Avian Demography Unit
Department of Statistical Sciences
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ADU travels, expeditions and events

AFRING Waterbird Ringing Course, Accra, Ghana
20-28 October 2006

Doug Harebottle  and   Marius Wheeler

We travelled to Accra, Ghana to run the second AFRING Waterbird Ringing Training Course. The course, which had a West African focus, was hosted by the Centre for African Wetlands based at the University of Ghana and the Ghana Ringing Scheme. Twelve participants from 10 countries attended the course including Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya. The course focussed on ringing terns and waders, particularly Black Terns, and Jan van der Winden, from the Netherlands, was invited as the tern expert to assit with practical field sessions and tern ecology.


Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  The Centre for African Wetlands (CAW). It is situated adjacent to the Zoology Department within the University of Ghana. The university is located in Legon which is situated on the outskirts of Accra. CAW serves as a sub-regional centre in West Africa for capacity building and training in wetland and waterbird ecology.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  The course started on the Saturday (21st) and the first two days were spent dealing mainly with some theoretical aspects of ringing.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M Harebottle 		  Jan van der Winden giving a talk about the ecology of Black Terns, one of his study species!

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Lunch on the lawns at CAW. The food was good during the course and we got to sample some local Ghanaian cuisine.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Doug explaining about moult, feather scores and wing moult scores.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  On Sunday (22 Oct) we departed for Densu Delta for the field practical sessions. The delta is situted about 15 km west of Accra.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  We stayed at the Hillview Hotel, which was about a 15 minute ride from the Delta.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Looking southwards over the Delta. Penbros Saltworks constitutes most of the Delta which was designated as a Ramsar site in 1992. The remaining natural freshwater wetlands within the delta are primarily located to the west (i.e. to the right in the picture) of the saltworks. Development around the delta has grown rapidly over the last 10 years and human encroachment is a serious threat to the site.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  We set up the ringing base next to a salt storage barn on the western edge of the works. This site is regularly used by the Ghana Ringing Scheme when they carry out tern and wader ringing at the delta.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  The participants worked well together and by the end of the week they had mastered the art of putting up the mist-nets.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Birds were processed from about 1 hour after dark until 1am each night. Here Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu explains the complexities of tern moult to some of the participants.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  A Curlew Sandpiper. 16 birds were caught during the field sessions.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  A Sanderling. Three birds were caught the entire week. These were colour-banded (white ring can be seen in the picture) and forms part of a post-graduate reserach project for Edward Koomson, a PhD student from CAW.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  One of the target species was Black Tern, and we managed to catch and ring 41 individuals during the week. It is a small tern but a real privilige to have in the hand ... and ring!

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Common Redshank. Two birds were caught and ringed. It was a ringing lifer for Marius!

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  A lot of time was spent learning about tern moult which can be quite complex, particularly for adult birds. Feedback from the participants suggested that they were glad to have learnt about this even though they found it difficult at the start.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Everyone got involved with something during the ringing operations which allowed equal time to be spent doing ringing, biometrics, weight and scribing. Here Germain Bomisso (Ivory Coast) and Zeine Al Sidatty (Mauritania) are supervised by Marius.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Data capture is an important component of any ringing programme. Here the participantas were given the opportunity to capture the data that was collected during each night's ringing.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Besides ringing, some training was given on bird identification, especially tern identification as this can be more difficult in the field as opposed to tern identification in the hand.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Delmo Mannok from Nigeria ringing a Black Tern. She was the only female participant who attended the course.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  A Roseate Tern. 14 birds were caught during the week including six retraps from Europe.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Ageing and sexing techniques for waders were dealt with during the course. Here Marius and Jan refer to an ageing and identification guide to waders in order to correctly age a Common Redshank.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Sunset over the delta.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Each day we left the hotel around 3 pm to get to the site in time to put up the nets. Before leaving, all equipment was checked and double-checked to make sure that everything had been packed.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  A special highlight of the course was the last bird on the last night of ringing - an African Skimmer! Need we say more!

