We spent the whole day back in Kakum National Park (looking a lot cleaner!) with a morning and evening session on the canopy walkway and platforms. Even though the forest was secondary growth it still contains some massive trees. The walkway consists of aluminium ladders with wooden planks for the floor with netting along the sides and metal wires and ropes which support the whole thing. These rope bridges connect seven huge trees which have sturdy wooden platforms. At its highest its about 40 metres / 130 feet off the ground. It certainly wasn't for those without a head for heights. Even though I've done a bit of abseiling in recent years I have to say it was initially a bit unnerving when you looked down along with the bouncing of the rope bridge. One of our group was particularly nervous and spent most of his time literally hugging the tree trunk when he finally reached each platform. As we were right in the forest canopy we had some decent views of species which spend most of their lives in this zone. These are normally quite difficult to see well and usually result in a very sore neck from looking straight up from the forest floor.
Our evening session was delayed for an hour or so due to a very heavy rain shower, one of only two during the entire trip. Given the habitat we were in, most of the day list consisted of passerines. Some of the highlights included Yellow-billed Turaco, Red-fronted Parrot, Yellowbill, Sabine's & Cassin's Spinetails, Chestnut/West African Wattle-eye, West African/Bioko Batis, Sabine's Puffback, Red-tailed, Ansorge's & Plain Greenbuls, Grey Longbill, Chestnut-capped Flycatcher, Sharpe's Apalis, Little Grey Flycatcher, Finsch's Flycatcher Thrush, Violet-backed Hyliota, Tiny Sunbird, Yellow-mantled & Preuss's Weavers. It was a little disappointing when the only hornbill species of the day was the very common Pied Hornbill. I was hoping for some of the forest species which Kakum is known for. We struggled a bit with the hornbills over the entire trip as it turned out. No sign of any Long-tailed Hawks or Congo Serpent Eagles which are also a possibility here.
 |
| Cassin's Spinetail |
 |
| Sabine's Spinetail |
 |
| Black-winged Oriole |
 |
| Little Grey Flycatcher |
 |
| Female Sharpe's Apalis |
 |
| Rope bridge |
 |
| Kakum National Park |
 |
| Kakum National Park |
No comments:
Post a Comment