Suzanne’s month in Ghana – insects, not moths and butterflies…

I have no idea what most of these insects are but when the girls got too much for me I wandered off to see what I could find and photograph. The moths and butterflies will come later but I hope you’ll agree that I found a reasonable selection of other things too… You might want to click on some of them to get a better look.

Rhinoceros Beetle 

Some kind of cricket…

Goodness only knows how I spotted this stick insect but it was my first wild one! 

I have no idea what this one is but his eyes are pretty cool!

You definitely need to zoom in on this one’s back, stunning. 

This was a really small creature and it took me ages to get this shot but his eyes were on me the whole time. 

I really liked these because they were so well camouflaged and incredibly hard to see, genius. (If, like David, you can’t see it, just look for the horizontal bits in the photo!) 

I was really stressed out at this point, the girls had taken us to an abandoned bead factory in the middle of nowhere, had taken all of our bags off the roof of the tro-tro and were about to send it away with no plan B. Thank goodness for this dragonfly, which kept me nice and calm!  

Possibly another cricket…

I watched this insect for about 20 minutes. It was burrowing a hole in the sand, which is nearly as deep as it’s body is long. It came back out, flew towards me, dumped the sand about a metre from the hole and worked absolutely tirelessly. Very odd little creature. 

Again, no idea… 

This one scared us as it flew straight passed our faces when we were having a budget meeting and landed on our window right next to us. No idea what it is though.

Suzanne’s month in Ghana – part 2

Ok, so here’s the next instalment. These are the photos from R&R, which we spent on the coast at Cape Three Points and Axim. We had an amazing few days and I fell in love with Cape Three Points almost instantly. I’m afraid that I have to admit to being completely at home there with my bins round my neck and camera attached to me at all times. What has David done to me???

 

View from my bed at Cape Three Points

View from our cabin at Cape Three Points 

Weaver bird nests at the mouth of the river at Cape Three Points

Our cabin at the Eco-lodge in Cape Three Points

Axim

View from our apartment at Lou Moon, Axim

Suzanne’s month in Ghana – part 1

GRRRR… Originally posted yesterday but I managed to delete the post when trying to post today’s part 2. Apologies if this is slightly different from the original post but I’ll do my best.

David’s been asking me to post some photos from my month in Ghana ever since I got home. I can quite easily ignore his requests but after a few gentle requests from the East London birders at drinks in Hornchurch on Friday night I have decided to give in and publish a few posts. The first couple will just be some scenery photos but there are some birds, insects and flowers to follow. Just keep in mind that the bird photos were just record shots to prove to David that I wasn’t stringing anything!

These were taken during our trekking, cultural and project phases of the expedition. The next post will cover the rest and relaxation phase, which is when I did most of my birding.

 

Wli waterfall

View from Mount Gemi, Amedzofe

Looking back at Amedzofe from Mount Gemi 

Fume village, note the vodafone building. There are three main mobile phone companies in Ghana, all of which donate paint to shop-keepers and stall-holders in exchange for free advertising. The country’s full of red, pink and yellow buildings now.

View from Mountain Paradise Lodge near Amedzofe 

Another view from Mountain Paradise Lodge

Accra Botanical Gardens 

Accra Botanical Gardens 

Sunset over Accra

Kente cloth weaving in Adanwomase

Cocoa beans drying in Adanwomase 

Kakum National Park

Kakum National Park from the Canopy walkway 

View from Elmina Fort

View of Elmina town from the Fort