8:10am to 11:10am. Weather: bright, sunny & hot.
A morning trip guided by Tamba with Kim, Tamba was soon joined by a couple of local guides who lead us through an amazing forest & then through a small village & its subsistence agricultural area. There is a small fee to visit the forest proceeds from which directly benefits the larger Brufut village & school which incentivises the locals to protect the forest. Even though it was early at 10am as we walked through the fields the sun beat down, so this may have been the hottest excursion, fortunately because of the early schedule an afternoon by the pool digesting what I'd seen was the perfect thing to look forward to!
Main forest road:
Splendid Sunbird - active in the large bushes & small trees next to the path, with wonderful metallic colours but lacking the long tail of beautiful sunbird;
Red-Billed Hornbill, Hooded Vulture, Red-Billed Firefinch, Common Bulbul.
Pin-Tailed Whydah - several feeding on the sandy ground next to the path, in non-breeding plumage but with a distinctive red bill;
African Green Pigeon - attractive lime green pigeon spotted at the very top of a pathside tree;
Senegal Parrot - also at the top of a tree, squawking before flying off;
Red-Bellied Paradise Flycatcher - in a large dense bush, but its spectacular plumage was still visible in the shade, a speciality of this forest.
Stone Partridge - only heard from low down amongst the undergrowth;
Western Plantain-eater, Long-Tailed Glossy Starling.
Blue-Spotted Wood Dove - one feeding next to the path before flying into a tree as we approached - small;
Vinaceous Dove - in a tree top enthusiastically cooing - paler than red-eyed dove;
Yellow-Fronted Tinkerbird - only Tamba saw this before it flitted into the undergrowth;
Lizard Buzzard - a brief flurry of wings as it flew away, IDed by one of the other guides, a pity it didn't show again;
White-Faced Scops Owl - both Tamba & another guide suddenly halted next to a tree & asked Kim & I if we could see anything there, which we could not. They then amused themselves by pointing out the obvious owl which was not hiding but which was relying on its great camouflaged. Once we spotted it we had excellent views from about 20m & it was not disturbed in the slightest before we moved off.
Orange-Cheeked Waxbill - a small flock on bramble-type bushes next to the path;
African Oriole - as stunning as its european counterpart but not quite as elusive as it foraged amongst the flowering leaves of a large tree, its gold shone bright in the strengthening sunlight.
Forest:
Pied Hornbill - a couple flew overhead to the top of the a tree where one proceeded to call & apparently display to other with a twig in its beak;
Verreux's Eagle Owl - in the tree next to the hornbills was another wonderful speciality of the forest: two huge eagle owls hidden amongst the canopy foliage, although they were hidden one was close enough for some nice views & our guides took us off the main path into the forest to the base of the tree so we could see better. We could see the pink eyelids & huge talons & large size even though we could not see the beak as this was obscured by leaves.
Long-Tailed Nightjar - venturing deeper into the forest our guides lead us directly to a couple of roosting nightjars & which were an amazing site in the dappled sunshine. I took some great close-up photos not approaching too close (apparently a metre is the limit the birds will tolerate) before leaving them in peace.
Scrub / Farmland:
Woodchat Shrike - leaving the forest into a more mixed scrub area almost immediately this beauty was spotted at the top of a decent-sized bush. Athough distant it was another distinctive shrike which I was delighted to see.
Black-Shouldered Kite - a pair in the foliage of a sizeable bush/small tree, unlike at Lamin they were not harrassed by crows.
Double-Spurred Francolin - flew away into the undergrowth from a series of termite mounds;
Whistling Cisticola - perched on a fence's wire next to the path. Brown & nondescript Tamba was still able to ID easily;
Black-Crowned Tchagra - all three guides were pleased to see this one foraging under a tree beyond the fence, it soon flew off but no before I got a decent record shot;
Grey-Headed Sparrow - a little further along from the first cisticola & next to another, a larger-looking sparrow with a light grey head;
Fine-Spotted Woodpecker - first spotted at the end of the path as it turned left to the village it crossed the path to another tree where it stayed affording us good views;
Greater Honeyguide - in the same tree that the woodpecker alighted in, it flew away quickly & I only got a brief view of it as Tamba excitedly pointed it out;
Shikra - my best view of this hawk - two circled around each other before they called to each other & rapidly moved off low along the tree line obviously on a hunt, very impressive!
Little Bee-eater, African Palm Swift, Fork-Tailed Drongo - all around the small village's farmland areas;
Red-Cheeked Cordon-bleu - a few also amongst the village's scrub, wonderfully coloured & great to see. Apparently these used to be common around the Senegambia's grounds before much of its low scrub was cleared.
Village Weaver, Blackcap Babbler, Brown Babbler.
Singing Cisticola - another 'brown job' flitting amonst the low vegetation;
Yellow Wagtail - one in a small, slightly barren-field, it shyly moved away from us;
Yellow-Crowned Bishop - at the feeding station where we had drinks at the end of the walk;
Common Kestrel - flew along the roadside as we left in the taxi.
42 species, 20 new species (I saw 19).
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