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The Final Cut at last.

The last edit of shots from the Gambia has taken a while and has some interesting things amongst the pictures taken, but leaving out the touristy type shots I thought these might be a diversion until the next blog entry.

This wee!! beastie was about the size of two hands spread out, pretty colours, but given a wide berth.

Pink Dragonfly, amongst an amazing variety of colours as you will see.

A well prickly character which hissed when we got to close with the lens!!

Swallow tail coming in to land.

A Widow Dragonfly.

A Blue Dragonfly.

African Monarch on a mineral source!!!

Another big Spider.

The Tanning Salon, more arrived as the sun came up.

Then there was billy no mates.

NO! A vegetarian Dragonfly!!!

Not really just eating a fly caught on the flower.

That's it for a while now for the Shrike or SEO!!! we shall see or not.

Cheers

Paul

Birds, Berries, Barbed wire and Belligerance!!

Frustration was the order of the day on Sunday, learning late in the evening that Waxwings were at the Town centre car park in Ellesmere, and having missed the Trumpton pair. I was champing at the bit to get out and have! them for the year.

Finally managing to get out on the Tuesday they were playing hard to get and in fact did not show at all. So Wednesday it was another go at these enigmatic little corkers, they had other ideas of course, they had moved on, as it became evident to the gathered hopefuls.

To get Richard Camp's Yahoo group mail on the rediscovery in Shrewsbury was a well welcome relief, at least they had remained in the County, even if the supermarket chain changed names over night!! So as soon as poss it was of Shopping!!!

I arrived just a little after one or two other birders and they were performing like real darlings, and considering the small tree they had descended on I was very pleased indeed. They were a little flighty with all the toing and froing of the Shoppers, as was evident in the manner in which they were feeding, down quick grab as many as possible and of up into the Silver Birch on the other side of the road. At times they were even dropping onto the Cottoneaster under there chosen safe spot.

Now the Barbed wire was in fact Razor wire bordering the site and was not to obtrusive in the pictures if they remained high however some got a little to low. As to the Belligerence that came down to the store manager trying to push us of the car park, where I might add we were in nobodies way nor incommoding any one, in fact we were acting as ambassadors for the Hobby passing on the information etc, but the plain fact that we were there with Cameras and could be taking pictures of their fantastic Logo!!! was not allowed, So I sent him of to speak to his manager I was given a gracious 15 minutes. Talk about jobs worth!!! I am glad I was in a good mood!!

So to the Pictures, right posers they were and a few are posted here for your delectation any comments good or bad will be gratefully received

That tongue is certainly in use here.

They do not always get it right

A slight overbalance

And the final indignant pose for my gathered mass!!

I hope Aldi enjoy a festering season and they get twitched to death!!!

Thanks for stopping by

Paul

Of Parts sticky! part Deux + 1 (or 3 if you like)

The weather improved over the last three days in the Gambia, it got hotter!! earlier. Some of the local, ish areas we had left for last were various in habitat and accessability,

The entrance or rather the old way of getting into the Golf course at Fajara had beed repaired / closed of so we walked back to the main entrance, having been offered a couple of spliffs for breakfast, we declined graciously. Once through the main entrance were we had to negotiat the group of caddies! who on seeing Binoculars all wanted to show us an Owl, and as the Verreaxs Owl was readily visible from the side road, we declined, in the end we had to be forceful. we moved around cautiously as the golfist were swinging wildly in fact the safest place to be, was on the Browns!!

The otherwise well good spots were very quite with only Lizzard Buzzard really giving us a good show as it swooped around chasing lizzards! The norm was Francolin, both species, Stone Partridge, Long-tailed Cormorant, A very nice Grey Plover, Common sandpiper, Whimbrel, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper, plus five different kingifshers. The Long-tailed Glossy Starlings were accompanied by Lesser and Greater Glossies loosley that is. Sunbirds were, it seemed everywhere, several were around the bottles collecting palm sap, which is fermented into a very nice Palm wine.

A Sap Collector

Once the fruit stems are cut bottles are attached to collect the sap.

