ITINERARY

Notes on our itinerary

• We lost one full day which we had to spend in Lisbon. Due to a French air control strike, our first flight had to make a detour avoiding French territories and we missed our connecting flight.

• Initially, we planned to bird the Djoudj NP, but as all of us had seen Arabian Bustard before and Egyptian Nightjars probably had left their wintering grounds already, we decided to skip this site and keep the extra time for more southern sites.

• We kept our gained time to catch up with some species in Gambia as they seemed more reliable there. This turned out fine indeed.

PRACTICALITIES

TRANSPORTATION

We used the services of Gambian birder Solomon Jallow (mobile phone / Whatsapp: +2209921551). Solomon arranged a (Gambian) car with (Gambian) driver. We originally agreed on renting a Mitsubishi 4x4, for a period of 16 days. Solomon suggested upgrading (without cost) to a (newer) Nissan minivan (14-seater), as he thought that car would be more reliable. We mentioned we needed a 4x4 (or at least a car with good ground clearance) for the bad dirt road leading from Kedougou to Dindefelo, and Solomon offered to locally subcontract a 4x4 at his cost. In the end, this arrangement worked out very well. The minibus was very spacious and comfortable for 4 passengers and, importantly, had good air-con. The only downside was that the minibus wasn’t the fastest car on the road (going max. 80-90), but who knows how fast that 4x4 would have gone. We looked at renting our own car, which would have been approx. 30% cheaper, but more time lost at the airport, and with the open jaw (Dakar - Banjul), this would have been too complicated.

Our driver was Pap Jobe (Senegal phone number: 777746823, mobile phone / Whatsapp: +2203563155). He was a very flexible and safe driver, and above all, a very friendly guy. We never felt like he was in the way of our (sometimes crazy) plans, and in fact, having a driver resulted in less worries / stress (e.g. at checkpoints and during random stops along the road) and more rest / sleep for all participants while Pap was driving. Thanks, Pap!

SIM CARD

We bought two local SIM cards as soon as we could in the luggage hall of the airport: Orange and Espresso. Orange clearly outperforms Espresso once outside of the larger cities. Both have very affordable data plans. We heavily made use of the mobile data to search for the latest news on our target species, searching and contacting accommodation, etc

WEATHER & TIMING

In hindsight, March wasn’t the best time to visit the region. We felt that Jan-Feb could have been better. At the time of our visit, it was very hot and dry. As we were already towards the end of the dry season, most waterholes were completely dried out. Bird activity was often low when heat came in and in general birds weren’t too responsive to playback. Moreover, many weavers and especially Whydahs are not in breeding plumage. The most significant bird missed due to non-breeding plumage birds, was Sahel Paradise Whydah, but notwithstanding the searing heat, we did well with regards to most other target birds.

ACCOMMODATION & FOOD

We only pre-booked accommodation for the first night. All other nights, we just used google/booking to find a place to sleep. This way we were very flexible in our itinerary. We encountered no issues finding accommodation, except in Podor where we ended up in the most expensive place (which was nice though). Most places other than the cheaper options had AC and several places had swimming pools. Most hotels did offer food as well, and we took lunch in those hotels while traveling as well. Albeit not always included in the official menu, vegetarian dishes were easy to obtain.

HEALTH & SAFETY

We did not encounter any health or safety issues. Malaria is present, so one has to take prophylaxis pills. Yellow Fever is present as well and a valid vaccination booklet is required when entering the country (they didn’t check). Apart from this, many other annoyances are to be taken into account like: diarrhea, mosquitos, snakes (few seen), scorpions (huge!), land mines (in the Casamance).

VISA

For both Senegal and Gambia, we (and many other countries) didn’t need a visa (a >6-months valid passport was the only requirement). Technically, you need a yellow fever vaccination but this was not checked. If flying out of Gambia, everybody needs to pay a 20 euro (or the same amount in dollar) ‘security’ tax. A retarded way of ripping people off that’s long gone in most countries, but still applicable in Gambia, independent of the airline you are flying with.

MONEY

We each took euros / dollars in cash. At ATM’s, it’s often not possible to withdraw more than 100.000 / 150.000 CFA (Senegal) and we had some trouble finding ATM’s in Gambia out of Banjul, so if your bank is charging for withdrawal, it could be good to take enough cash and change it at the airport (arrival’s hall) where you get more or less the same rate as at an ATM. Not that many hotels / gas stations / restaurants / shops accept payment with credit card, so cash is still the way to go.

