2008 Tour Narrative
In Brief: What a way to spend a week! Day after day of brilliant birding, from the gallery forest of Abuko where we saw Snowy-crowned Robin Chats, White-backed Night Heron, and African Pygmy Kingfisher, to Tanji with its Kelp and Slender-billed Gulls, Royal Terns, and Golden-tailed Woodpecker. In all, we recorded over 270 species in a week—and still found time to have a swim, sit in the shade after lunch, or try the local beer.
In Detail: Great birds are remembered for so many reasons, and few of us will ever forget our voyage in the MV Bathtub! Using just a stick, our pilot skillfully and quickly maneuvered us to within feet of an Egyptian Plover, offering us the best views anyone could ever have! Our time on the water also added a couple of bonus species, including Red-throated Bee-eater, Western Banded Snake Eagle, and Marabou Stork.
The north bank road was very bird-rich, with 3 species of stork (Yellow-billed, White, and Woolly-necked), 3 Black-crowned Cranes, Beaudouin’s Short-toed Snake Eagle, Savile’s Bustard, Lesser Kestrel, lots of Abyssinian Rollers, Collared Pratincole, Chestnut-bellied Starling, and, best of all, 5 African Swallow-tailed Kites—the first Solomon had seen in Gambia in 5 years.
We arrived in Tendaba in time to see African Fish Eagle, Four-banded Sandgrouse, and Long-tailed Nightjar at a single water hole, and our creek crawl was the best yet. We watched African Finfoot swimming in the middle of the channel, walking along a totally exposed mud bank, and creeping through the mangroves. With Goliath Heron, Woolly-necked Stork, African Blue Flycatcher, and Mouse-brown Sunbird thrown in, not to mention Pied, Malachite, and Blue-breasted Kingfishers and umpteen herons, this experience was going to be hard to beat!
But our luck just kept getting better. During the week we saw 2 Abyssinian Ground Hornbills, Broad-billed and Blue-bellied Rollers, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Bateleur, Brown Snake Eagle, White-faced Scops Owl, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Oriole Warbler, Green and Violet Turacos, Sacred Ibis, both spoonbills, Green Hylia, Green Crombec, Pygmy and Beautiful Sunbirds, Arctic Skuas, and Blue-cheeked, White-throated, and Little Bee-eaters. What a perfect way to escape the northern winter!
James Lidster
Updated: February 2008