Back in the saddle

I always find it hard to get back to the patch after a trip away, especially to somewhere with lots and lots of tropical birds. Central and South America is the worst in terms of come down. The magic of air travel is also a curse... On Tuesday you can be in a jungle seeing Tanagers and Hummingbirds. On Wednesday morning you can be back on your local patch seeing..... Exactly. I tend to have to leave it a few days to kind of sober up before venturing out locally again, and this time it took 11 days - I'd been in Mexico. Partly this was as I was busy the first weekend, partly it was that the weather was rubbish, but mostly it was just apathy.

I finally made it out on a beautiful autumn morning and felt glad to be alive. Birds were few and far between as often happens on clear days, but it was very nice and I remembered how lucky I am to live with this on my doorstep. It's not the coast but it could be a lot worse. A lot worse. So I've been poking about, mostly vismigging, and today in quite murky weather it finally came good. 

The anticipated Brambling duly brayed just after 7am and continued to do so for another quarter of an hour. I mean it may have been several birds moving through, who can say, but  depsite being a few minutes apart the calls always seemed to come from the same place so I have put it down as just one bird. It got better though, a lot better, as just before 8am I picked up an unfamiliar call but one that I had hoped I might hear. Hawfinch! Where was it???! There! Over the Model Airfield, curving over the Skylark area and over one of the copses, calling all the way, a slightly underwhelming metallic spik whereas really this species should give a deep booming call like a Bittern or something. It was still pretty murky so the views were less wonderful than I had hoped, but on size and shape it looked very decent. Marco and Jim had just left me and so annoyingly missed it, possibly as I had just asked them to stop chatting quite so much as I was trying to listen out for .....Hawfinch. The birding Gods up to mischief again? Maybe.... Regardless, calls are absolutely critical for VizMig and if I don't engage in the conversation and move down the path a little way, that's why.

The path from Brick Pits to Long Wood, almost impassable the last few months, has been re-established.

Gratifyingly but at the time unbeknownst to any of us, Bob's recorder had picked up Hawfinch about 40 minutes earlier from his garden. A first for local sound recording as far as I am aware, but not the first time that a bird recorded over his garden has subsequently been found on Wanstead Flats a short while later. I think exactly this scenario played out with one of the first Tree Pipits of the autumn as well. Obviously in one sense this is purely circumstantial, but then again this isn't criminal law and it makes perfect sense that a bird zipping over Chateau Bob could a few seconds later be over Wanstead Flats and decide that yes, this would make a good place for a pit stop. This is the first local Hawfinch since the irruption of 2017/18, and at this point is one of many London records. In other words it appears to be happening again. Last time I recorded the species five times, and it was at exactly this time of year - late October/early November - so hopefully there will be more.

Iceland - March 2024 - a weekend birding

Earlier this year, the beginning of March to be precise, I spent a couple of days in Iceland. It's a destination I really like - not a great deal of species diversity but typically loads of what birds there are. To illustrate what I mean my Iceland list is only 78 after five trips, and I reckon that is actually pretty decent. The weather is always rather a gamble, but I got lucky with some beautiful sunny weather albeit that this did scupper my plans to sleep somewhere remote in the car because it was too cold for that to be a realistic thing to do.

I left early on a Saturday morning and was recording my first eBird list at Keflavik Airport before midday. Things started very well with a Merlin as I was leaving the car park, and in the town of Keflavik itself I soon came across a large flock of Snow Bunting on the western outskirts, as well as couple of Ptarmigan. Just your regular urban birds in other words.

Snow Bunting

I did a bit of birding at Njardvik, noting it as a potentially nice location for Whooper Swans and Wigeon, and then carried on into central Reykjavik where I found some parking and walked to Tjornin Pond which was almost all frozen and thus had lots of close birds on the remaining water, including a Red-breasted Merganser, not a bird you often get very good views of.

