Our last full day of birding and it was one that almost finished me off! It involved a very long uphill hike up to a ridge in the Atewa Range for one rather special target species.
We began walking through the same farm scrub that we birded yesterday (more on what we saw there later) and on and upwards into the forest proper for what seemed like an age. To be fair to our guide we paced things quite well and in the end I found going uphill easier than the walk down! Birds of course kept us amused with an obliging Puvell's Illadopsis followed by Chestnut-capped Flycatcher, Chestnut-breasted Nigrita, Velvet-mantled Drongo, several Wood Warblers, Blue Malkoha, White-crested Hornbill, African Emerald Cuckoo, Black-capped Apalis and Sharpe's Apalis and a bird we'd looked for several times before and not seen until now - Tessmann's Flycatcher. Also on the list were Square-tailed Sawwing, Yellow-mantled Weaver, a Red-tailed Bristlebill across the track and Copper-tailed Starling - but still no target bird! Eventually and after much searching Foster found the bird we'd walked all this way to see - Blue-moustached Bee-eater. Initially close and in good light the pair didn't hang about for a photo until they were much higher up and in poor light! Nevertheless it was 'job done' much to everyone's relief. The rapid walk back down didn't yield much as we didn't stop enough but 2 Grey Longbills and an African Forest Flycatcher were seen before we emerged from the forest into the scrub area.
In the scrub area we saw Melancholy Woodpecker, Superb Sunbird, 3 Red-necked Buzzards, Chestnut-mantled Weavers, Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Bar-breasted Firefinch, Plain-backed Pipit, Broad-billed Roller and a wonderful Black-and-white Shrike Flycatcher that flew through and landed in a dead tree to be scoped. 2 members of the party had rushed on ahead so were sat in the van at the time!
It is also worth mentioning that the butterflies in the forest were simply amazing. So many big and colourful species which I hope to identify from photos. One we were told about was Dotted Border - according to Foster a rare endemic of Atewa.
The rest of the day was spent doing absolutely bugger all - we were all knackered!
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