LOCAL GUIDES

Our trip was semi-independent as we had no bird guide with us. However, at some sites, we got logistical/birding help from some people.

• Saloum Delta | We used the services of a boat man (Abdie Njie, mobile phone: 775366551), both to go and look for the Tiger heron in the mangroves and bring us to the riverine island of Sipo.

• Dindefelo | We were welcomed by the representatives of the local protection workgroup and were told we needed a local guide to explore the area. Mamadou ( the owner of the lodge we stayed at) has some bird knowledge and showed us around, although we would have found our way around and the birds ourselves.

• Mpak | To visit the forest area behind the small village, we kindly asked permission to the Village Chief. He knows the boubou and showed us around.

• Tendaba | To maximize the chances of finding our remaining targets, we used the guiding services of Omar (mobile phone: +220 3866 952). He’s a chill young guide who surely knows his birds and stakeouts. In one morning, we easily connected with our target birds.

• Farasuto | Apparently, it was mandatory to have a local guide to bird the Farausto Forest. Hence, we contacted Halima (recommended by Omar) to join us (mobile phone: +220 533 5921). When visiting Bantu Forest, we also got the company of Kawsu (mobile phone: +220 313 6825).

LITERATURE & INFORMATION

Bird identification:

• the Birds of Western Africa (Borrow & Demey)

• the handy Merlin app by the Cornell Lab, which comes with pictures, maps and sounds for most (not all!) species

Bird sounds:

• numerous recordings from the excellent Xeno-Canto sound repository

• a great selection is featured in the Merlin app (see above)

• a collection of commercial CD’s including: “African Bird Sounds” and “Bird Songs of The Gambia and Senegal’

Logistical & bird info:

• Cloudbirders for trip reports

• eBird

• observation.org

SITE INFO

Here we only list the areas where we birded significantly, i.e. where we searched specifically for some species and did quite some effort to find them. On our trip, we also had many (sometimes random) roadside stops where we did not really ‘fully’ bird and those are left out in this overview.

TIP-MBACKÉ

We arrived late in the evening in Dakar and had a very short sleep before heading to our first birding site. At a seemingly random stop (14.66054, -15.83657) with many coordinates for the Quail-Plover, we headed out scrutinizing the whole area. After some time, we flushed a bird showing its distinctive identity. Soon we refound it on the ground and had great views of an obliging Quail-Plover (14.665757,-15.837057).

Other birds seen on this fairly short roadside stop included a group of very cooperating Cricket Warblers, our first of many Sudan Golden Sparrows, Desert Cisticola and Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin.

One place worth mentioning is a conveniently located waterhole (15.018286, -16.015388) (that still had some water), known as a stake-out for e.g. Paradise-whydahs (but we didn’t see those).

Quail-Plover

SAINT LOUIS AREA (lagunes, Trois Marigots)

In the large vicinity of the coastal city of Saint Louis, we visited two main areas: the coastal laguna(s) and the more inland Trois Marigots.

Before reaching Saint Louis, we made a few stops. The first was near the small fishing village of Degounaye. From the beach (15.832466, -16.517656) we had good views of the small islet with a tern colony. Here we found amongst others our main target: the recently split West African Crested Tern. Unfortunately, we saw many dead birds lying on the islet - clear victims of the raging avian flu... From the same viewing point, we found our second target bird: the pale subspecies monicae of (Mauritanian) Grey Heron. Another stop near the Zebrabar (15.864916, -16.512722) was relaxing and enjoyable as a coffee break, but no extra bird species worth of mention were seen.

Late evening, we used the last birding hour to quickly explore an area near Saint Louis. The marshy area was fairly birdy. Here we quickly found some cooperative River Prinias (16.075072, -16.451186).

The next morning found us in the area called Tres Marigots. Unfortunately, large parts of the area were being developed for agriculture. In this trashed habitat we still managed to find a Savile's Bustard (16.052039,-16.353922) and a single Allen’s Gallinule (16.048734, -16.327080).

