We were going to book the ‘Birds and Breakfast’ excursion with our travel company but asked Mass if he could do the same excursion for less than the £23 per head that ‘Gambia Experience’ were charging. He said he’d charge us £15 each for the same trip so we went with Mass. We’d planned an early start to catch the dawn chorus so Mass and Lamin picked us up at 6am. It was very dark and very quiet when we arrived at Lamin Lodge. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around but we eventually found someone who supplied us with flasks of coffee and we sat there drinking coffee, watching the sunrise and waiting for the dawn chorus – which didn’t happen. I stayed very quiet until the sun rose and the organised excursion party arrived about 30 minutes later, guided by Aladdin. When everyone was ready we all boarded two canoes and set off up the creek. There weren’t many birds around and the canoe trip was a little disappointing. The only really noteworthy sightings being a single Malachite Kingfisher, Mouse brown Sunbird, Red-chested Swallow and a Marsh Mongoose. After the brief canoe trip we went back to Lamin Lodge to have breakfast which was constantly interrupted (in a nice way) by the Green Vervet monkeys which kept sneaking up to steal bread from the buffet.
From Left - Lamin, TJ (my wife) and Mass
Breakfast over and we drove back up the track to the nearby vegetable fields making a brief stop to watch a male Redstart at the side of the road on the way. Redstarts are quite common in the oakwoods around our home in the South Wales valleys but this was the first time I’d seen one in non-breeding plumage. The vegetable fields proved to be an excellent site for birds and the different species came thick and fast. One large Baobab tree held a pair of Bruce’s Green Pigeons, African Golden Oriole, a pair of Bearded Barbets, a very vocal Blue-bellied Roller, Brown throated Wattle Eye, Beautiful Sunbirds and a pair of Rose ringed Parakeets. Up to 5 Black-shouldered Kites patrolled the sky above the fields while flocks of White-billed Buffalo weavers foraged amongst the vegetables. A pair of Black Kites was busily chasing off the Pied Crows as they tried to build their nest in another big Baobab tree. Bird of the day for me was a Long-crested Eagle which soared overhead, heading in the direction of Lamin Lodge. Mass told us that we would get a closer a look when it landed somewhere. I thought “That bird isn’t going to land. It’s just going to keep on soaring off into the distance” but sure enough, it landed in a low tree just at the far edge of the vegetable fields. I was amazed that the eagle didn’t take off while Mass lead us across the open fields towards it to get a closer look. We were able to get within about 30 metres before the bird finally took off when I stopped to try to take a photograph. Amongst the many other different species seen at the vegetable fields were Grey Kestrel, Shikra, Violet Touraco, African Grey Hornbill, Green Woodhoopoe, Hamerkop, White crowned Robin Chat, Yellow Wagtail and two Willow Warblers. We also saw another eagle species which, after consulting his field guide, Mass decided was a Tawny Eagle but I wasn’t 100 percent convinced.
Long-crested Eagle
We headed back to the hotel at lunchtime but took a detour to Bakau to see ‘Charlie the friendly crocodile’ at Katchakilly crocodile pools. The local guide told us that there were 80 crocodiles in what seemed to be a very small pond at Katchakilly. My wife and I both stroked Charlie as he sunbathed on the bank. One of the other crocodiles in the pool had just caught a large monitor lizard which was still alive in it’s jaws. The croc swam around the pool with the unfortunate lizard hanging out of it’s mouth for a while before flicking it up to grab it by the head to kill it. I managed to capture all of this on a video camera but didn’t take any photos. There was a Grey Heron and a Giant Kingfisher perched on the bank on the far side of the pool and we saw a pair of Yellow-throated Leafloves in a nearby tree, the only sighting of this species during the whole week. We got a close view of a handsome Blue-breasted Kingfisher in a bush which also contained anther large monitor lizard and a pair of Black Crakes made an appearance at the water’s edge. Other birds seen in the woods around the crocodile pool included African Paradise Flycatcher, Broad billed Roller and Lizard Buzzard.
TJ and Charlie
Click here for a complete list of all birds seen
I can highly recommend Mass as a birdwatching or natural history guide to anyone visiting the Gambia. His contact details are: -
Mass Sanyang
c/o Nderry Corr
I.T.C Camp
P.M.B.14, Banjul
The Gambia
West Africa
Mobile Tel: 924761
I obtained lots of useful information from the web for this holiday. All of the websites below were an excellent source of info: -
http://www.exmouth.demon.co.uk/Play/Tripreport.htm
http://www.fatbirder.com/links_geo/africa/gambia.html
http://www.crosswinds.net/~birdtrips/Gambia95.html
 |
 |