Dirk Vanackere - dirk.vanackere@tijd.com
and Marc Tailly - marc.tailly@pandora.be

      Contents
  Itinerary
  Guides and Transport
  Residence – Climate - Books and maps
  Trip log
  Species account
  Table per day of observed species
  Mammals – Reptiles and amphibians – Invertebrates
  Map of visited places

Participants
Piet Allegaert, Heerbaan 240, 8530 Harelbeke, Belgium
Joost Schamp, Groeningestraat 30, 8530 Harelbeke, Belgium
Marc Tailly, Hoonakkerdreef 35, 8791 Beveren-Leie, Belgium
Dirk Vanackere, Eikenlaan 89, 9240 Zele, Belgium
Geert Vanlaot, Wijdhagestraat 99, 8530 Harelbeke, Belgium

Introduction
After reading numerous reports on the delights of birding in the Gambia, we decided to go and look for ourselves. Of our initial group of six, we sadly had to leave our 'principal' behind, since he had to undergo surgery. Thus we went with five keen birdwatchers and this turned out to be a perfect group size, especially regarding transport.
The timing of our birdwatching holiday was dictated by Dirk's work: he's a teacher and could only travel during the autumn school holidays. Perhaps it would have been better to travel one or two weeks later, but as this wasn't an option, we settled for the first week of november.
From the outset, we decided to stay close to the coast and not to travel further inland than Pirang, as we only had 1 week to spend and there were enough good birding opportunities within 40 km of our hotel. We also were a bit hesitant to risky expeditions in an unknown environment. In retrospect, it wouldn’t have been a problem at all to travel to at least Tendaba and Kiang West National Park on our one-week holiday, but then the choice between excellent birding spots that we then couldn't have visited would have been much harder.

In all, we observed 204 species of birds plus 1 hybrid bird on our trip, with 99 to 150 'lifers' depending on the previous Africa experience of the observers. Highlights were numerous, but the number of 'colourfull' birds was impressive: seven out of nine possible kingfisher species, six out of eight bee-eaters, four of the five rollers and all the resident turaco's feature on our list.
Being in a small group also had advantages. We encountered a party of fifteen birdwatchers at the main Abuko hide. Many of their party didn't see Green nor Violet Turaco, African Jacana or other species simply because of the size of the group. We stayed 10 minutes behind them, moved very quietly and managed to find and identify between others White-crowned and Snowy-crowned Robin-chat, Black-headed Weaver, Yellow-breasted Apalis, … birds that were less possible for bigger parties in the dense Abuko forest.
Together with our guide and driver, we just fitted into a large tourist taxi. Had we been six, as initially intended, we would have had to hire a bigger car or 4WD, which had made everything more expensive. As it was, we were sheltered against the dust on the tracks, something which our camera's and binoculars were gratefull for.

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Itinerary
For easy consulting we include a map of visited places on a separate page.

Saturday, oktober 31: Sabena flight SN 575, departure from Brussels National Airport at noon. Via Conakry, Guinée, to Banjul. Arrival around 7 p.m.
Sunday, november 1: Casino Cycle Track, Kotu Creek and Sewage Ponds, Fajara Golf Course
Monday, november 2: Sukuta, Brufut Woods, Tanji, Casino Cycle Track
Tuesday, november 3: Bijilo Forest Park, Senegambia Hotel gardens, Fajara Golf Course
Wednesday, november 4: Pirang, Faraba Banta - Jiboroh Kuta Bush Track, Seleti
Thursday, november 5: Marakissa, Fajara Golf Court + Atlantic Road
Friday, november 6: Kotu Sewage Ponds, Barra
Saturday, november 7: Old Cape Road, Camaloo Corner, Cape Point, Bund Road
Sunday, november 8: Abuko; Flight back to Brussels: departure from Banjul airport at 9 p.m.; Via Dakar, Senegal, to Brussels, arrival at 6 a.m.

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Guides and Transport
We met several "Bird Guides", most of which were more of an annoyence than help. We believe the way bird guides and hustlers approach birders may be induced by some birders.
We like to find and identify birds ourselves, a bird guide can bring us to good places and help with difficult species (especially unknown sounds and songs). We're not so much interested in the quantity of species nor in rareties, more in good sightings of birds and their habits and interactions with eachother and other wildlife. We refuse to travel great distances just to catch a glimpse of a distant bird and then put it down in our notebook.

