Ghana, Day 2, 25 November 2023 - Kakum NP

Day 2 began with a tick from the breakfast table with a confiding Woodland Kingfisher on wires above the swimming pool at the Rainforest Lodge!

The sole aim of the day was to spend time on the famous canopy walkway at Kakum NP. We had 2 sessions there - one in the morning and another shorter one in the evening. This rather wobbly rope bridge walkway has a number of platforms and it was the largest (and therefore most comfortable) one that we spent the majority of our time on. We were shocked a couple of times when we all moved to one side of the platform to see something and it visibly tilted rather suddenly - brown trousers all round!

It is hard to explain just how good the birding is from the walkway - after early morning fog had lifted we were constantly picking up new birds and I ended up with an amazing 39 lifers during the day! Without wanting to simply list what we saw (you can check out my eBird checklist for that) the highlights for me personally were Yellow-billed Turaco, Black-casqued Hornbill, Brown-cheeked Hornbill, Blue Malkoha, Velvet-mantled Drongo, Rosy Bee-eater, Black Bee-eater (posing on the wires of the walkway itself), Blue Cuckooshrike, West African Batis, Forest Penduline Tit, Tit-hylia, Rufous-crowned Erememola, Spotted Greenbul, Golden Greenbul, Yellow-whiskered Greenbul, Blue-throated Brown Sunbird, Copper-tailed Starling, Chestnut-winged Starling, Johanna's Sunbird, Buff-throated Sunbird, Red-headed Malimbe and Yellow-mantled Weaver. Two excellent primates also put in an appearance - Lesser Spot-nosed Monkey and Mona Monkey.

At ground level after the morning session we were also treated to a displaying male Rufous-sided Broadbill and after dark on a damp evening a Brown Nightjar in a tiny clearing.