Yesterday we retraced our route back to the Rain Forest Lodge, stopping again along the Gold Coast at the World Heritage Cape Coast Castle to look for the West African Crested Tern. This time we were lucky and Connie added another bird to her life list.
To non-birders—even to some of us addicts—traveling hundreds of kilometers over two days to see a single bird sounds obsessive. Idiotic, even. Yet here we are at Picathartes Guesthouse in the village of Bonkro, so tiny even Google Maps can’t locate it. The bird, Yellow-headed Picathartes or White-Necked Rockfowl, is one of two species in the family ‘Picathartidae., both highly endangered. We saw the other, the Red-headed Picathartes or Grey-Necked Rockfowl, in Cameroon back in 2017, after a long, arduous climb to its roosting cave. The photos were so blurry that we kept them only as “record shots” to show we had seen the bird.
Not only did Ashanti Tours build the Picathartes Guesthouse and restaurant, they donated it to the community along with a school that provides education to 300 students. In return, the community protects the forest and the Rockfowl nesting site, a real win-win deal for all concerned.
We arrived around 3:00PM, checked in and immediately began the uphill mile-long trek to the cliff-side nesting site where we waited. And waited. The first White-Necked Rockfowl appeared silently about 4:45 and was soon followed by two others. We watched as they hopped around or sat preening, then we, too, silently slipped away.
Despite its remoteness, the Guesthouse served one of the best meals of the trip—sautéed sole in a citrus butter sauce with rice pilaf. After dinner we went out under the first full moon of the New Year to find the Fraser’s Eagle Owl.
Supporting responsible tourism is another reason we made the trip.