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  The West African AFRING ringing traning group. Back (l to r): Germain Bomisso (Cote d'Ivoire), Joaozinho Sa (Guinea-Bissau), Zeine El Sidaty (Mauritania), Shiiwua Manu (Nigeria), Moussa Diop (Senegal), Alfred Ali (Ghana), Jan van den Winden (The Netherlands), Jean-Michel Takuo (Cameroon), Marius Wheeler (South Africa) and Titus Imboma (Kenya). Front (l to r): Edward Koomson (Ghana), Seraphin Menzepoh (Cameroon), Delmo Mannok (Nigeria), Joselito Tossou (Benin) and Doug Harebottle (South Africa)

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  We returned to CAW on the Friday and held a farewell dinner together with a Water Resources group that had held a workshop at CAW during the same week. We were entertained by some local drumming ....

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  ... and dancing during the dinner, which was attended by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. C.N.B. Tagoe.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Prof. Taboe handed out attendance certificates to each of the AFRING participants.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  It was then time for the 'ringers' to let their hair down and dance to some local rythms.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Marius, Jan and myself then travelled to Cape Coast, about 150 km west of Accra, on Saturday to visit the Kakum National Park and to enjoy some forset birding. Severe traffic jams are an everyday occurrence in Accra and one has to be patient as you travel out of the city.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  We overnighted at Hans's Botel, about 15 km from the National Park. The restaurant and shop are built over a dam...

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  ... containing Nile Crocodiles. Hotel guests can apparently feed the crocodiles should they feel the urge.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Kakum Forest as seen from the outside.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  The forest is famous for its canopy walkway - a suspended bridge that is spanned between trees in the forest about 30-40m up allowing spectacular views over the forest and of course superb forest birding!

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Marius and guide Robert nearing the end of one of the bridges.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  We returned to Legon on the Sunday and on the Monday we did some birding in the Legon Botanical Gardens located on the university grounds. Here we found two pairs of Hooded Vultures with nests, one of them in a palm tree. These vultures are common birds in Ghana and can be seen more or less everywhere you go, in the city and even on the university sportfields.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  The bus service in Accra is quite good and relatively cheap. A 10 minute bus ride cost us 1000 Cedi (about 90c).

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Informal traders are everywhere but especially at traffic jams and traffic lights. Here you can buy anything from toilet paper or live chickens to.....

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  ... everything you need for your motor car.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  Accra is a busy city with about 4 million people and housing is at a premium. Nearly every available place is taken up by houses which has spread to the outskirts of the city, stretching up to 15km from the city centre.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  There are plenty of signs everywhere along the roads. Some places have some really unique and original names.

Ghana 2006
Photo D.M. Harebottle 		  We had a successful and enjoyable course and have left with some memorable experiences of Ghana and the friendliness and warmth of the Ghanaian people... and some truly magnificent sunsets!


Summary of species caught:

  • Common Tern - 99 (7 recaptures)
  • Black Tern - 41
  • Curlew Sandpiper - 16
  • Roseate Tern - 14 (6 recaptures)
  • Pied Kingfisher - 3
  • Common Ringed Plover - 3
  • Kittlitz's Plover - 3
  • Sanderling - 3
  • Royal Tern - 2
  • Eurasian Whimbrel - 2
  • Common Redshank - 2
  • Little Stint - 1
  • African Skimmer - 1
  • Greenshank - 1
  • Sandwich Tern - 1
  • White-fronted Plover - 1

    • TOTAL - 193

    Acknowledgements

    We would like to thank the European Union through the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) which provided funding for AFRING and contributed to half of the costs for this course.

    African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement European Union

    We would also like to thank the Centre for African Wetlands (CAW), University of Ghana and Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu (CAW Director) for hosting the course and for providing additional funding which enabled participants from Benin and Cote d'Ivoire to attend the course.

    WWF - Wamer Office (Senegal) are thanked for providing travel and subsistence funding for the delegates from Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. The National Museum in Nairobi provided travel funding for the Kenyan delegate and we are grateful to them for their support.

    Mrs Afia Bailes of Aquaterra is sincerely thanked for arranging all the logistics for the course, including transport and accommodation arrangements and for all the administrative matters that needed to be attended to.

    The Ghana Ringing Scheme are thanked for providing the rings, ringing equipment and camping equipment used during the course.

    Finally we are extremely grateful to Jan van der Winden, from The Netherlands, for giving up his time to provide input as the tern expert during the practical field sessions. Jan also represented Working Group on International Waterbird and Wetland Research (WIWO) during the course, a Dutch NGO that funds expeditions, particularly to Africa, to carry out wetland and waterbird related research.

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    Document posted 9-Nov-2006