River Prinia

PODOR AREA (Diatar track, Horus swift site, desert forest)

After visiting the Tres Marigots, we headed on a long drive straight towards Podor. When we arrived late in the afternoon, we birded the Diatar Track. It starts at (16.628934, -14.944607). Again, we were shocked by the heavily degraded habitat we encountered. About the whole area was being transformed into an agricultural area with only a few narrow remnants of scrubby habitat. At dusk we were able to find several Long-tailed Nightjars and eventually a hawking Golden Nightjar, all in a somewhat intact habitat patch near the start of the track (16.625988, -14.941179). The next morning (predawn), we went to the same area, found the Golden Nightjar again and followed it until it went for its day roost. This way we had excellent views of this enigmatic bird.

Next, we moved to an area (Mourkadie) east of Podor with a different habitat. We followed a somewhat unclear dirt track (16.519328, -14.757307) that went through some sparsely vegetated red sand soil. Here we found a pair of Fulvous Babblers (16.498424,-14.762829) near the gully. Some more Cricket Warblers and several Atlas Wheatears were present as well.

We made a quick and small detour to a recently discovered breeding colony of Horus Swifts (16.519923,-14.700301) near Gamadji Sare. We instantly were greeted by them, together with some Little Swifts.

Golden Nightjar

RICHARD TOLL (Penduline site, Airport)

Our first stop was just east of Richard Toll near the settlement of Keur Mbaye (16.473904, -15.610029). In the afternoon heat, we still came across several birds and finally we connected with a pair of Little Grey Woodpeckers (16.470267,-15.609143).

We moved on and made another stop on the other side of the maine road near 16.472854, -15.634171 where we found a pair of Sennar Penduline-Tits in the acacias near the waterhole.

We made several stops along the route (including near the airfield 16.445832, -15.668711) and tried our luck to find the little known Kordofan Lark. We bumped into some (Black-faced) Quailfinches and Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, but no Mirafra larks...

Sennar Penduline-Tit

POPENGUINE

On the way from the North towards Saloum, we made a detour to add another chance to see Standard-winged Nightjar. The outskirts of Popenguine are supposed to be a reliable spot. We tried our luck near 14.556458, -17.105547, both in the evening and early morning before dawn. Despite quite some effort, including wandering along various tracks, we did not see a single nightjar. The general area is being developed and the nearby construction surely didn’t help. Our thermal viewer only revealed a pair of sleeping Common Buttonquails.

Common Buttonquail

SALOUM DELTA

As we found a single, but cooperative Scissor-tailed Kite en route, we decided to skip the visit to Kousmar Island (14.128589, -16.168856) which is a stakeout for the kite. Late afternoon they flock together and come to roost here, but by the time of our visit there would only have been a handful of birds around. It would have required a canoe trip, so by skipping, we gained half a day.

We arrived around noon in Toubacouta and while having a short coffee break, we contacted a boatsman to take us around. The pier and boats can be found at (13.786019, -16.479648). The rest of the day was spent on a boat trip towards the riverine islet of Sipo. Both on the way up and back we carefully checked the dense overhanging trees/vines and by doing so, we twice saw a White-crested Tiger-Heron, of which the first was near the ‘classic’ spots (13.755609, -16.506660). We birded SW of the village of Sipo (13.750643, -16.508431) but did not see any special birds. Nevertheless, we found day roosting Northern White-faced Scops Owl, our only Four-banded Sandgrouse, several Mottled Spinetails, etc

The next morning was spent some kilometers south of Toubacouta in some forested area. We birded along a track (13.724957, -16.482336) towards the river and later on tried another one, a bit more north (13.731168, -16.481618). We did see Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, more Mottled Spinetails, Vieillot's Barbet and a single Long-crested Eagle.

Northern White-faced Scops Owl

WASSADOU CAMP (+ S of Tambacounda)

On the way from Tambacounda to Wassadou, we made some random stops (the whole area around the Foret de Maka should be good for Sahel Paradise-Whydah, roughly this stretch: 13.972847, -15.011782), searching for Sun Lark (found at 13.669011, -13.623298) and Bronze-winged Courser at freshly burned areas (not encountered).

The main attraction in Wassadou is the Gambia river, supporting many highly desired species (from a pan-African perspective). Birding is done right at the camp itself, along a river trail and the entrance road. It was so hot and dry in the region that most birds seemed to be next to the river and little stream.

