Trip Report for February 2008
Day 4
We set off at first light for our adventure ‘Up River’ for two nights at Tendaba camp. Before long we were out in open country and heading for the Pirang Shrimp Farm near Mustapha’s family home. Here we spotted our first Long Crested Eagle, a Yellow Billed Stork, Quail Finch and White-throated Bee Eater. A quick stop at the Farabanta Bush Track brought us Lesser and Greater Honeyguides. The first part of the journey was on a tarred road but this soon deteriorated into dusty bumpy tracks. Thanks to Omar’s driving skills and frequent stops we all enjoyed the journey passing through remote villages with their well-tended vegetable gardens and children waving and running up to the vehicle in the hope of getting an empty water bottle. We loved the changing scenery interspersed with huge Baobab and Mahogany Trees. As the day warmed up we had increasingly good views of raptors, all expertly identified by Mustapha and our lunch stop in scrub land yielded a Striped Kingfisher.
We finally reached the camp half way through the afternoon. The accommodation was basic, but it had a nice pool and the setting on the edge of the vast Gambia River is superb. Before supper ‘Mus’ nobly missed watching his beloved Manchester United beat Arsenal in order to take three of us up to the scrub area behind the camp. His efforts were rewarded by excellent sightings of two Bronze Winged Coursers; we also added a party of White-crested Helmet Shrikes, Pygmy Sunbird, Bruces’ Green Pigeon, Northern Crombec and Grasshopper Buzzard to our ever growing total.
Species seen...
Great White Pelican
Cattle Egret
Squacco Heron
Black Egret
Intermediate Egret
Western Reef Heron
Great White Egret
Grey Heron
Yellow-billed Stork
European Spoonbill
African Harrier Hawk
Pied Crow
Hooded Vulture
Ruppell’s Griffen Vulture White-backed Vulture Wahlberg’s Eagle
African Hawk Eagle
Long-crested Eagle
Brown Snake Eagle
Short-Toed Eagle
Black kite
Black-Shouldered Kite Eurasion Marsh Harrier
Dark Chanting Goshawk
Shikra
Lizzard Buzzard
African Hobby
Common Kestrel
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Bronze-Winged Courser Senegal Thick-knee
Spur-winged Plover
Ringed Plover
Whimbrel
Green Sandpiper
Black-winged Stilt
Common Snipe
Gull-billed Tern
Laughing Dove
Blue-spotted Wood Dove Speckled Pigeon
Bruce’s Green Pigeon
African Green Pigeon Namaqua Dove
Red-eyed Dove.
African Mourning Dove Vinaceous Dove
Piapiac
Senegal Coucal
Mottled Spinetail.
African Palm Swift
Green Wood Hoopoe
Striped Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Malachite Kingfisher
Rufous-crowned Roller Abbyssinian Roller
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Blue-cheeked Bee-Eater European Bee-Eater
White-throated Bee-Eater Rose-ringed Parakeet
Senegal Parrot
Western Grey Plantain-Eater
Red-billed Hornbill
African Pied Hornbill
Grey Woodpecker
Greater Honeyguide
Lesser Honeyguide
Crested Lark
Rufous-crowned Roller Abbyssinian Roller
Blue-cheeked Bee-Eater European Bee-Eater
White-throated Bee-Eater
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Senegal Parrot
Western Grey Plantain-Eater Red-billed Hornbill
African Pied Hornbill
Grey Woodpecker
Greater Honeyguide
Lesser Honeyguide
Crested Lark
Mosque Swallow
Rufous-chested Swallow
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Barn Swallow
Fork-tailed Drongo
White Wagtail
Common Bulbul
Subalpine Warbler
Zitting Cistcola
Northern Crombec
Pygmy Sunbird
Variable Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird Splendid Sunbird
Beautiful Sunbird
Copper Sunbird
White-crested Helmet Shrike
Woodchat Shrike
Lesser Blue-eared Glossy Starling
Bronze-tailed Glossy Starling
Grey-headed Sparrow
Yellow-crowned Bishop Yellow-Bellied Hyliota
Village Weaver
Black-rumped Waxbill
Red-cheeked Cordon-Bleu
Red-billed Firefinch
Bronze Mannikin
Quail-finch
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