The first guide we encountered, in the morning of november 1st on the Casino Cycle Track, was Ebrima Sidibeh. He was a friendly young man walking with us, helping us with the identification of birds, answering our questions, never imposing himself on us, and after a while we agreed he would take us to Brufut and Tanji the next day. We had read about him as being a decent man. We agreed on a price for a whole day of guiding and transport - a friend of his drove a tourist taxi. He proposed to walk with us along Kotu Creek and Ponds and after that he asked if we could reward him for a half days work. As we hadn't agreed on a price beforehand we could give him what we considered appropiate.
We were delighted with Ebrima as a friendly and good mannered person, as an excellent guide and by the end of the week we had made two friends, not only Ebrima but also Abdoulie Njie, our driver. Ebrima is not a cheap guide, we payed between 1200 and 1500 Dalasi for a whole day, guiding + transport, but as we were a group of five we could afford it. He also guided us for free to Marakissa (half a day) and charged us nothing for our first evening walk to look for nightjars (we knew where to look for them and probably would have found them on our own, but he wanted to come with us).

Ebrima having saved a little bee-eater from a spiders web

A number of guides that informed about them guiding us just left us alone when we said we didn't need a guide because we already had one or just wanted to walk on our own. Others weren't that polite and kept walking behind us, offering us to see 'good species', 'many species', to make us happy so we could make them happy, etc. Two of them asked us money to show us a particular bird - one of them asked for money after first saying he would show the bird for free, "just to show us his professionality". These incidents lead us to absurd discussions about the 'price' or 'value' of a White-faced Scops Owl and we felt uncomfortable about this. We told the guides we didn't like this way of birdwatching, it even spoilt our evening but they didn’t seem to (nor want to) understand.
Another practice that seemed common was people handing over "wish lists" to a guide so they could make their species account more "complete". This also doens't fit our philosophy of birdwatching, being in the field and enjoying nature and the birds we encounter in it, instead of driving around from bird to bird. Of course we like to see many different species and we are thrilled to 'tick' a bird on our life list, but we are not prepared to drive to Basse and back in one day in order to put Egyptian Plover on our list. We much more enjoyed the amazement of Ebrima when we found a Red-throated Bee-eater in Brufut Woods, 150 km west to where it should have been. He really enjoyed and respected animal life himself.

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Residence
We stayed all week at Badala Park Hotel, Kotu. The rooms are clean but simple, with bathroom (shower) and fan (no airco, but they seem to be available). The rooms opposite to the swimming pool can suffer of noisy customers late at night, elsewhere quiet.
Breakfast from 7 a.m., meals and snacks are available throughout the day.
Badala Park Hotel is superbly situated for birdwatchers, along the 'Casino Cycle Track', Kotu Creek and Ponds and within walking distance of Fajara Golf Court, Atlantic Road and Bijilo Forest Park (although we took a taxi to reach it as early as possible in the morning).
We had most of our evening meals at Beach-bar "Il Mondo", Fajara Beach. You can eat outside on the beach at 10 to 20 meters from the ocean. Friendly waiters and good cooking.

Climate
We arrived on Saturday and the last rains had been on Wednesday so the air was still very humid. We landed well after dark but coming down the stairs of the airplane and walking 20 m to the waiting bus left us transpiring very heavily. The first three days were hot and humid, hard conditions to walk and carry cameras and bottles of water. The sky was mostly slightly to very slightly overcast, not really cloudy. From Wednesday on it got dry and hot, we had more open and blue skies and so that day we first saw more raptors.

Books and maps
There is a very decent map: Macmillan: The Gambia Traveller’s Map which is available locally. But travelling with guides and/or taxis you may not really need it. Nevertheless it seems quite accurate.
For preparing the trip there is "A birdwatchers’ guide to The Gambia" by Rod Ward. Excellent description of the sites with maps; 116 pages. ISBN 1-871104-04-1.
Identification: almost a necessity is: "A Field Guide to Birds of The Gambia and Senegal" by Clive Barlow, Tim Wacher and Tony Disley. Accurate color plates and text and very up-to-date. ISBN 1-873403-32-1.

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Trip log

Sunday, november 1st, 1998
At sunrise, everybody was ready for our first contact with the birds of the Gambia and we walked up and down the Casino Cycle Track from 6.45 a.m. to 10 a.m. During this first walk we met Ebrima Sidibeh who stayed with us that day and who guided us for most of the week. Within half an our we spotted 3 Blue-breasted Rollers, Northern Red Bishop, Striated Heron, Intermediate Egret, Senegal Parrot, Rose-ringed Parakeet and many other gems.