In the course of one evening and a morning, we walked upstream and saw a single African Finfoot, up to 3 Egyptian Plovers, flocks of Adamawa Turtle-Doves that came to drink (both at 13.347562, -13.364383) and two Pel’s Fishing Owls that came out to forage at dusk (at 13.348128, -13.372135 and the other one more upstream). Next to the camp, right at the river viewpoint, we had two White-backed Night-Herons flying (out at dusk / in at dawn) to their roosting site.

In the riverside lush vegetation of the small creek we encountered 1-2 White-throated Francolins (13.348910, -13.378956), a surprise Rufous Cisticola and, in the more open area, a non-breeding plumage Heuglin’s Masked Weaver. One more bird worth mentioning is a Western Banded Snake-eagle with a freshly caught snake.

Stone Partridge was common along the streams, and we had our first encounter with a Blue-bellied Roller. We didn’t see any White-headed Lapwings (nor Northern Carmine Bee-eaters), as the low water levels prevented the boat from going very far… The camp management told us that walking downstream along the river was not allowed, as this is within the boundaries of the Niokolo-Koba national park.

Western Banded Snake Eagle

DINDEFELO

In the town of Kedougou, we changed our van for a local 4WD and undertook the bumpy ride to Dindefelo. We were happy we did transfer as in our opinion a high-clearance vehicle is recommended, significantly shortening the travel time to Dindefelo.

During a short evening walk to the Dindefelo Waterfalls through some lush forest, we connected with Narina Trogon and our first Neumann’s Starlings, the latter right at the waterfall (12.364927, -12.324950).

The next morning, we walked towards a regularly birded area just North of Dindefelo. On the way, we already encountered our first Mali Firefinches. In the area around (12.397805, -12.308531) we birded North and South from the road, and staked out 2 waterholes that attracted Black-bellied Firefinch, Black-faced Firefinch (common in the area), a pair of Cabanis’s Bunting (a first for Senegal, at the first waterhole: 12.396001, -12.315143) and Mali Firefinch (second waterhole at: 12.398970, -12.308979). Other good birds in this area were Brown-backed Woodpecker, Dorst’s Cisticola, Red-winged Prinia, and Red-necked Falcon.

Leaving Dindefelo at dusk, we encountered a most probable Red-necked Nightjar on the road…

Mali Firefinch

BANDAFASSI CLIFFS

A short morning visit of the Bandafassi cliffs (12.534505, -12.314451) just outside Kedougou, resulted in more Neumann’s Starlings, many Stone Partridges, a single Brown-rumped Bunting and a single Adamawa Turtle-Dove.

Adamawa Turtle-Dove

ZIGUINCHOR AREA (Forêt de Djibelor, Mpack area)

To get from Kedougou back to Banjul (where we would depart), we opted to take the route through the Casamance. Once considered to be unsafe, it should be fairly fine now. By spending some time here, we would be able to add some new species on our list, that are confined to forested habitat.

Still on our way, we crossed a small wetland area (12.589878, -15.965448) with some hawking swallows and found a few West African Swallows amongst them.

Our first birding site was Forêt de Djibelor, in the outskirts of Ziguinchor. We took the entrance trail at (12.560930, -16.313804) and wandered along several sidetrails. In the parts with higher trees, we found our major target here: several Western Square-tailed Drongos. Other birds seen were Grey-headed Bristlebill and Splendid Sunbird, but we failed to encounter Turati’s Boubou here.

After our visit to the Cap Skirring area, we went to another forest area to search for our remaining target: Turati’s Boubou. We went to a tiny village near Mpak (12.456263, -16.242560) and after talking to the village chief, he insisted on showing us around. It didn’t take too long before we were looking at a very vocal and showy pair of the Turati’s Boubou (12.451014, -16.245951). We kindly thanked the chief and moved on as we had yet another long drive on our program.

Turati's Boubou

CAP SKIRRING AREA

At the Southwestern coast of Senegal, near the small village of Diembereng, we birded the enjoyable private Casamance Ecopark in order to find the distinctive form of Capuchin Babbler, which favors the dense/tangly forest vegetation. We parked the van at 12.44759, -16.772116 and continued by foot along the main and side trails. We only arrived very late in the afternoon and only two of us were able to get short views of a pair of Capuchin Babblers. On our way out at dusk we heard and saw Black-shouldered Nightjar which has only recently been recorded in Senegal. Luckily, the next morning we all had excellent views of good numbers of Capuchin-Babblers. Other nice birds seen here were African Goshawk, White-spotted Flufftail, and Ahanta Spurfowl amongst others.

