MARAKISSA LODGE AND SURROUNDING WOODLAND
This was a
lovely relaxing day with gentle walks a long lunch and some good birding.
The only downside was the weather, it was hot and humid, too hot in the early afternoon
to go out walking.
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| FINE-SPOTTED WOODPECKER |
Marakissa is
a small eco-lodge near the Southern border, Senegal is within throwing
distance, it has savannah woodland some rice fields, a lagoon and some dense
primary forest. We started our walking a couple of kilometers from the lodge,
we began by walking through open woodland.
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| A Yellow-billed Shrike |
The whole
area is under threat from development as a new road has recently been built and
sand for the road building material has been taken from the forest, there are
now 3 huge quarries and this has now denuded the forest as unique habitat has been
destroyed.
Bird life was
good in parts and quiet in others we found a lovely Fine-spotted Woodpecker and an unexpected Western Bluebill (this bird is usually found in the dense
undergrowth of Abuko not sitting in a tree in open woodland!). Blue-bellied Rollers were nesting in a
broken palm, a couple of Black-crowned
Tchagras called before showing really well.
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| NORTHERN BLACK FLYCATCHER |
We tracked a
couple of elusive species after some hard work, the Little Greenbul showed fairly well, it is a small dark green
non-descript species whilst the Leaflove
proved to be a much harder species to track down, we found a group of 4 of
them but they never showed that well despite their noisy calls.
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| Violet Turaco |
Some brighter
species seen included: Splendid Sunbird,
Beautiful Sunbird, Green Turaco, Abysinian Roller, Bearded Barbet, Red-billed
Firefinch and Red-cheeked Cordonbleu.
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| TOO BIG FOR THE CAMERA - NILE CROCODILES ON THE BANK OF THE LAGOON AT MARAKISA |
Our circular walk ended around 11 am as we boarded the bus and drove the 2km to the lodge. This lovely tranquil setting next to a large
lagoon soon livened up when we arrived and we quickly found a lot of birds. The
owners are bird lovers and provide drinking pools for them. We found Black-capped Babbler, Long-tailed Glossy Starlings, Piapiacs and several other species coming down to drink.
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| a Wattled Lapwing |
On and around
the lagoon we found Giant Kingfisher,
Hammerkop, Wattled Lapwing, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Orange-cheeked
Waxbills and a couple of crocodiles!!
Over a long
lunch and a couple of short walks we found a nice selection of species, a
roosting African Scops Owl was a very
nice find as was Violet Turaco, Bearded
Barbet, Double-spurred Francolin, Northern Crombec, Yellow-billed Shrike, Green
Wood-Hoopoe, Brown Babbler an Osprey
and a Long-crested Eagle circled
over us.
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| there has obviously been a tiff here - Hammerkops |
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| African Scops Owl |
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