 

There were various good birds on offer north of Reykjavik at the end of the Akranes peninsula so I drove up there for a while, through the town and harbour and out to the lighthouse. I think I was looking for a King Eider that had been reported, but with only bins and a camera that was doomed to failure - I needed a scope. I tried taking photos of distant potential blobs and then zooming in on the screen, which to an extent worked out in so far as I could identify what things were, but none of them were the duck in question and there were many rafts of birds much further out that I simply had no chance with. I really need to buy a travel scope as often the choice is between my regular 80mm scope and a camera. At a push I can bring both, but the bag is then ridiculously heavy plus I have to walk around with it. I suppose that now my camera has reduced substantially both in size and weight it would be easier, but wouldn't it be nice to have fully lightweight kit. That's what my back is telling me. Unlike the camera I would still keep the real scope as it has a role to play birding in the UK, but the additional flexibility of something small and portable would be excellent. Swarovski's new 56mm scope fits the bill and is a mere two thousand pounds. I might get one in green and another in orange....

Despite the frustration of not being able to properly search for the target bird the birding here was excellent in very lovely weather. There were loads of Common Eider and Long-tailed Duck, and I was able to pick out a couple of Harlequin relatively close inshore. Glaucous Gulls were heavily outnumbered by Iceland Gulls, and a few Great Northern Divers bobbed about. I drove around the town a bit to check out all bits of coast and generally had a very nice time in glorious sunshine - crisp and clear. Towards the end of the day I picked my way out to the lighthouse and had one last scan of the sea. Some semi-distant rocks had a large flock of Purple Sandpipers that from time to time all fluttered up into the air when a slightly larger wave threatened, and I managed to find a Red-throated Diver, a Black Guillemot and a solitary Gannet despite my limited optics.

The sun sets late in Iceland in early March, and so it wasn't until gone 7pm that I headed back to Reykjavik. I had booked a room in a hostel.... Those readers who know Iceland will know that there are no bargains to be found, and unless you come from a Scandinavian country the prices for everything seem completely outlandish for what you actually get. Twenty quid for a bowl of soup also extends to hotels, and so the hostel had been the only reasonable option. Hopefully my stay would be so short it wouldn't matter, so I took a bed in a mixed dormitory. My last experience of something like this, in San Diego a couple of years ago, had not been particularly memorable. Once again I was about twice the age (perhaps more!) of every other person there, young Europeans on gap yaas mostly, and this meant that I was going to bed just as they were going out for the evening. This suited me just fine until about 2am when they all came back..... I had assumed therefore that I would be getting up and leaving them all there, perhaps returning the favour but no, they too were all up before first light and getting ready for another fun day on Iceland - 4x4 tours into the interior, some kind of swimming adventure, a boat trip. They must have all been millionaires is all I can say.

Shortly after 8am I was birding at Vatnsmyrin in central Reykjavik. Photography hadn't really been happening for me and so I had reverted to birding. Somewhere on this series of small shallow pools were some Pintail, an Iceland tick apparently. It didn't take me long to find them amongst the hundreds of Greylag Geese, Wigeon, Mallard and Tufted Duck, and a Merlin surveyed the scene from a street lamp. All perfectly normal.

My next stop was Grafarvogur which sounds like something from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a vaguely rectangular shaped inlet on the north-east side of town, and somewhere on it was an American Wigeon. I started at the west end, but naturally all the birds were at the east end. Once I made it there, via a few dicey moments on frozen paths, I could see that there was a small flock of Wigeon in a rocky section where a stream seemed to come in. Was one of them a bit paler perhaps? I got a bit closer, dicing with broken bones even more, and yes it was! Excellent. I also had a Fieldfare here with two Redwing, and at some point a small flock of Shelduck arrived to join the Wigeon.