From here we walked over to Kotu Creek, bridge, Sewege pools and a few other places, we did not get to Lamin Lodge as our Transport had been booked for a sensible time to get back to the base camp for the evening meal.

The penultimate day was to be spent at Abuku Reserve to catch up on one or two species as yet not found, one in particular the bloody Common Wattle Eye, this bird had for some reason been eluding us all through the trip, call so close at time you could hear it breathing, nearly! And the other little darling was the Orange Cheeked Waxbill.

It was not long before the Wattle Eye was calling right next to us, and suddenly it popped up in the open, what a nice specimen sadly the light was not so good so it was a record shot only in the hope of a retry later.

The now normal Monkeys were duely photo'd and the odd Butterfly and Dagonfly they are very nice indeed.

A Brown Babbler

It was not long after that we caught up with one or two other delights, We had the Orange Cheeked Waxbill and another Sunbird the Red Chested Sunbird what a corker he was.

Anyhow it was soon all over, the Beer was drunk, the Birds was seen, and all that is The Gambia was really enjoyed, so much so we are not going back!!!

Hello Ghana!! whats the beer like?

Thanks for reading

Paul

Sticky's part Deux

The Pirogue was due to move of as soon as the other two passengers were ready, not withstanding the time spent by the pointer person, bailing large amounts of water out of the "boat" so crew assembled it was shove off and eyes peeled , the first port of call was the Peanut processing plant! Where earlier we had seen an African Fish Eagle parked, it was still visible but now on the other side of the plant.

A left turn into the current really put the engine to the test as we edged closer to the start of the mangrove swamps and the two creeks to be investigated Tunku and Kisi Bolong. It did not take long before we were calling things like Malachite, Pygmy, Blue Bellied, pied, Giant and Grey Headed Kingfishers. And of course a whole host of other neat stuff, like White Crested Tiger Heron, Goliath Heron, African Hobby and the rarity of the trip A Peregrine Falcon which took a Weaver bird in mid air.

I think amongst the hole lot the next bird called "by me!!" was the Orange Cheeked Waxbill a real corker of a little bird certainly on a par with the Cut Throat Finch. Should anyone really be bored a full list could be supplied "yawn"

On the Mammal and reptile side of things they were a little sparse with only one decent sized Nile Crocodile seen as it slipped into the water only to disappear, Nile Monitors were a little more obliging with one specimen estimated to be a 9 feet long and full of some form of food.

It was just after this big chappy that we saw the bird most people really want the African Finfoot plonking around the roots of the mangrove it was dark under there but enough was seen to confirm the species, brilliant to say the least but to dark for any chance of a picture,, just seeing it was really enough. For a further two hours we drifted into the Mangroves quietly picking of species after species before we had to turn around, and take a new track/route through to the Kissi Bolong and just 50 meters down we had the second mind blowing mega bird of the trip A fine male Perls Fishing Owl sat out in the open like it was the most natural thing to do, mind you as soon as it realised we was sneaking up on it it was of and never to be seen again.

Suffice to say the species totaliser went up a few notches, the move back across the river to Tendaba camp was as eventful as we picked up on the odd ones we had missed on the way over.

As the sun was over the yard arm it was time for second breakfast, which was always liquid of course!! A light bit of shut eye before we strolled down to the Airport!! once again this time with the required Nightjar kit you know powerful torch etc.we disturbed a couple of Four Banded Sandgrouse as we moved through the long grass alongside the rice fields we had selected a likly area /clearing in the grass away from the other people out and noisily plonking after the same target species. We knew we should see all three types here, so we sat and offered our selves up to the Mossies for the next hour and a half. The churring started more or less as soon as it got dark and we could see occasional flutterings around us as they flew against the night sky, couple this with the incessant background noise of crickets frogs and all manner of other insects, including 70 million Mozzies!! oh! and a pair of dueting White Faced Scops Owls it was brilliant.

