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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dandsblair" data-source="post: 3184632" data-attributes="member: 107571">Offinso Forest Reserve and BobiriOffinso Forest Reserve – before this trip I had heard absolutely nothing about Offinso but a little research flagged it up as an exemplar of regenerating degraded forest from 2009 study extract “…. to a degraded forest reserve in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The influence of over story species composition on natural regeneration of single exotic (Cedrella odorata and Tectona grandis) and mixed stands (Khaya grandifoliola,…. Anopyxis klaineana) of native species was assessed. In general 52 saplings of native tree species were identified and counted in the forest stand types in the study area…… They strongly recommend mixed species plantations for restoration as they show higher proficiency in accelerating the restoration process. Where monoculture plantations are employed they recommend intensive management practices such as thinning and weeding to facilitate native species regeneration”In summary, variety wins over mono culture even when that is a native tree like teak and that variety is what is now planted at Offinso; with what appears to be good results. If I heard right Ashanti came here after being told that someone had discovered African Pitta while doing some survey work, they came and Blue Moustached Bee-eater, Narina Trogon, a large number of Greenbul species were found, in fact a mix of Savannah and Forest species are here so great diversity. We knew what we could have seen but how did we do. We set off before first light and arrive about 07.00 just as the birds were becoming active but too late for any night birds. We get out of the bus in an area for Capuchin Babbler, we hear some distant calls but only birds we see are Green Pigeon and Blue-spotted Wood Dove before Appiah suddenly calls us to get in the bus. 5 minutes up the track he had seen the Blue-moustached Bee-eater, so quickly in and we are parked and walking towards a bare tree within an open area. The birds is quickly seen although the light isn’t great we get really good views of this beautiful forest bee-eater. A couple of record shots attached. We also see a Western Nicator on the ground in this area (Victor said that is most unusual) and then there was a really nice Greenbul group obviously some ants or termites must have hatched to provide some food, we had Ansorge’s, Little Grey, Icterine, Western Beaded Greenbul and Red-tailed Bristlebill all at low level and all seen really well – unlike a few other birds of this group that were really hard work on the trip. We then had a Grey Longbill (but still no Kemp’s despite trying to turn it in to one before we saw it properly), it was then time to go back to try for the Capuchin Babbler we tried two places where Victor had seen it before but despite a distant call we didn’t get close, I think we probably would have got it if we had stuck with it earlier this morning  but as we had made the Bee-eater our number one target we had to really go for it, any way we did see a Bioko Batis which I wasn’t even aware was in this area so that made up for missing the Babbler and as a bonus we saw a Yellow-legged Honeyguide another of the Upper Guinea Forest Endemics. We then drove up the road and surprise, surprise the bee-eater was still there, as we were having a closer look, Sarah must have heard a Trogon without realising it, as she said to Victor “ is this a good spot for Trogon” Victor said what did you just mention and then we all heard a Trogon call. Anyone who had read our previous trip reports will know that Trogons are one of Sarah’s favourite birds and how upset she was when she missed one that I saw well in the Philippines, well was history about to repeat itself. I saw the Narina Trogon and pointed to Victor he was already on it but before Sarah could get on it, it flew, fortunately it circled round and landed right above us in a tree. I dare not move to take a photo until Sarah had seen it well and unfortunately by the time she had it was a little higher albeit right above us but just giving a silouhette view (lots of birds  are very inconsiderate like that), anyway with a few exposure tweaks at least I got a record or two. This wasn't a lifer but previous bird seen in South Africa was a scope view of the back of  a bird so it felt like one.The rest of the morning flew by, new birds for the day were African Blue Flycatcher, Chestnut Capped Flycatcher, Blue-throated Brown and Olive Sunbird before we got our next lifer a Buff-throated Sunbird (I saw a female that I called as a possible at Kakum but not well enough to record it as lifer), then Yellow-mantled Weaver, Grey-headed and Chestnut-fronted Negrofinches were the icing on the cake.We headed back to Lunch in Kumasi (I stopped at a Barclays Bank to get some cash for tipping and to pay for things at the beach - it is worth noting that apart from main branches the limit at ATMs is a ridiculous £30 per day with a huge queue in branch to change money I decide that tips would be in dollars which I had plenty of from our last trip). In retrospect for us switching from Attewa to Offinso was certainly the right call. Late afternoon it was back to Bobiri, but weather was looking very poor, a very weird dry season this one. We had just set off up the trail when the heavens opened, we waited under some trees but things didn’t look promising so we headed back to wait in the bus where Appiah was listening to the football, while we waited for the rain to stop we caught up on the local scores. Kumasi who everyone apart from Kumasi fans hate (described by Appiah as like Man Utd at home) were losing 2-0 to some team from a mining town. Anyway rain finally eased and so off we went, it was too warm to put on waterproofs so we accepted a bit of dampness, hope  was that birding would be good after the rain but it wasn’t brilliant, first birds were Red-billed Helmet-shrikes, then a fly-over Black-Cuckoo, then Velvet-mantled Drongo, Pied Hornbill and finally Johanna’s Sunbird before the rain really started we only saw a bedraggled White-throated Bee-eater as we headed back to the bus. We waited a while but as it was starting to get dark and the rain showed no sign of easing we gave up on our last real chance of Akun Eagle Owl (as none of the guys at Bobiri had seen a bird during the day).</blockquote>

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