American Wigeon

At this point my phone decided to have a meltdown, perhaps because it was too cold. I watched as the battery ticked down to zero before my very eyes and it then switched itself off. Excellent. These days your phone is everything - it is your wallet, your map, your airline ticket home.... I returned to the car in the hope that it would charge a bit but it wasn't having any of it. Luckily I remembered vaguely where the next planned birding stop was and found it without incident. I can't remember what I was looking for at Lambhagi, but there is a small stream that runs along an industrial area and I guess there was something in there I needed. I left my phone in the car in the hope that it would get its shit together and headed off to look for this bird. I didn't find whatever it was in over a mile of searching, but I did find a Little Grebe sheltering under some overhanging pines which I later discovered was another new Iceland tick. A little further along, by a sports centre, there was some nice habitat with good path coverage, and here I found a Grey Heron which is somewhat of a rarity in Iceland. But I'm still not convinced it was the bird I was looking for.

By now it was midday. The happy news was that my phone now worked again, but it had been stuttering for a while and I made a note to myself to replace it when I got home. I'd had it coming up for four years so it hadn't done badly. Out of ideas I decided I would try some Gull photography (gah!), and with a flight mid-afternoon I needed to stick relatively close to Reykjavik. I had a nice drive down to Porlakshofn on the south coast, hoping to then drive a loop back up to the airport, but I'd forgotten that the road passed through Grindavik (doomed volcano town), and so they had actually closed the coast road as well. Still, perhaps I could get a view of this volcanic fissure on the way back.

Geothermal activity

I had a great time on the Porlakshofn quay with the Iceland and Glaucous Gulls, just me and a bunch of trawlermen getting ready for a fishing expedition, loading up huge crates filled with ice into their holds. The ships are absolutely massive when you get up close to them, you could probaly sail around the globe in them if you needed to. I spent about an hour here before needing to leave, retracing my steps via Reykjavik. At the junction to the Blue Lagoon I parked the car near the US Airforce memorial and climbed the hill to see if I could see anything. The road was indeed closed, with a team of security and what looked like an information board explaining what the problem was. In the far distance I could see a line of smoke, but I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment and my dreams of plumes of lava exploding violently into the sky went unfulfilled. 

I then went back to one of my original spots for a last attempt at photographing the Whooper Swan and Wigeon before a short spin back to the airport where I handed the car back and went home. The full eBird trip report page can be found here.

The Gambia and Senegal - Trip List

The full eBird trip list is here, with all checklists and locations, it's a great bit of functionality and fully interactive with maps, species and so on. I've also prepared the below day by day summary for those not fully on board with the magic of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. As you can see I got 111 new birds, and have attached 55 photos (so far, there are a few more to do). And so that's a wrap, a mere nine months late but better late than never. I really need to pull my finger out if I am going to actually get 2024 finished in 2024...

The Gambia - January 2024 - Day 7 - Brufut and Marakissa

Final day! We flew at around 9pm or thereabouts, arriving back at Gatwick at something like 3am. This is the ethos of the package holiday.... Before that though we had a lot more birding to do. Would Yankuba be keen?

The short answer was no. The longer answer was that we actually had to give him money for petrol to be taken to Brufut Woods, as all he wanted to do was walk around Kotu again. And then when we wanted to go to Marakissa as well he threw a fit, that it was too far, that we didn't have enough time etc etc. All of which was garbage as in fact we spent over two hours at Marakissa and still made the flight. We were surprised at his recalcitrance, but as Mick said, this was not his first rodeo. Maybe most clients just acquiesce for the sake of keeping things nice and friendly and he gets an easy life. Not us I'm afraid.

Western Plantain-eater

Laughing Dove

Anyway after a bit of dialogue at the creek during which I finally saw African Thrush, we headed the short distance to Brufut Woods. It's about half an hour away. Whilst habitation has encroached on all sides, this is still a great area for birding, and at a drinking station we were able to observe a pair of Violet Turaco at close range. Although we might have got other species there we didn't linger, mainly as the guides there just used the opportunity to have a nice loud chat, which didn't feel especially conducive to birding. Can you tell we were done with guides at this point? Anyway, we had a excellent walk both through the woods and along the outer edge, and were shown another Long-tailed Nightjar at a day roost. The best part however was walking though some of the lanes and low-level agricultural areas on the opposite side of the road to the woods. Here we found Fanti Sawwing, Red-necked Falcon, Greater Honeyguide, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, Brown Babbler. more African Thrush, and Northern Black-Flycatcher. 