At 10 a.m. we took breakfast and had an appointment with the hostess of the travel agency for some practical arrangements, after which we hurried back to Kotu Creek to meet Ebrima again for a walk to Kotu Lower Bridge and along Kotu Creek in the hot midday sun. We ended this walk with a visit to Kotu Sewage Ponds before taking refuge for the burning sun during the early afternoon.
After a visit to the shops at Kotu Beach we joined Ebrima again for a visit to Fajara Golf Course. The afternoon delivered White-faced Scops Owl, Pearl-spotted Owlet, African Golden Oriole, Black-headed Plover, Abyssinian and Broad-billed Roller. Before dusk we met driver Abdoulie and drove to Casino Scrub for the nightjars; we heard and saw Long-tailed Nightjar.
This first day we observed 98 species, all within 1 km of our hotel.

Monday, november 2nd, 1998
Ebrima guided us the whole day, first to Sukuta, on the way to Brufut Woods. After a short stop there we drove on to Brufut for a 2 hour walk in very hot and still quite humid conditions. This proved to be one of the most rewarding sites with beautiful as well as totally unexpected species. We were enchanted to find amongst others Red-throated Bee-eater, Pin-tailed Whydah, Brown Snake Eagle, Violet Turaco, African Pied Hornbill, Fanti Saw-wing and White helmet-shrike.
We left Brufut for Tanji, where first we went to rest somewhat in a beach-bar with some very friendly locals and ticks. Then we drove to Tanji Reserve for an afternoon walk before heading back to Kotu. Tanji brought us superb observations of Ospreys, fishing in the Atlantic and bringing back again and again their catch to the coast, distant views of White-fronted Plover, and many gulls and terns of different species but no Lesser Crested Tern.
Dirk hadn't had enough for he walked down the Casino Cycle Track whilst the others relaxed somewhat by the swimming pool.
Monday got us 116 species, 50 of them were new.

Tuesday, november 3th, 1998
We had decided to have a somewhat relaxed day, because our first two days we had pushed on despite of the moist heath and we weren’t sure that we could keep up this rythm. We went to Bijilo Forest Park, without a guide, because we wanted to see how we would do on ourselves. We had a quiet walk with good observations until about 10.30 h, when we began to encounter more tourists. Bijilo not only gave us stunning views of Violet Turaco, Stone Partridge and other birds but also some mammals (Western Red Colobus, Green Vervet Monkey, Gambian Sun Squirrel and a kind of mongoose) and reptiles (quite big Nile Monitors, agama's and gecko's).

Western red colobus at Bijilo

As we were close to the Senegambia Beach Hotel we decided to walk through it's gardens. Here we got good photographic opportunities but no new species; perhaps it was already too hot for birds.
We returned to Badala Park for some rest and in the evening we walked, surrounded by children and hustlers, along the Fajara Golf Course Scrub. Amongst the birds observed here were African Silverbill, Copper Sunbird and Blackcap Babbler.
On Tuesday, we saw 75 species and by Tuesday evening our total had risen to 153.

Wednesday, november 4th, 1998
We were lucky to have somewhat milder weather today: still hot but not that humid. This was good in two ways: not so hard to walk and a clearer sky for birds of prey.
We had programmed a trip with Ebrima and Abdoulie for the whole day. Our first stop, on the way to Pirang, was in the middle of fields of manioc and sorgho. Ebrima lead us to a more wooded area, right trough the fields (he paid a fee to the farmer, which was apparently included in the price we agreed on for the day - 1500 D for guide and transport). Some 500 m off the road he told us to look for Common Wattle-eye. We heard it frequently but weren't able to spot one. Strangely enough we all had good views of the skulking Little Greenbul instead.

