There have been no posts for the past few weeks as we have been on a two week birding trip to The Gambia. The combination of some good birds, great people and winter sun made this the top contender for a December break. I planned to take a laptop and do a daily blog report but we flew with Thomas Cook and they have extremely restrictive baggage allowances! Five kg of cabin baggage! My bins and camera weigh four and by the time I'd chucked in the passports and a guide book and wrapped them in a bag I'd used my 5kg. If you want to take a scope and tripod and a selection of lenses then, quite frankly, you're stuffed unless you trust that kind of equipment to the hold.
More of this later. Instead of a day by day blow I thought it might be more interesting to bunch most of the birds we saw into, as near as possible, family groups. So I'll start with the Rollers as they are both conspicuous and common.
There are five species of Roller on the Gambian list. We saw four quite easily - the one we failed to locate was the European Roller which is an uncommon to rare Palearctic migrant mainly from late August to June.
The pick of the other four to my mind was the Rufous-crowned Roller -
Coracias naevius
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| Rufous-crowned Roller Coracias naevius |
This bird is fairly common in open woodland and we saw it near the coast, particularly in Brufot Woods as well as further south and east along the river. We only ever saw single birds and they were always perched atop some tree or high bush. Although fairly common it was the least frequent of the four species encountered.
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| Rufous-crowned Roller Coracias naevius |
The most common Roller was the Broad-billed Roller -
Eurystomus glaucurus. Although not as widespread as the other three, numbers of these birds were high, especially along the river. They like to hawk insects particularly just before and during dusk and large numbers can be seen on the tops of tall riverside trees in the evenings. When they are hawking insects they look a lot like falcons.
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| Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus glaucurus |
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They have pointed wings and a falcon-like flight, swift and direct, and their size and chunky-ness adds to the falcon impression. Too many times I thought I had a small raptor only to realise that I was watching a Broad-billed Roller...again!
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| Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus glaucurus |
Abyssinian Roller -
Coracias abyssinicus was the last of the four Rollers that we located but just like buses once we found one we found loads. The further east we travelled the more frequent these birds became. You are virtually assured of seeing these in any farmland, open woodland, gardens or savannah in The Gambia. They are spectacular and when they do the 'rolling' flight from which they get their name they are quite mesmerising. I was surprised at how confiding Abyssinian Rollers are. You can approach quite close and they are so conspicuous and regular in some areas that they would make a great subject for a photo essay.
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| Abyssinian Roller Coracias abyssinicus |
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| Abyssinian Roller Coracias abyssinicus |
We flew to Banjul and driving down to our accommodation in the south at Footsteps Eco Lodge (of which more later) the most frequent bird-on-a-wire was the Blue-bellied Roller -
Coracias cyanogaster. Every third bird was one of these. (The other two were a permutation of any two doves on the Gambian list!) Like all Rollers this is a strikingly coloured bird and is an absolute belter when it flies.
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| Blue-bellied Roller Coracias cyanogaster |
Bird guides are frequent in The Gambia and the ones we used all know their stuff but you will not be needing a guide to find the four regular species of Roller on The Gambian list. You'll manage that perfectly well on your own.
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| Blue-bellied Roller Coracias cyanogaster |
Finding all eight species of Bee-eater, however, is a different matter!
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