THE GAMBIA TOUR 2: DAY 8 - 23rd NOVEMBER 2012

RIVER-BOAT ‘HIPPO-CRUISE’ ALONG THE RIVER GAMBIA

Another successful ‘hippo cruise’ was taken from the jetty in the garden of the camp, the boat was 15 minutes late so we had time to bird-watch in the trees in the nearby hedgerows. An impressive list was obtained in that short period of time: Gonolek (2), Fine-spotted Woodpecker, Senegal Coucal, Senegal Parrot, Yellow-billed Shrike, Swamp Flycatcher, Long-tailed Glossy Starling, Great White Egret and Spur-winged Plover.

We spent four magical hours drifting down the river, switching from north bank to south when we pleased and notching up nearly 60 species of birds as well as Hippopotamus (5), Vervet Monkey, Red Colobus Monkey, Baboon and Nile Monitor Lizard.

We had some great views of kingfishers as you can imagine, we saw 6 species, two of which were new for us. The Grey-headed variety was seen frequently early on in the trip, along the north bank, but the real find was a Shining Blue Kingfisher, this was seen along the south bank, it flew towards the boat and flashed by behind us, most of us saw it, afterwards we tried to find it perched but failed. Other delights were a pair of African Fish Eagles, with a chick on the nest, we saw our first Western Banded Snake Eagle, and just as we were watching it a Black-headed Plover flew over us, another first. Palm-nut Vultures perched well for our cameras, as did Striated Heron, Long-tailed Cormorant, Hammerkop (also seen nest building) and Black-crowned night Heron.

The boat trip finished at 12:30pm, we then sat in the courtyard to each our lunch of sandwiches and whilst doing so we saw beautiful Sunbird, Black-rumped Waxbill, Village Indigobird and the ubiquitous Common Bubul.

For our afternoon walk we drove a little way from the camp towards the eastern end of the island where open woodland was the general habitat. We spent a couple of hours walking through the scrub and finding a good variety of species. Of special note were the new species for the tour, first we hard and saw a Levaillant’s Cuckoo but only briefly then we found a large flock of weavers, they were mainly Little Weavers but some of them were Vitelline’s Masked Weavers. A Melodious Warbler was next on the list and then a Greater Honeyguide, we saw an adult and a juvenile, the latter having a strongly marked yellow throat. 

A small flock of six Black-headed Plovers flew over whilst we were trying to track down a Fish Eagle that was calling. We then bumped into a troop of baboons so we decided to leave the Fish Eagle alone and headed off in the opposite direction! As the light began to fade more birds started calling we heard: Spotted Thick-knee, Four-banded Sandgrouse and many more species. We eventually found the sandgrouse but not the thick-knee, we also found Double-spurred Francolin, Abyssinian Roller, Black-rumped Waxbill, African Silverbill, Grey Kestrel, Red-necked Falcon and plenty of common species.