Did we get all three? well of course, as the others had pushed most of the birds our way, thank you. We did not mention this later at the bar,,, Much!! but they were out again the next night, and with our superb guiding get the all. More free beer.

With our Four days at Tendaba over we were on the long drive/ride back to Bijilo for a bit of R&R wash clothes, clean kit, pour over lists on an extended call over and generally sort out some of the more local areas.

So Lets see what the next blog brings!!

Thanks for Reading

Paul

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED TO PKDIGITALWILDLIFE.COM

PKDIGITALWILDLIFE.COM

Of Parts hot and sticky!!

Op ihren reissepass bereits sind?


This was the question that came on the the SMS a couple of months ago, of course it was and always is, just for emergencies you understand!

Alarm bells started as it was my friends turn to do a trip, and knowing him it could be anywhere from the Amazon basin to Antarctica and as we had both done central and Southern America I was already postulating as to where this time.

As is the case on these affairs hints are dropped but only those that fit in general, it was soon worked out, it was Stickycles and not Icicles that was to come. However as I was to find out I had been led down the proverbial path.

So after a a six hour delay at Brum Airport I was met at Schipol and we descended on the overnight accommodation with two raging thirsts. It was here that the final piece of the mystery was thrust into my grubby mit!

As the flight out was at 05:30 it was an early night, We raided the breakfast buffet for boiled eggs, Rolls and cheese, there was no in flight catering. The departure board said it all Transavia flight xxxx to Yundum, Whooohoo!!! The Gambia at last, having been in the North and East of Africa this birding was going to be great and the rains had only really stopped a week ago and they had been really heavy this year, so lots of green and tall, and a few rainy season only birds. The first trip tick! was an Ariel view of Northern Gannet as we approached the airport, which was a disappointment as the normally! short grass was over head height and nothing was visible, the area around the terminal as we waited in the 35C heat gave up a few Sparrows house type , and some nice Cattle Egret. The trip to the base Camp!! was a touch more interesting with Hooded Vulture, Northern Red Bishop and Pied Crow to name a few, many can be seen in the Gallery to Gambia trip.

We also had the other Bishop but no photo this time.

Base camp!! was in the basic league but the essentials were spot on, cold beer anytime of the day, and at the same price as bottled water it just made sense. Mind you we drew the line at teeth brushing !!! We acclimatised for two days as we patrolled the roadside between Banjul and the Bijilo Forest on the early morning patrol, it was more like Disney's Dawn Patrol with all the trumpeting going on, before the bumsters got up, well most of them at least.

No long lists just the odd photo from here and there.

Day three saw us walking the track through Tanji village to the Paradise inn!! out by the river the huts were basic and by local standards clean with shower and toilet, food was again basic with breakfast a real banquet of cheese, eggs, jam and copious coffee followed with naturally beer chasers!! later in the day.

Up before first light we were on the track down to the salt flat for things like Copper Sunbird, Giant Kingfisher, Pygmy Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher , Wattled, Spur winged and Black headed Plovers, etc. etc.

So by day 4 the trip list was standing around the 165 species with 35 Lifers but as it would happen we were really struggling for the more common stuff, we believe that the extent of water around had kept the birds out in the country rather than the norm, so I am told.

Two days later we are back in the base for some well earned rest!! and a resupply on clean clothes beer etc. before heading out again to Tendaba camp a supposed six hour journey in bush taxi's along with the population of every town on the way, what with police check points followed in 200 meters by Military checkpoints all wanting something or other from someone in the bus finally saw us in the compound a mere 9 hours later and just 100 miles up country.

But the first Kingfisher we saw was the one on the label of the beer bottle. A shower, a feed and retiring early, as the generator went down ,so the beer was getting warm. Daybreak saw us tramping around the airport vainly searching for Storks etc, at 09:00 the temperature was at 33 degrees and it was back for breakfast and lots of coffee before taking a pirogue across into the mangrove swamps for the elusive finfoot and Perls fishing Owl. Well you find out as I get to the next Blog on this place.

An Abysinian Roller or Abby or as it ended up NCIS!!

Till the next one

Paul