Gambia part 2.

Day 3 saw us leaving our base camp and heading upriver for two nights to search out some specialities. There were plenty of birds to be seen on the way up and regular breaks to look for birds provided a bit of relief from the bone shaking track we had to drive on in the afternoon. Western Grey Plantain Eaters were seen in most areas but most of the time they were partly obscured by the leaves on the trees so this one was worth pointing the camera at.

We'd received word of a Greyish Eagle Owl roost and a phone call confirmed it's presence on the day so after driving along a maze of dusty tracks and a 15 minute walk through the bush we got to see this monster!

How this bird was ever found in the middle of nowhere is incredible. We also picked up a couple of Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, a Swallow-tailed Bee-eater and some Lavender Waxbills for our efforts. We had a quick stop at the side of the road for a good look at this Rufous-crowned Roller.

Not too much further down the road we hit a purple patch as we stopped at a small wetland. Long-tailed Glossy Starling, Hamerkop, African Harrier-hawk and a couple of Jacana gave us a good start before a Woodland Kingfisher started calling. Not an easy bird to get but we managed some flight views and distant views of the bird perched up. A Grey Woodpecker landed close by so I turned my attention to that.

A couple of Northern Puffback put in an appearance too...

...before the Woodland Kingfisher flew back towards us and perched up close by. What a beauty!!

We made a brief stop in a village to get some shots of this group of Oxpeckers.

The birds were coming thick and fast through the day and not much time to get photos of the 80 or so species that we picked up so this Dark-chanting Goshawk was the last bird to be given the camera treatment.

Day 4 saw us leaving our new camp to cross the river and head further East in search of more fantastic birds. Abyssinian Rollers were a regular sight along the roads.

Our first real stop of the day bagged us a treeful of birds with Brown-rumped Bunting...

...Yellow-fronted Canary...

...Green-backed Eremomela...

...Yellow-crowned Gonolek...

...and Scarlet-chested Sunbird all showing well.

Hooded Vultures and Black Kite...

...were ever present in the sky so it was nice to pick up this Booted Eagle too.

As you can see this bird has an exceptionally long tail so they gave in an exceptionally long name - Exclamatory Paradise Whydah - cracking.

We picked up some distant Black Egret, heaps of Collared Pratincole, Quail Finch, White Pelican, Osprey and a Painted Snipe before we got our main target of Egyptian Plover.

A fruitless search for Black-bellied Bustard did turn up Black-headed Plover...

...and Flappet Lark.

There were always Cattle and Goats around but it was a surprise to see the odd Donkey wandering about.

Chestnut-backed Sparrow-lark was picked up a couple of times through the day too.

One of the best sights we had was at a bush fire where there were numerous Black Kite hawking around with a flock of 12 Northern Carmine Bee-eater in attendance too - stunning. During the night we heard Pearl-spotted Owlet and Spotted Eagle Owl calling but I'll reveal more of that tomorrow!