PHOTOS FROM THE GAMBIA 2013 TAKEN BY VERN LAUX

Vern was a participant on this trip and carried a Canon D7 with a fixed 400mm 5.6 lens. You can see how good he was at firing this thing by looking at the following images:-

CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES TO GET A LARGER SLIDE SHOW

Abysinian Roller

African Hobby

Bar-tailed Godwit

Carmine Bee-eater

Egyptian Plover

Eurasian Curlew

Green Wood-Hoopoe

Gull-billed Tern

Lanner Falcon

Lanner Falcon

Little Bee-eater

Pied Kingfisher

Pygmy Kingfisher

Common Redshank

THE GAMBIA 2013 - DAY 15 - 29TH NOVEMBER

BRUFUT WOODS

The end is nigh!!!  We have only a few hours before we have to leave for the airport so we got up early and went birding for those last few hours, what else would you do? We met at 6:50am in the lobby of the hotel picked up our picnic breakfast and walked to the bus. We made the short journey to Brufut and by 7:30am we were birding.

Looking at parrots from the main track through brufut Woods

There was a beautiful sunrise and the air was still cool as we began our walk along the wide track towards Brufut Woods. The air was alive with bird song and hundreds of butterflies took to the wing as the sun rose, it was a wonderful experience.

We stopped to watch a number of Senegal Parrots they were joined by a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets and a Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher. We then turned into the deeper scrub and waited for a Grey-headed Bristlebill to appear, it was singing and only showed very briefly to a few of us. The circumstances for the next bird were similar, a Yellowbill was calling so we tracked it down but only the four taller people in the group had good views of it, the others had to make do with flight views. Whilst waiting for the Yellowbill to appear we found our only Blackcap of the trip and then we had excellent views of our second Klaas’s Cuckoo. Many other species showed well during the walk but it was soon time to head back to the bus.

Elegant Acraea

It wasn’t long before we found our last new bird for the trip, it was Dideric Cuckoo, this bird perched on a dead twig at the top of a tree in front of us and sat nicely for a short while, not long enough for me to photograph it but the guys got good pictures of it.

not all the birds in the Gambia are bright and beautiful - African Thrush

So that was the end of our birding extravaganza in The Gambia, we had seen 303 species including some rare sightings. All of the group saw their most wanted species with the Egyptian Plover topping the bill we had fantastic views of that special bird.

my last picture this year - White-crowned Robin Chat seen in the garden of the hotel

THE END TOTAL FOR THE TRIP WAS 303 PLUS A COUPLE OF SPECIES HEARD BUT NOT SEEN:   AHANTA FRANCOLIN AND GREY HEADED BUSH SHRIKE

 THIS IS A RECORD NUMBER FOR A WINGSPAN TOUR OF THE GAMBIA AND TESTAMENT TO THE HARD WORK PUT IN BY THE GROUP.

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS WHO CONTRIBUTED ENORMOUSLY TO MAKING THIS TRIP A GREAT SUCCESS. A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE FOUR WHO TRAVELED ACROSS FROM AMERICA TO JOIN US, SAFE JOURNEY HOME: VERN, TRISH, LANNY AND BETSY. 

ALSO THANKS TO DAVE AND VANDA FROM THE UK WHO FOUND MANY SPECIES DURING OUR OUTINGS AND PROVIDED A LOT OF THE HUMOUR THROUGHOUT, DAVE DROPPED HIS CAMERA HALF WAY THROUGH THE TOUR AND SUDDENLY ALL HIS PICTURES FROM THEN ON WERE IN FOCUS, AMAZING.

Bookings are now being taken for next year’s trip, please get in touch if you wish to join us!

THE GAMBIA 2013 - DAY 14 - 28TH NOVEMBER

CAPE POINT ROAD &; MANGROVE SWAMP – BUND ROAD – KOTO STREAM (BRIDGE).

Our last full day started off well, then fizzled out in the middle and picked up again later in the afternoon. We set ourselves a target of 7 new species to break the 300 mark on our list and because a few waders, terns and skuas were missing from the list we set off to look for them.

Arriving at Cape Point Road marshes at 8:30am our first bird of note was a Giant Kingfisher then we found our first target bird: Black-tailed Godwit, this bird fed alongside of Bar-tailed Godwits, Redshank, Greenshank, Black-winged Stilts, Common Sandpiper, Grey Plover and in the same pool a roosting flock of gulls and terns held over a hundred Caspian Terns. 

the beach at Cape Point

A short walk produced Blue-bellied and Abysinian Rollers, Zitting Cisticola, Northern Red Bishop, Senegal Coucal and Pied Kingfishers were so numerous it seemed as though they sat on every wire in all directions.

A sandy track led us to the beach area and we could see that many terns were feeding off-shore. It took us all of five minutes to find a dozen or so Skuas, the Arctic Skua or Parasitic Jeager (the named used by my American friends in the group) was the most common but we did see a couple of Pomerine Skuas. A very distant Northern Gannet was also seen as well as hundreds of terns.

spot the difference!  Eurasian Curlew and Whimbrel

We returned to the road and found that we had ‘bus trouble’ the battery was flat, so we couldn’t go anywhere, this meant a delay of about an hour whilst a second vehicle was sent out to us. During that hour we had a nice time watching a variety of species. 

Some Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters flew around us and perched on the nearby wires as did a small flock of Wire-tailed Swallows with a few Red-chested Swallows. The rollers looked particularly nice in the morning sunlight.

