GEORGETOWN ISLAND TO TENDABA CAMP STOPPING AT
JAHALY RICE FIELDS AND SOMA WETLANDS.
Transfer days never produce much but we were
happy with our sightings today. New species for the list are becoming harder to
find as the list grows. It was dull and overcast and therefore somewhat cooler
as we left Georgetown. Not long after we had had crossed the ‘new’ bridge to
the south bank we stopped to look for new birds. After checking out some Green
bee-eater nesting holes we found some Red-throated Bee-eaters sitting in the
trees just across the road. Our guide whistled up a whole host of species by
imitating the call of the Pearl-spotted Owlet. Soon we were watching lots of
Sunbirds, the Pygmy Sunbird was new for us. We also saw Northern Crombec, an odd
little bird with no tail, Grey-backed Eremomela, half a dozen turned up.
In the same area we saw Cinnamon Breasted
Bunting, Long-tailed Whydah, Village Indigobird and plenty of common species.
Next we stopped at Jahaly Rice Fields, where we
spent the rest of the morning. The star bird was the Black Coucal which is a
very rare sight in The Gambia in November, we saw 4 of them. The sought after
Painted Snipe took second place but only because we couldn’t find one on the
ground, they kept flushing before we had a chance to find them. Other birds
added to our list were Croaking Cisticola and Yellow-crowned Bishop. We also
had brief sightings of Gabar goshawk and a red-necked Falcon, our first Marsh
Harrier was also seen there. We ate our lunch in the shade of the old pumping
station where we watched a colony of Village Weavers, a couple of Pied
Kingfishers and several Squacco Herons. During our time at the rice fields we
also recorded: Senegal Coucal, Jacana, Senegal Thick-knee, Spur-winged Plover,
Black-winged Stilt, Common and Wood Sandpipers.
We set again along the main southern route
towards Banjul stopping several times to look at perched raptors which turned
out to be mostly snake eagles: we saw the African Beaudouin’s Snake Eagle, the
Brown Snake Eagle and Short-toed Snake Eagle. A pair of Grey kestrels were at a
pool and posed nicely for the cameras and a couple of Grasshopper Buzzards were
seen in flight as were Long-crested Eagle.
At Soma the tarmac ran out! So we were on dirt
roads from now on, a much slower process. We stopped at the huge wetlands just
east of Soma and spent an hour or so searching the open water and reedy pools.
Caspian and Gull-billed Terns were seen, Greenshank, Black-winged Stilt, White
Wagtail. Pink-backed Pelican and several of the common herons were also on
show.
The east end of the marshland gave way to
forest at the edge of the forest we found; Red-rumped Swallows, Senegal
Parrots, a single Stone Partridge flew across the track and a Pearl-spotted
Owlet called without showing and refused to be coaxed out. Then we flushed a
couple of Four-banded Sandgrouse before we had had good views of them.
We had 25km left to travel on the dirt road, it
took an hour but as we neared our destination, which was Tendaba Camp on the bank of the
river, the road improved dramatically. It was dark when we checked in, so after
a quick shower we met up for dinner which was taken in the open plan dining
area on the bank of the river, a gorgeous setting.
No comments:
Post a Comment