Friday 6 May 2016

Ghana 14th March 2016 Part 1

Today was our first full day in Mole National Park. We had a brief Greyish Eagle Owl right beside the lodges the previous evening after settling in. We awoke early as usual in the morning for breakfast but it had started raining very heavily, the first substantial rain of the trip. The rainy season wasn't supposed to kick in for another two months so it was a bit of a surprise. After two hours of wasted daylight it thankfully stopped. After a slow start today proved to be one of the best days of the trip personally speaking. There were a several highlights during the course of the day which included good views of White-throated Francolin & Stone Partridge, White-headed Vulture, several Bateleurs (cracking looking birds in flight), a male Denham's Bustard displaying and mating with a female, Forbe's Plover, Four-banded Sandgrouse,  Northern White-faced Owl, Standard-winged Nightjar, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, African Moustached Warbler and of course African Elephant! I'll throw up another post shortly featuring the passerines (plus near-passerines) and mammals.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Squacco Heron

Black-headed and Grey Heron

Cattle Egret

Hammerkop
White-faced Whistling Ducks

Hooded Vulture

White-headed Vulture

White-headed Vulture

Male Bateleur

Male Denham's Bustard displaying to female.

Male and female Denham's Bustard

Copulation

Copulation

Dust flying after the deed.

Female Denham's Bustard

Stone Partridge
White-throated Francolin

White-throated Francolin, almost Corncrake like!
Senegal Thick-knees

Senegal Thick-knee

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic stuff Dermot. I thought you might like to know that the bird you've captioned as Hadada Ibis is in fact a Hamerkop! Fantastic photos, I can't wait to get to Ghana some day.

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    1. Thanks for the comment and for pointing out the typo, just changed it there.

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