By 11am we were back on the road driving along the ‘new’ Bund Road, this used to be a very difficult drive with pot-holes everywhere but now it is being re-laid in concrete and soon to be finished, no more clouds of dust! The tide was perfect but we were disappointed with the birds out there on the mud flats. A Couple of Curlew Sandpipers, lots of Bar-tailed Godwits, Common Ringed Plovers, Sanderling, a few Whimbrel and a single Eurasian Curlew was all we saw. The gull and tern flocks held nothing new for us but a single Slender-billed Gull was a nice find.

Pied Kingfisher

A lunch stop was made in the central port area of this very busy Banjul suburb, we found a very nice restaurant that served fantastic fresh fruit milk-shakes! After that we drove to the beach to try to get closer views of Skuas, we parked near the ferry port, the ferry wasn’t working so the beach area was a mass of people taking the smaller boats for the river crossing, It was incredibly noisy, dirty and very intimidating because the ‘boy carriers’ were competing for business, if you wanted to board a boat you have to be carried on the shoulders of a ‘boy’ to save you getting wet, they receive a 10 dalasi payment for doing this.

We moved away from the chaos and birded from a patch of beach not covered in litter and debris. The Skuas were still far out but the occasional one would come closer. But we did find a small flock of White-winged Terns and then our 300^th species flew by in the form of an unmistakable Eurasian Oystercatcher.

Our short beach-watch was over in minutes we all wanted to be away from there so we drove out of town to look for a much quieter spot. We did this and enjoyed some nice birding with a cool breeze in our faces. We found a second Eurasian Oystercatcher, another, much closer, Eurasian Curlew and several other waders.

Lastly we visited two places near the hotel to finish off the day, the first was a small disused quarry, I say disused but it was being filled up with local rubbish, what a mess. The quarry had small areas of open water and a thick reed-bed, we hoping for a couple of new birds but all found was half a dozen Common Moorhens.

Our final destination was the bridge at the Koto Stream, this where we stopped for our very first birding excursion almost two weeks ago. It was great to stand on the bridge and watch many species on the exposed mud flats, the light was perfect and temperature was just right. However the best birds were found in a tree just down the road from the bridge, first we found a beautiful adult Klaas’s Cuckoo, then a couple of sunbird species followed by Northern Crombec and some adult Little Weavers. The cuckoo stole the show, everyone loved the emerald iridescence of the bird’s wing and mantle plumage contrasting with its’ white face, chest and belly. The photos below do not catch the true beauty of this bird's plumage.

The Klaas's Cuckoo at Koto - these photographs do not capture the true beauty of this bird

We left the bridge having some fond memories of our two visits there, arriving at the hotel with ample time to shower for dinner, we ate early and had time to relax afterwards, although everyone was very tired and an early night was the order of the day.

THE GAMBIA 2013 - DAY 13 - 27TH NOVEMBER

Tujering

Yesterday took its toll on the group, it was very hot and humid, everyone (including me) was very hot and tired, so when we got back to the hotel last night we made a group decision to have a half day off today and in fact two of the group took the whole day off.

A Variable Sunbird (male not particularly well marked)

 Tujering is an area of savannah woodland, I use the term woodland loosely, as the only trees were in small clumps or stand alone. This is all due to heavy harvesting for firewood by the local people, there is a great deal of young secondary growth and some clear areas where tree planting has been attempted. Despite this it is one of my favourite coastal sites and is full of birds. 

At times it felt as though I was birding in the Western Europe or maybe in Southern Spain because the number of migrants found here was very high. The small trees and shrubs held many Willow Warblers and a few Eurasian Chiffchaffs and our first sighting was of a Common Redstart! We went on to see: Melodious Warbler, Olivaceous Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, Whinchat, Garden Warbler and a very nice Wryneck.

A White-fronted Black-Chat - you can just make out the white patch between the eyes, this bird refused to turn around

We were here to see African species and a cuckoo sighting proved to be a rare Red-chested Cuckoo, distant views were had but we had no doubt, what a great find. Some of the group also had good views of Klaas’ Cuckoo but others just saw it in flight.

A Black-crowned Tchagra we saw half a dozen of these this morning

One of our main target species was the White-fronted Black-Chat and after abrief search we saw a pair of them extremely well sitting on top of a young tree, what a nice bird! Our search continued for woodpeckers and in one clump of trees we waited for them but only found: Senegal Batis, White-shouldered Black-Tit, Black-crowned Tchagra, Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Little Bee-eater and in the sky over a period of an hour we saw 4 Ospreys.

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

It was now getting very warm so we spent more time in the shelter of the trees but continued to watch as the birds kept on appearing: Rufous-crowned Roller, Common Whitethroat, Red-winged Warbler, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Lavender & Orange-cheeked Waxbills and finally a Cardinal Woodpecker. Whilst we were watching the Cardinal a Wryneck appeared, how fantastic. A few sunbirds were also noted and our last species of the morning was seen just as we were getting back onto the bus, another Western Palaeartic migrant, a Garden Warbler.

We called it a day at that point and left the area for the 30 minute drive back to the hotel. From then on we all split up and had a leisurely afternoon in the hotel grounds. Some when swimming, others went to bed after lunch and others just strolled around taking pictures, how very nice!

 

I took a walk around the grounds with Trish at 4pm for an hour. we saw 23 species and had great views of Gonolek, Brown Babbler, Yellow-billed Shrike, Shikra, Northern Black Flycatcher, Beautiful Sunbird and lots of doves and common species.

PICTURES OF SOME GARDEN BIRDS TAKEN THIS AFTERNOON

Cattle Egret round my feet whilst I type this blog

Red-billed Hornbill

Grey Plantain Eater

Yellow-billed Shrike

 

A Northern Black Flycatcher

Shikra - a small sparrowhawk seen everyday in the garden and on our travels