THE GAMBIA – TOUR 2, DAY 5:- 20TH NOVEMBER 2012

SENEGAMBIA TO TENDABA – STOPPING AT PIRNAG SHRIMP FARM AND VARIOUS ROAD SIDE STOPS.

We set off at our usual time of 7:30am, with cases stowed on top of the bus we headed out of town along the south side of the river. We made a short stop to look at a Lizard Buzzard and ended up finding: Fort-tailed Drongo, Variable Sunbird, Yellow-fronted Canary and a small flock of the enigmatic White-crested helmet Shrike.

We then made a scheduled stop at Pirang shrimp Farm and although the farm itself was inaccessible due to farming of shrimps we still enjoyed a lovely couple of hours seeing many species. The highlights were close views of Malachite Kingfisher, Mosque Swallows coming to drink in a nearby pond, a party of Northern Crombecs and a really good selection of birds on the shrimp pools. We did see African Hobby, Long-crested Eagle and Lanner Falcon in flight as well as, a good bird for me, the Brown-headed Parrot.

Along the main feeder channel we found many pairs of the obliging Pied Kingfisher, Crested Lark, Wire-tailed Swallow and a single Subalpine Warbler. In the distance we could see a large number of birds: Pink-backed Pelicans, Yellow-billed Storks, African Spoonbill as well as gulls, terns and waders. We added Gull-billed and Little Terns to our list and Ruff to the wader list.

We stopped off to buy provisions for our picnic lunch and then drove a little further to eat it. From where we sat we could see down onto some rice paddies where vultures and birds of prey come to drink. We saw White-backed and Hooded vultures as well as Dark Chanting Goshawk, African harrier Hawk and a Shikra. One super find was a Dwarf Bittern; it flew out of the rice fields into to a tree before disappearing into thicker cover. We also saw Yellow-throated Leaflove, Black-headed and Squacco Herons.

We arrived at Tendaba at 3pm and arranged to meet up again at 4pm. We all settled into our rooms before emerging to discover our new environment. The Tendaba camp sits right on the south bank of the river, the accommodation is basic and consists of a number of square or round blocks each holding four rooms. The gardens have plenty of flowers and they were full of butterflies. 

Our afternoon walk in very humid conditions didn’t produce many species, perhaps it was too hot! We walked into the forest just south of the camp and followed a trail that ran parallel to the river. The best species seen was a Red-shouldered Cuckoo-Shrike; a pair of these birds was flitting about in the bushes. We also had sightings of Abyssinian Roller, Yellow-fronted Canary, Grey-headed Sparrow, Northern Puffback, but not much else.

We had dinner in the open air restaurant with many other people, the camp was full, we sat looking over the river contemplating our river-boat trip scheduled for the following morning!