TUJERING ALL
MORNING - CAPE POINT ROAD MANGROVE SWAMP AFTERNOON
Another visit to my favourite area turned up trumps once
again! The open woodland at Tujering is a superb birding area but sadly the
habitat is disappearing at an alarming rate. The number of mature trees is now
greatly reduced and soon the area will lose them as the locals cut them down
for fie wood and fence making.
Today it was still as good as ever as far as birding was
concerned within the first hour we had seen 8 new species, incredible! We
started with great views of a pair of Chestnut-crowned
Sparrow-Weavers, they had a nest in the tree right next to where we had
parked. Next we had brief views of another new species for us, a Whistling Cisticola, then we heard a Brubru calling so we made a b-line for that and along the way we found Senegal Batis, Velliot’s Barbet, Brown-backed
Woodpecker and two White-fronted
Black-Chats. We also had great views of Bearded Barbet, Red-winged Warbler, Melodious Warbler, Whinchat,
Lavender Waxbill, Willow Warbler, Eurasian Chiffchaff and Tawny Flanked Prinia.
Further into our walk we came across more palearctic migrants
in the shape of Blackcap, Common
Redstart and more Melodious
Warblers. We also watched another Senegal
Batis and in the same tree we found Beautiful
& Splendid Sunbirds, Northern Crombec (3), Grey Woodpecker and Yellow-fronted Canary. A couple of Double-spurred Francolin flushed from the scrub as we walked and
several Little Bee-eaters sat and
posed for us whilst Swallow-tailed
Bee-eaters sat in the trees. In the sky during this time we saw Osprey (3), Dark Chanting Goshawk, Grey
Kestrel, Beaudouin’s Snake Eagle, Pied-winged Swallows, Little & Palm
Swifts, Ring-necked Parakeets and the usual hoard of Hooded Vultures. Another Whistling
Cisticola sat right out in the open preening as did a Green-backed (Senegal) Eremomela, we also got brief views of Black-crowned Tchagra before we decided
to head back to the bus for a rest from the heat.
We drove back to the hotel well pleased with our morning’s
birding. We ate lunch down at the beach bar where Cattle Egrets come to beg for crumbs at your table, how bizarre is
that?
Our afternoon outing took out the Cape just south of Banjul
where you can find large areas of tidal mangrove swamps with open sandy areas
and brine pools. Along the Cape Road we stopped to photograph Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters as they sat on
the telephone wires looking superb in the afternoon sunlight. As we arrived at
the mangrove swamp we could see a huge
flock of Caspian Terns were roosting on a sandy area together a number of
gulls, herons, egrets and waders. Birds of note included: Eurasian Curlew,
Marsh Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Ringed Plover (30+), Gull-billed
Tern (2) and a Black Heron which briefly showed us its extraordinary ‘umbrella’
fishing technique. As the light began to fade we set off back to hotel with two
new species for our trip tally.
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