Violet Turaco

Mourning Collared Dove

Moving on to Tujareng we walked all the way from the final houses down to the ocean, seeing Mottled Spinetail, Double-spurred Spurfowl, Shikra, Blue-cheeked and Little Bee-eaters, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Singing Cisticola, Splendid and Variable Sunbirds, and Yellow-fronted Canary. It was a strange place. There were some occupied dwellings, but also a zoned area where people had built the walls of compounds and nothing more, and the interiors were a maze of vegetation with the odd cow wandering around.

Beautiful Sunbird

Wattled Lapwing

From here we went to our final and best stop of the day, Marakissa. This is a bridge over a river that then expands into a series of shallow loops to the east with easily navigable tracks on both sides. The west side is more of an actual river, and getting close to that part was more challenging, especially when we saw our first Black Heron on that side. This was an excellent location and we were more than happy to stay here until we needed to pack up and get to the airport. Seeing as there was no pressure to find additional species we spent most of the time trying to photograph the Black Herons (there were four in total), and to at least get something on the Black Crakes (five of these!) as they dashed between cover. There were tons of Waders that I couldn't get close to, and lots of Herons that I did slightly better with, and lots of Yellow-billed Shrikes. A stop that I highly recommend for any itinerary. It's about 45 minutes from the airport and thus works well as a final stop.

Black Crake

Black Heron

Hamerkop

Wire-tailed Swallow

Pied Kingfisher

Yellow-billed Shrike

Just after 5pm we returned to the car, packed the cameras away, changed clothes, and headed to the airport. Our goodbyes were less frosty than I had anticipated, and as well as a small tip I gave him my portable battery pack which he had been using more or less constantly since he discovered I had one. It could easily be replaced and he clearly found it genuinely useful, and it would presumably be harder to get one here. He also asked if we also get him a new mobile phone once back in the UK and have it sent out with the next lot of visiting birders but I think that was a step too far. In summary he knew the birds, but he was also rather distracted for about half of the trip and not really interested in delivering a top-quality service nor working very hard. Not our business to ask, and unfortunate if indeed there was something wrong, but at the end of the day we were paying clients - and paying high amounts in local terms - so were disappointed that he became rather lacklustre. 

I don't use guides especially often but the ones I have used have for the most part been excellent, especially in Central and South America, and also on my first South African trip. Not only are they phenomenal birders but they work incredibly hard to get you the birds and make the experience unforgettable. That didn't happen this time. But at the end of the day we come home with 227 species and most of the main targets, so even when things are not perfect you can still see tons. My advice if going to The Gambia is to hire a less experienced guide rather than one of the established names. A bit of a gamble perhaps but they might be enthused and more keen in the interests of getting a good reputation and future business. As it stands I can't wholeheartedly recommend the guide we used but ultimately it was fine and we came away with what we wanted.

Anyway, to the final matter of the airport. It was hell on earth. There is an exit tax to pay, which must be cash (all major currencies accepted!) and there was the most crazy queue in order to ensure that everyone paid it, exacerbated by a seeming complete failure of the IT systems designed to record it. Eventually I made it to a little window where you can pay Dalasi, Euros, Pounds, Dollars, whatever - try and use local currency as the exchange rates are pure fantasy. Behind the grille more senior people counted up huge wads of banknotes and stuffed them into bags, it felt more like the back room of an illicit casino than an international airport, really quite sordid. Eventually I got my little slip of paper that said that sufficient cash had been extracted from me that I could leave the country, and was able to progress through security and to an outside seating area where we had a celebratory drink that we had survived the ordeal. I don't remember the flight home. Tui is basically long haul Ryanair and whilst you have to endure it there is no point dwelling on it.

