After breakfast, we headed out to the countryside near to the lodge. A pair of Pearl-spotted Owlets were seen in a grove of trees, one of which had a stand-off with a Grey Woodpecker which lasted a few minutes.
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| Pearl-spotted Owlet and Grey Woodpecker |
We spent a while looking through some barren fields where Ebrima had seen a family of Temminck's Coursers on all of his previous visits here this winter, however it was clear that they had moved on. There were however four Black-headed Lapwings, ten Little Ringed Plovers, and the trip's only four Hoopoes. Small passerines were conspicuous by their absence in what was great habitat, perhaps due to the higher than normal wind. Ebrima pulled a few good species out of the bag though, including a nest building Speckle-fronted Weaver, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver, ten Northern Anteater Shrikes and brief but good views of two huge Warthogs, tailed by a row of piglets.
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| Speckle-fronted Weaver |
We then stopped off at a huge wetland area called Dibba Kunda where a family of Black Crowned Cranes have been present. We drew a blank at the first stop-off point, but managed to find two very elegant Marsh Sandpipers, a couple of Ruff roosting with the lapwings and thick-knees, and a Plain-backed Pipit in the short grass at the edge of the water.
At our second view point we were relieved to see that the cranes were together feeding happily out on the marsh. The family group was composed by two parents and three young, and were a treat to watch with both Marsh and Montagu's Harriers dancing in the background. Two Purple Herons at this location were also the only records from our trip.
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| Black Crowned Cranes |
The next stop was what proved to be one of the more memorable parts of our trip. Ebrima asked us whether we'd like to walk out into the bush to look for bustards. Despite the 40+ degree midday sun, of course we had to say yes. We spread out to cover more area and began walking out into the middle of nowhere. First, we flushed some Singing Bush Larks, which at times gave good views. I then flush what looked like a minutely small quail from a couple of metres, and shouted to Ebrima. The bird flew right passed him and we were able to identify it as a Quail-Plover. A very rare bird for Gambia, for which there are only a handful of previous records. Despite it landing within about 30 metres, we couldn't flush the bird again. After another 20 or so minutes of wondering through the dry spiky grass, I locked eyes with a bustard right in front of me; a Savile's Bustard. It showed very well before flying over us into denser grassland, by which time I had also clocked some White-bellied Bustards in the distance. With a bit of field-craft, using bushes for cover, we managed to get really close to these fantastic looking birds; four in total. However, we were getting dehydrated so we left the bustards in peace and returned back to our now very hot drinking water.
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| Savile's Bustard |
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| White-bellied Bustard |
We then had a lunch break at the reservoir in Njow, a site that gets Egyptian Plovers during the first part of the dry season, however we were a month too late. Ebrima set about making us all delicious baguettes while we watched the fantastic looking Sahel Paradise Whydah, which we were glad to see had clung onto its long, showy tail feathers. The reservoir held the usual assortment of common wetland birds, and other than that, an Orange-necked Falcon gave a couple of high speed flypasts, and on a later nearby roadside stop, a couple of Cut-throat Finches perched up nicely.
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| Sahel Paradise Whydah |
A little further down the road, we stopped at Wassu Quarry where there was a large colony of Red-throated Bee-eaters. There must have been over 30 birds here using the steep sandy side of the quarry to dig their nest holes. I enjoyed giving one of the local school children a view of them through the scope on their walk back home.
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| Red-throated Bee-eaters |