This is the third account from one of my top birding periods during my earlier years of travelling (well, only seven years ago). Although these have already been blogged, they were done so with limited details, so it makes sense while we're still in lockdown to go back through them.
This post recounts my time spent in The Gambia in western Africa. The Gambia is considered to be a good starting point for those wishing to start exploring further into Africa, although for me this was now my third trip into this staggering continent. With more travelling experience enveloped into me from previous recent trips to South Africa and Ethiopia, I felt more inclined to go by myself. I used the excellent services of Mark Thompson who back then managed Hidden Gambia - sadly in 2016 this company was shut down permanently. Before I travelled out there, I was contacted by Mark with a change of plan to the route I was taking, and a change in accommodation. Even back then I was fully understanding (!), and nothing was to get in my way from laying eyes on several specialities of the area, and I was soon on my way.
Despite travelling independently, I was rarely on my own as the guides would take good care of you, and for the part of the trip that took me up and downriver, I was alongside a couple of birders and our designated guide.
This post relates to the first few days of travelling upriver, and this was where many of my targets were encountered.
5th January 2013
This morning after wandering around the habitat at my accommodation finding a
Western Olivaceous Warbler, a couple and myself boarded the Lady Hippo and cruised slowly upriver to our base for one night, Tendaba Camp. For the first few hours the river was very wide, therefore ensuring we failed to locate any notable land birds. There were however plenty of terns following the boat, the highlight belonging to a few
Lesser Crested Terns that were mixed in with the numerous
Caspian and
African Royal Terns. Upon arriving at Tendaba Camp, we were soon to realise how basic the camp was. Not only that, this was one of the poorest regions in Africa I had been to. This was soon brushed aside though as we boarded a long motorised vessel that was to navigate us around the vast swamps on the opposite side of the river.
Upon entering, there were plenty of the rather dull-looking
Mangrove Sunbirds, but things were soon brightened up by the presence of some
Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters that were busy patrolling the reedy areas. A
Blue-breasted Kingfisher within the tangled mangroves also flitted through, again adding a splash of colour to the rather dull habitat we were in - mangroves are certainly my least favourite habitat - not only do they provide little in the way of bird life, they are generally damp and sweaty places to be. However, they do provide some excellent species and this was the main reason why we were traversing the many channels.
For one of the species that was on our hit list, we hardly had to work hard at all, but just pray that our quarry was in the same place as it is everyday. Luck was firmly on our side and soon we were enjoying point blank views of a stunning
White-backed Night Heron. This was a major target for the entire trip, and I certainly wasn't expecting views like this. Despite our short stay, we obviously annoyed the bird a tad as it walked away through the branches and eventually out of sight. Our next target was to prove very tricky indeed, but with the extremely sharp-eyed locals, we needn't worry. In the shadows along the shallow margins, our main target was lurking - an
African Finfoot. This species is a very sought-after species for foreigners visiting Africa, so it was with great relief that I had seen this grebe-like creature, and somewhat increasing my fondness of mangroves - though all taken back when in the disgusting mangroves in northern Guyana in 2017.
We enjoyed the Finfoot for a short time before calling it a day as the mosquitoes were coming out in full force, and it seemed like a reasonable time to call it a day after succeeding in finding our main targets of this area. A surprisingly comfy night was had back among the degraded huts we were sleeping in.
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| Caspian Tern |
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| Nile Crocodile |
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| African Darter |
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| Pink-backed Pelican |
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| Long-tailed Glossy Starling |
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| African Finfoot |
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| White-backed Night Heron |
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| Grotty mangroves |
6th January 2013
Before catching the boat to go further north, we walked out of Tendaba to an area of nearby marshes, scattered dry fields and a small woodland. There was plenty to see, and for myself, the highlight for sure was a
Grasshopper Buzzard. A small party of
Senegal Eremomelas and
White-billed Buffalo Weavers were good to get, whilst a superb
African Hobby flying over was very unexpected.
We boarded the Lady Hippo and sailed upriver for a short time, arriving at Farafenni a couple of hours later where we got in the minibus and made slow progress as the roads were guarded up ahead. Soon though we were on our way and aiming to get to Kaur Wetlands as soon as possible as the most important bird of the trip was hopefully there for me. Once on site, I was surprised how expansive the area was, and more worryingly how little decent habitat for wading birds there were. Plenty of
Black Herons were entertaining to watch demonstrating their 'umbrella' fishing habits. Five
Knob-billed Ducks among plenty of other wildfowl, and six
Chestnut-backed Sparrow-larks made up the rest of the highlights. Lunch was yelled at me though I did my best to ignore it as I was searching in awe for an Egyptian Plover. The guide looked at me in a strange way as to why I declined lunch, but once he mentioned the Plovers were further up the road at another site, not only did I tuck into lunch, but also enquired as to why we weren't at the other site instead of wasting time here. In no time, we were driving off to what appeared to be a small lake with very dusty margins. As undesirable as this site looked, a quick scan on the opposite side revealed my target, three immaculate
Egyptian Plovers. They were exquisite, but I wanted to get closer, and as the lake wasn't that big I soon got within close proximity where I was able to obtain a series of decent photos. A major relief to connect with this gorgeous bird; almost as nice but not quite were two nearby
Pygmy Sunbirds and then
Painted Snipe.
From now on everything was basically an anti-climax, even with some more excellent birds being found on our last upstream boat cruise. We entered the smaller upstream channel, firstly passing several islands where we encountered a few Western Chimpanzees that were annoyingly not wild, but instead rehabilitated. As the channel became smaller many more birds were being found.
Swamp Flycatchers were very conspicuous as they fed low down on the overhangs, and every tree seemed to have a
Broad-billed Roller on it. A pair of
Red-necked Falcons also showed well and there were lots of Palm-nut Vultures scattered around. Other delights included a
Swallow-tailed Bee-eater and two
Western Banded Snake Eagles.
Up around the far east of The Gambia over the coming days produced some excellent birds that included the following:
Adamawa Turtle Dove,
Red-throated Bee-eaters,
Little Green Bee-eaters,
Bruce's Green Pigeons and a
Verreaux's Eagle Owl.
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| Egyptian Plover |
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| Verreaux's Eagle Owl |
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| Adamawa Turtle Dove |
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| Egyptian Plover site |
