THE GAMBIA TOUR 1 DAY 6 - 10TH NOVEMBER 2012

BAOBOLONG CAMP – WASSU SAND QUARRY – RIVER BOAT TRIP

An exciting day began as we met for breakfast a 7am, we sat in the open plan dinner in lovely warm conditions. The food was good and filling and by 8am we were at the ferry waiting for a crossing from the island back to the north side of the river. Because we were so late yesterday afternoon we missed a couple sites and now we going to visit them. Both sites were near the village of Wassu and before long we were heading back westward and making the usual stops for roadside birds. Good views were had of Abyssinian Roller, Grasshopper Buzzard, Grey Kestrel and several common species. Soon we were watching one of the star birds of the trip – the Carmine Bee-eater, a couple of these real beauties were found in the open fields not far from the village of Wassu. We also saw in the area Black-headed Plover, Rufous-crowned Roller and Long-tailed Spotless Starling.

We then spent an hour or so at the old sand quarries on the east side of the village where a colony of Red-throated Bee-eaters have been breeding for a good number of years. These little gems are, for me, the most beautiful of them all, having a superb blend of colours. Some the quarries held water and we found Wattle Plover, Spur-winged Plover, Pied Kingfisher, Senegal Thick-knee and a family party of Anteater Chats. The nearby trees held Purple Glossy Starling, Vitelline and Little Weavers, Green Bee-eaters and a Shikra.

Several raptors came up as the morning got later, first an African Harrier-Hawk, then two Grasshopper Buzzards, a couple of Ospreys, a Walhberg’s Eagle and a Brown Snake Eagle. 

Our journey back to the ferry included two stops, one was to look at another group of Carmine Bee-eaters, this time we found about 50. They were using a large dead tree to hunt from and in the same tree we recorded: Grey-headed Sparrow, Abyssinian Roller, Village Indigo bird, White-rumped  Seedeater, Cut-throat Finch and Village Weaver!

A large pond with flowering lilies produced Jacana, Western Marsh Harrier, Striated Heron and Squacco Heron. Along the road we stopped to look at a Chameleon as it crossed road and an Olive Snake that just didn’t make it across.

We ate lunch back at the Camp before setting off for a late afternoon cruise.

The “hippo” was successful in more ways than one, yes we did see 10 or so hippopotamus but we also saw a great number of bird species. One superb find was an African Finfoot, a species similar to a grebe, but is normally seldom seen and very hard to find. What luck we had in finding one. The cruise last 4 hours, we went down river first, hopping from one bank to another before turning around and doing the same on the return journey. One down side was that it clouded over and went quite dull for most the trip, it even rained for a short period, so we never got to see the famous Gambian setting sun. 

However, we did see some news species for the trip, Swamp Flycatcher, appeared several times as did both Woodland and Grey-headed Kingfisher. One new Kingfisher was the Blue-breasted but only a few of us saw it. Hadada Ibis was seen late on in the trip and Bruce’s Green Pigeon was seen about the same time. All in all we saw about 40 species of birds as well as Nile Monitor Lizard, Hippo, Baboon (three troops), Green Vervet Monkeys, red Colobus Monkey and a Sun Squirrel.