I'd like to think my cash is headed here

Next up the inevitable trip list.

The Gambia - January 2024 - Day 6 - Kotu Creek and Tanji Beach

We met Yankuba at the appointed time, he is definitely quite punctual. He may have in fact slept in the car rather than going home as he had said he would, which might perhaps explain why we had stopped to offload the Senagalese chair at his house the previous evening, something we wouldn't have needed to do if he had been heading back there after dropping us off. Regardless, he seemed to have recovered which was good news.

There was another problem however - the creek was stuck at low tide and was non-navigable, a recently created sandbar at the beach was preventing water entering the mangroves and filling up the creek. It was either that or the creek had filled up and the water could not empty due to a sandbar but either way, no boat trip. We should have got in the car and gone straight to one of the nearby sites like Brufut Woods, but instead we agreed to bird the local area. 

Red-cheeked Cordonbleu

Splendid Starling

African Golden Oriole

Common Bulbul

Squacco Heron

So, Kotu it was then. To be fair when you look at the creek on a satellite view it is really really short, so perhaps we didn't miss much unless it has good photographic opportunities. I will never know, but I have to say that our birding walk - massive - was a worthy substitute. We were out for over four hours, all the way along the creek and then bia a boardwalk onto the golf course, and then to a reservoir and along what is known as the Casino Cycle Track via a pond for what was actually our largest list in terms of species diversity with 67. We had Black Crake, White-faced Whistling Duck, Caspian Tern, African Sacred Ibis, Northern White-faced Owl and Green Woodhoopoe at a ruined hotel, African Golden Oriole, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, African Grey Woodpecker and three species of Sunbird on the Golf Course and a lot more besides. Despite the huge amount of development which continues at the time of writing, the whole area is simply teeming with birds. The Golf Course was particularly good, with a flowering tree that attracted loads of birds to feed. It was so good that here is a little map.

 Northern White-faced Owl

Senegal Coucal

The whole loop was nearly four miles, and we returned to the hotel just before lunch. Yankuba suggested we take a break, as is normal for birding in the tropics, who wants to bird in the heat of the day when activity is low. We figured we would have a couple of hours off, but no, three and a half. Clearly yesterday's issues remained. At this point, whatever works for him. So Mick and I had a nice chilled out lunch at the hotel for an hour or so and then decided that we would go birding without him. It was hot for sure, but nonetheless we did another three miles around broadly the same area and managed to find a few more species for the list including Crag Martin, Red-chested Swallow and Black-headed Paradise-Flycatcher.

At half three we met Yankuba again and tried the creek - no change. The suggestion of going somewhere in the vehicle was first met with resistance but we persisted, even showing Yankuba where on the map it was and how it couldn't possibly take more than 30 minutes to get to (which of course he knew - I've no idea why he no longer wanted to take us where we wanted to go). Anyway we prevailed, and so off to Tanji Beach we went. This is mentioned in the Gosney Guide as being decent, and we knew that it was a new habitat for the trip it would surely add new birds. In short it was great - there is a fishing community on the beach, with traditional boats landing catches of small bait fish which are then dried on racks on the shore. The area stank to high heaven and there was a grim amount of rubbish, but I guess life comes first around here. As well as the birds I tried to capture the scene.

West African Crested Tern

Grey-hooded Gull

Western Reef Heron

Greenshank

Senegal Coucal

We walked about a mile up the beach and down again, alongside shallow coastal tide-surge lagoons. There were waders on these lagoons, and Egrets, and along the shore were vast numbers of Grey-hooded Gull, along with a few Lesser Black-backeds, Little Tern, Caspian Tern, Sandwich Tern and West African Crested Tern. Some Pink-backed Pelicans flew past with an Osprey and overall it was just another really birdy location. We stayed here until the sun set and then made our way back to Kotu in heavy traffic.