Ghana

November, 2026

Prelude

 When I first thought about birding Ghana it was meant to be a bridge trip between a Kenya mega trip and a South Africa mega trip. As is so often the case, Brahmaputra planning intervened and plans changed. The Brahmaputra is a river in NE India. It’s 20 miles across. During the monsoon season it is a raging torrent. Its channels change constantly. It’s known as a braided river. When I birded NE India we were on a bridge over it for about half an hour.

 Just like the Brahmaputra my plans for 7000to70 are constantly changing based on all sorts of factors. Ghana changed because the Kenya mega didn’t fill. (I’ll be doing that one next year with my buddy Glenn Valentine. Glenn is everyone’s buddy. He’s great fun to bird with.) Because there was no Kenya in front of it, Ghana suddenly had the opportunity to morph into a full on bird tour of the country.  Couple that with me screwing up the plane reservations at the front of the trip and wow.  Dan at Rockjumper Tailormade designed a great trip for me. I’m at Dulles right now, headed to Casablanca and from there to Accra. I can hardly wait.

 The interlude in DC was great. This is my favorite time of year there. Highs mostly in the 70s, lows mostly in the low 50s, no humidity, mostly crystal blue skies. And I actually got home in time to catch the tail end of the fall migration of warblers at Kenilworth, my home patch. I added 22 species to my world species total for the year. It took me nearly two weeks to get over jet lag. Hardly surprising after living on the other side of the world for three and a half months. And I got four armchair lifers from the splits and lumps this year. Not sure what they are. When the personal splits and lumps report is available I’ll take a peek.

 I turned 67 on the 17th. Traditionally I smoke ribs on my birthday. This year it was a blowing session on my birthday, so the ribs had to wait till the next day. On my birthday I made tomato soup. It was a perfect day for it, cold and windy. Both the soup on the 17th and the ribs on the 18th were super yummy.

 The last week or so I was in DC I started getting antsy. I wanted to be out and about in the world birding again. When you bird internationally for extended periods it sort of gets in your blood. Ghana here I come.