Ten we moved on to the old shrimp ponds for one and a half our of first quality birding amidst a wide variety of water birds: pelicans (both species), herons (10 species), Yellow-billed Stork and African Spoonbill, and a wide range of waders, gulls and terns. On top of that we saw a Tawny Eagle, twice two Black-crowned Cranes, 3 species of both kingfishers and bee-eaters and a Yellow-billed Oxpecker on the back of a lonely cow, grazing in the ponds.
Reluctantly, we moved on to the bridge over Pirang Creek for a short stop. Here we had some incredibly confiding and photogenic Senegal Thick-knees and Hamerkop. We also found a nest of Pied Kingfishers before negotiating the bridge which was submerged by 5 cm of water in the upcoming tide. Just past the bridge we had our first Martial Eagle, soaring low above our heads !
We now drove on to Faraba Banta, for a walk along the Bush Track to Jiboroh Kuta. The Bush Track should not be negociated without a 4WD-vehicle. Despite our questions about that, Ebrima and Abdoulie said there was no problem ("no problems in The Gambia"). We drove about half the way down the track with the Peugeot 505, and started a 1 hour oval walk there, returning to the car after that. Then, we returned to Faraba Banta and reached Seleti making a big detour over the main roads. Nevertheless, the following days, the car showed signs - noises in particular - of deterioration that at first made us laugh a bit but at the end of the week left us uttering a sigh of relieve everytime we had reached our destination without car trouble.
Our walk along the bush track produced Dark Chanting Goshawk, African Harrier-Hawk, 2 Martial Eagles gliding high above us together with a Pink-backed Pelican, and just when reaching the car again a superb adult male Bateleur, passing low above our heads, patrolling the sides of the bush track. We were able to follow it for at least two minutes, during which time it didn't flap it's wings once, controlling its direction with subtile primary-work and tumbling from one wing onto another, … breathtaking. We also observed Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, Fine-spotted and Brown-backed Woodpecker, White Helmetshrike, Yellow-fronted Canary and Striped Kingfisher.
On the way to Seleti from the car some of us saw an Abyssinian Ground Hornbill flying along the main road between Pirang and Mandina Ba. Having stopped and got out of the car it had disappeared.
After a short rest at the Gambian border post near Seleti, with a lot of 'couleur locale' and some extra stamps in our passports, we visited the waterholes between the Gambian and Senegalese border posts. 2 of the 3 holes were already dry (first week of November !) and we saw no sandgrouse, but our effort of coming down here was rewarded with Palm-nut Vulture, 2 African Hawk Eagles, Mosque and Pied-winged Swallow, Black-winged Red Bishop and Pin-tailed Whydah.
Wednesday was our 'biggest' day, with 122 species and the total had now risen to 177.

Thursday, november 5th, 1998
Ebrima had offered us a free guided visit to Marakissa this morning. The surroundings here were different to what we had seen before: not so dry, greener with a pittoresque river overgrown with waterlilies. We didn't find rails but saw African Darter, African Jacana, Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Common Wattle-eye (close views of a pair), Red-bellied Paradise-flycatcher and a hybrid bird, Greater Honeyguide, 4 species of kingfishers and 6 herons. Marakissa is really a charming site and offers very good birding.
In the afternoon we had a rest before walking in the direction of Atlantic Road. We met another 'bird guide' that was very annoying, not leaving us on our own even after several times asking him politely to do so. He spoiled our afternoon walk and we returned to look for nightjars, but again only saw Long-tailed Nightjar.
Today we saw 98 species of birds, in total up to now 185.

Friday, november 6th, 1998
Our plan was to go birding across the river today. We wanted another day without guide, so only Abdoulie acompanied us on the trip. As people had told us the chance of seeing dolphins was greater on the second ferry, we let go the first. This proved to be a mistake: we didn't see dolphins and by the time we got on the other side it was already very hot, so the best birding time was over. Our second mistake was leaving the car in Banjul. We planned to walk around Barra to look for birds, but we never walked alone. A handfull of schoolchildren stayed with us and although they were very friendly and nice talking to, this kept us away from our object: birdwatching. Despite this we had a number of fine observations: African Goshawk, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Black-eared Wheatear, Village Indigobird, White-rumped Seedeater and a number of waders and terns, but again no Lesser Crested Tern (some birds that were a candidate for this species were either too far away, against the light or chased by kids, playing on the mudflats.)
On the ferry back to Banjul, we saw a group of at least 14 Pomarine Skuas.
A day with 91 species, and a trip total of 190.

