Birding adventures

I know that you have all been waiting in anticipation of the next instalment (my tongue is very firmly in cheek!)  so sit back and enjoy a wander through the forests and reserves of Gambia.

A couple of days before our 2^nd trip to Gambia back in 2002 I came home from work and Ken excitedly told me he had bought me something ‘brilliant’ for the holiday – I stupidly thought it may be a pair of sunglasses or sandals or the like, but no, it was a book entitled  A Field Guide to Birds of The Gambia and Senegal by Clive Barlow at the time I was somewhat underwhelmed, however over the years this book has proved invaluable in identifying the species we see (and yes we do tick them off in the book!) it is generally regarded as the definitive guide – mine is doubly valuable because after a day out several years ago we stopped at a bar (as you do) and were looking through the book and ticking off when a man approached me and asked if I wanted him to write in my book I very nearly told him to do one but then he introduced himself as the one and only Mr Clive Barlow so I allowed him to write a dedication to me and since then all the local guides we have are very jealous when we show them the book, anyway back to the current trip.

As mentioned in a previous post we had hooked up with Famara as our bird guide and we had booked a couple of trips out with him and for reasons of not boring people with endless posts on the same subject I'm going to amalgamate the trips we made into one posting.  His fee was £70.00 and this included the hire of a car and driver but Ken is always very generous and they can expect a  tip at the end of each day out (usually about £3-£5

The days out started at 0700 the first destination was Mandina Ba so loaded up with binoculars, telescope, camera, bottle of water, mossie cream and goodness knows what else we headed south arriving at the reserve at about an hour later.  Mandina is a scrub land area we had a good hours walk round the reserve and notable birds included Short Toed Eagle, Lanner Falcon – raptors are mostly too far away to get photos – although Ken has mentioned buying another lens for the camera so maybe pictures next time!  Starting early means being able to pack more into the day and so after Mandina we headed off to the next reserve  Brikama woods and we are looking for Owls.  The guys who look after the reserve know which trees the birds like to roost in so it was almost a bit of a route march to the relevant trees, just a case of following a well trodden path,  but of course when you find the tree you then have to find the owl in it and generally they choose trees with the same markings as themselves just to make it even harder for us – naughty birds J

We found (with the help of the guides) African wood owl and Verreaux’s Eagle owl. (more pictures at the end - ha ha you have to read to the rubbish before you get the pics - unless you scroll of course - I won't be offended)

Spot the birdie - Verreaux's Eagle Owl

 Kawsu the bird guide at Pirang Forest

We woke up our driver (apparently  he likes to go dancing late into the night/morning) and set off however before we arrived at our next port of call we stopped at Famara’s  home compound, and he kindly invited us into his ‘house’ to meet his father.  Gambian men can marry up to 5 wives and all live in (I suppose) harmony in the same compound.  White people in non tourist areas are always a interesting spectacle for the local children and our visit was no exception soon we were surrounded by a mound of village children all asking for mints (their word for sweets), Ken gave them 25Dalasi and sent them over to the shop – this is about 50p he expected them to have a bag of sweets which he had appointed the eldest looking girl to share out but the shopkeeper had other ideas and each child was given one sweet each, they seemed happy enough.  We had a cold drink and then it was on to the Shrimp farm at Pirang a place we had visited previously with much birding success. However we were less successful on this occasion as the farm had been drained so no water means no birds – well very little anyway, last time we had seen hundreds of pelicans and flamingos amongst others. 
It was very hot by now and the backs of my legs were starting to burn and with not many birds to see it was getting a bit boring, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel area for a shower and rest before heading out for some dinner - I'm going to bore you with a post about food and drinks later. 

Gambian compund, they vary in size and 'opulence' depending on the wealth of the family, this one was typical of the type Famara's family live in. Most have electric but not running water - this is fetched (usually by the children) from a communal well - photo from Trip Advisor,

The white bird is a cattle egret, the brown bird (on the hind leg of the animal) is an oxpecker, so that makes the animal a  . . . . . . . COW !

On our previous holiday I took the following photo of a male beautiful sunbird, which people have said is a good photo.

This year Ken was determined to get a better picture, below is his offering - you decide which is better !

Senegal Coucal

One (very) large child and several smaller ones

a lot of time birdwatching is spent looking up at trees !

the black & white ones are pied crows, the larger ones are eating a dead captain fish and are hooded vultures

red billed firefinch, a bit like our finches but redder !

we're not sure what this one is, so if in doubt they are usually Dark Chanting Goshwaks,

it's not just birds we see, these are red colobus monkeys the one at the back has a baby,

this is bee nest

Senegal Thicknee

this colourful chap is a bearded barbet

That'll do for now, more to follow later ! !