THE GAMBIA TOUR 2: DAY 14 - 29th NOVEMBER 2012

BRUFUT WOODS AND TUJERING OPEN FOREST

Our last full day had finally arrived and we intended to make the most of it by staying out all day and searching for the species we had missed during the previous 13 days. We set off at the usual time and found ourselves at Brufut Woods in good time. Birding was a little slow at first but soon it got going. We many species seen earlier in the week and had better views of Red-bellied Flycatcher, African green Pigeon and Senegal Parrot.

As the morning wore on we had quite a good list but the best bird of the morning was just around the corner. We saw movement in the dense scrub, then a blackbird with a yellow bill appeared and it was in fact a Yellowbill. What a great find, this is usually a very hard species to locate, we were very lucky to see it several times before it finally disappeared into a thicket. Next we walked into the forest along a narrow track and our guide led us straight to a roosting Long-tailed Nightjar, it was not our first sighting of this species but a much one.

For lunch we sat at the purpose built shelter where we drank cold drinks and ate our sandwiches. Three water tray were put out for the birds to drink and bathe in, they were very busy. We sat for 2 hours during the heat of the day and watched the birds drinking, we counted 28 Species during that time with some very good species to boot! Pygmy Kingfisher is always a crowd pleaser, this came down several time and took a dive for the water each time, no chance of a photograph at that speed. We had great views of Red-bellied Flycatcher, Little Greenbul, Yellow-throated Leaflove, Orange-cheeked and Lavender Waxbills, Bronze Mannikins and four different weavers.

For our late afternoon walk we chose to return to Tujering and again it did not disappoint. We had superb views of Brown-backed Woodpecker, 3 of them were milling about a dead tree for quite a while and we got some good photographs of them. Next a Brubru began to call and we tracked it down getting good ‘in-the-scope’ views. A flourish of activity saw us looking in several directions as the following birds appeared all around us:  Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver, Bearded Barbet, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, Velliot’s Barbet, Dideric Cuckoo, White-fronted Black-chat and a Red-necked Falcon.

Further walking did not produce too much more but we enjoyed Senegal Batis, Yellow-fronted Canary, Variable Sunbird, Dark-chanting Goshawk, Swallowtail & Little Bee-eaters, Pied-winged Swallows (perched), Grey-backed Cameroptera, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Red-winged Warbler and a couple of Senegal Parrots.

Well that was our last birding of the tour, we planned to have a leisurely morning tomorrow before flying back to the UK.

Our grand total was 282 species with a couple of others heard but not seen. We missed some easy target species and a couple of sought-after birds, if everything had turned up as planned we would have seen 311 species. But if everything turns up as ordered, where’s the fun in looking!!!