Saturday, november 7th, 1998
Today, we agreed on a whole day guided by Ebrima to visit Camaloo Corner, Old Cape Road and Bund Road.
We began the day with a walk along the south side of the mangroves of Cape Creek to Camaloo Corner and with good sights of African Darters, Black-shouldered Kite, Marsh Harrier, Lizard Buzzard, fish-eating Ospreys,Yellow-shouldered Bishops, Black-backed and Siffling Cisticola.
We then drove on to Old Cape Road and, near the bridge over Cape Creek, found a Little Bee-eater hanging alive in the web of a Nephila-spider. We got it out (Ebrima did it in a very gentle way) and tried to clean its feathers (a difficult job !) and let it fly. The spider-thread proved to be extremely strong.
After a short stop at Denton Bridge beneath thousands of swifts and a siesta in "Arch 22" in Banjul we reached Bund Road for a walk from 'Half Die' to the pumping station. High tide had just past, so we could watch the waders quite close on the free-falling mudflats. In the water we observed a group of fishing Pink-backed Pelicans, surrounded by numerous Grey-headed Gulls and a variety of terns. Near the mangroves, a Black Egret was seen 'canopying' for a short time. We also climbed on the top of the pumping station to have a look over Crab Creek, with a tree full of African Darters.
Saturday got us 101 species and a weeks' total of 197.

Sunday, november 8th, 1998
We had left a visit to Abuko Nature Reserve for our last day, and got there at opening time (entrance tickets were not yet available …). Crocodile Pool and the observation post at the visiting center offered superb views of Violet and Green Turaco, Giant Kingfisher (glad we hadn't payed Thursday afternoons' hustler for this !), White-backed Night Heron, Black-headed Heron, Hamerkop, African Jacana, Broad-billed Roller and lots of others. No White-backed Night Heron: Ebrima had pointed out where to look for the nest; we found it, but it was empty, perhaps because of the Monitor Lizard warming-up in the sun on a branch beside the nest. We also saw the eyes and nose of a small crocodile.
From the second smaller hide we observed a Blue-breasted Kingfisher, and had excellent photo-opportunities for African Jacana and Blue-breasted Kingfisher.
On the walk to the animal orphanage we were happy to find and identify several new species: Black-necked Weaver, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Snowy-crowned Robin-chat. Red colobus monkeys were abundant at certain spots but very shy.
We headed on for the extension but it was getting too hot for us and for the birds, so we returned slowly and nevertheless had very close views of a shikra eating its prey.
After a refreshing drink at the gate, Abdoulie drove us back to the hotel where we made our bags and waited for the bus to the airport.
On this last half-day we saw 55 species and our final bird list contained 204 species.

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Birds: species account

On a separate page we include a detailed species account with detailed information for a great number of species.
A day by day table provides a different view of our ornithological activities.

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Mammals
Gambian fruit bats (Epomorphorus gambianus) were the first animals we heard arriving in the dark at our hotel. On most days we or heard them of saw them flying around at dusk. On two occasions we found them dead between electricity wires.

Green vervet monkey in Bijilo Forest Park

In Bijilo Forest Park we saw a number of Gambian sun squirrels (Heliosciurus gambianus). Monkeys were easier to see. At the entrance we saw one Western red colobus (Colobus badius) up in a tree and good numbers of Green vervets (Cercopithecus aehtiops sabaeus) which were not at all shy. Green vervets were seen in a number of other places too. The red colobus proved to be quite common in Abuko, especially in the Reserve’s extension, but they were very shy and we didn’t manage to see them on their ease. On one occasion, coming back from Pirang, 2 or 3 Patas (red monkey) (Erythrocebus patas) crossed the road, but we failed to observe them well.

Reptiles and Amphibians
On the stairs and in the corridor of our hotel every evening numbers of toads (not unlike a European Bufo) were present.
From the Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus) we just saw the nose and eyes of one specimen at the Bamboo pool at Abuko.
Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) proved to be common at most places, big specimens fleeing away over the paths in Bijilo Forest Park and Abuko. Easily observed in the gardens of the Senegambia Hotel.
Some agama’s and gecko’s were around, mostly on trees, but none was identified to species level. In our bathroom we got a baby gecko.
We didn’t meet any snake.

Invertebrates
Few mosquitos and flies (nevertheless be carefull about malaria) and the inevitable cockroach in the hotel room.
Butterflies really were abundant, but seemingly in a small number of species as African Monarch, Vanessa cardui and other to us unknown species.
In pools and rice fields lots of dragonflies flew around, mostly Anisoptera. Only 2 Zygoptera were observed, an Ischnura species and a large red one. I’ve put a number of photographs on a separate page, so if anyone can help me with identification…

Very impressive were the big Nephila spiders (left) sitting in their webs at different places. We observed a number of different species of these big animals with bodies more than 50 mm long. On one occasion we discovered a Little bee-eater trapped in a web. We also found a species (right) looking like the mixture of the European Argiope brunnichi and A. lobata.

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-detailed species account - bird observations table - some gambian dragonflies