Capuchin Babbler

TENDABA CAMP (Gambia)

Initially, we would not really bird in The Gambia, but we gained some time and decided to spend the extra time in The Gambia to catch up with some missing species. Due to a road closure (construction works) towards the more Western border crossing near Jiboro we were forced to make a long, dusty and bumpy detour in order to enter Gambia through the more Western Digobo border crossing. This way, our first stop was the Tendaba Camp.

In the company of local guide Omar, we made several stops in the preferred habitat of our target birds. Eventually, we did see amongst others: Yellow Penduline-Tit (in the acacia trees at 13.433229,-15.81082), 3 Bronze-winged Coursers (at a recently burnt area around 13.417439,-15.803791), good numbers of Brown-rumped Buntings, 3 White-fronted Black-chats (13.402557,-15.836527) and some Rufous Cisticolas (same area). We did not make a mangrove boat trip here.

Bronze-winged Courser

FARASUTO & BANTU FOREST (Gambia)

Our second and final destination in The Gambia. As some parts were private, we went in the company of local guide Halima. We made a short evening visit to the Pirang fish ponds (13.274631,-16.527936), but did not see any Pied-winged Swallows here.

In a private garden (13.298627, -16.569644) close to the Farasuto Forest reserve, we took place in a bird hide and after some time we had views of several bird species that came to drink. All three honeyguide species paid a visit of which Spotted Honeyguide was on top of our list. The local caretaker showed us 3 Northern White-faced Owls on their day roost in the very same garden. A stroll into the forest itself did not produce any other good bird except another Spotted Honeyguide.

We moved to the nearby Bantu Forest reserve and after seeing a staked out day roosting Verreaux’s Eagle-owl (13.278985, -16.552016) we went to a more open area and found Pied-winged Swallow (13.283337, -16.548120) between the other swallow species, including our only Fanti Saw-wings for the trip.

Spotted Honeyguide

KOTU CREEK (Gambia)

After dropping Brecht at the airport, we spent the night near Banjul awaiting our flight the next day. Some late afternoon seawatching only produced some cocktails on the beach. We made a short morning stroll into the nearby Kotu Creek reserve (13.460966, -16.704681) which is a well known birding site, probably for freshly arriving tourists. We might have encountered more bird guides than bird species :-)

Yellow-crowned Gonolek

Birds not seen

We did not see all possible (semi-)target birds. Some of us had seen several/most of the following species and hence they got less attention. Notable birds that were not seen:

• Egyptian Nightjar: we reckoned most of these were already moving towards their breeding grounds, so we simply didn’t try to search for this bird in Djoudj, where day-roosting birds are regularly found in winter.

• Standard-winged Nightjar: we gave it a good try near Popenguine, which is deemed to be a reliable site, but we didn’t hear nor see any nightjar.

• Lesser Moorhen: seen at scattered sites in Senegal and Gambia, but there weren’t any ‘guaranteed’ sites.

• White-crowned Lapwing: Usually seen on a boat ride at Wassadou, but due to the low water levels, they were out of reach.

• Lesser Jacana: we looked for this bird around les 3 Marigots, where it is sometimes seen

• Beaudouin’s Snake-eagle: we scanned the skies around Tambacouta (mostly while driving) but didn’t see any snake eagle.

• Kordofan Lark: this bird has been seen and photographed just North of the abandoned airport at Richard Toll, exactly here: 16.452969, -15.667167. We scanned this area thoroughly during the best part of a morning, but didn’t find any Mirafra larks.

• Dybowsky’s Twinspot: this small passerine is often seen around Dindefelo, but we didn’t connect with this bird, either in the fields / scrub around Dindefelo, or at drinking spots along the river towards the Dindefelo falls.

• Gosling’s Bunting: we should probably have targeted this bird around Popenguine or scattered sites in Gambia (e.g. Tendaba), but we weren’t specifically aiming at this bird while we still had other priorities…

Cabanis’s Bunting - first for Senegal