As pangolin populations in Asia disappear, the trade increasingly has shifted to Africa, where the four pangolin species are now absent or rare throughout their ranges.

Before our tour, the group agreed with my suggestion for a $US50 reward for anyone in the villages around Bonkro who found us a pangolin, the stipulation being that we had to be taken to the pangolin and not the other way around. A man with tracking experience came forward and one of our Ashanti guides, Ibrahim Entsie, also had past form in finding pangolins. With these two guys, our group set out at sunset on Day 11 of our trip to find a pangolin. This was not going to be easy. We followed the trackers up and down ridges, along creeks, through regrowth and primary rainforest - often in rough terrain with no paths.

Following the trackers

We spotlighted a sleeping African Pygmy Kingfisher and located a delightful Beecroft’s Anomalure, a kind of flying squirrel.

African Pygmy Kingfisher

Beecroft's Anomalure

Three hours later, the trackers froze when they detected a rustling in the undergrowth: a pangolin feeding on the ground. As soon as the animal realised we were on to it, it rapidly climbed a densely foliaged tree. The pangolin was hard to keep track of as it crashed through the branches but we all managed good looks, although the foliage and its constant movements made photography challenging, as these images demonstrate. The first image in this post is of an animal jumping between branches. In the second image below, it is clinging to the side of the tree, its head visible.

Jeff Skevington had more success with his images below.

We were one very contented group following this encounter.

Later, Ibrahim Entsie explained his personal history with pangolins. His family lived in an impoverished village near the city of Cape Coast, eking out a living from farming palm nuts. He hunted pangolins and other game for bushmeat to sell for several years to raise money to help him finish his school education. The meat was much sought after and the scales were disposed of. Today, a dead pangolin fetches about $US20 on the black market, he says: “It is the Chinese traders who are buying them now for the scales and they might become extinct if it keeps going on.”

Ibrahim Entsie

The pangolin was not the last of the goodies at Bonkro. We had two nights at Ashanti’s new lodge. In and around the picathartes forest we found two wanted specialties: Tessmann’s Flycatcher and Yellow-throated Cuckoo.

Tessmann's Flycatcher

Other birds included a White-crested Hornbill (below) showing nicely in the early morning light.

In the afternoon we visited a logging road in the nearby Kwebene Sam Forest. Here we saw Red-headed Malimbe, Western Bronze-naped Pigeon, Tiny Sunbird, Cassin’s Honeybird and Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrike. We were back at the logging road the next morning, seeing the distinctive western race of Yellow-billed Barbet, more Red-billed Helmetshrikes, Western Nicator, Violet-backed Hyliota and large numbers of Red-fronted Parrots.

Red-headed Malimbe

After checking into Royal Basin Hotel in Kusami, Ghana’s second biggest city, we visited the nearby Bobiri Butterfly Sanctuary in the late afternoon. The highlight here was a Black Dwarf Hornbill feeding its young at the nest.

Black Dwarf Hornbill

The next morning – Day 13 of our tour - saw us depart Kumasi to head north on the highway that extends from the coast in southern Ghana north to the Burkino Faso border. Two hours north of Kumasi we stopped at a forest remnant called Opra, a key site for the scarce Fiery-breasted Bush-shrike. Some of the group managed brief views of the elusive bird. Other birds included Brown-crowned Tchagra, Red-cheeked Wattle-eye, Grey Tit-Flycatcher and Bearded Barbet.

Brown-crowned Tchagra

We arrived at our next destination, Mole National Park, in the late afternoon after stopping to rescue a Graceful Chameleon (below) by removing it from the busy highway.