The Gambia - January 2024 - Day 5 - Janjanbureh back to Kotu Creek

The river at Janjanbureh

Another big day of driving today, doing in a single day what we did over two days with a break at Tendaba on the way out. We nonetheless hoped to see some birds as there were some tasty looking hotspots en route. 

The birding day started at the Baobolong Camp and Guest House, of note were Green-backed Camaroptera and Leaf-Love in the big tree that spans the compound, a large flock of Spur-winged Geese downriver at dawn, and a pair of Bruce's Green-Pigeon seen in the trees opposite whilst having breakfast. These were new for the trip, and given how well they blended into the foliage it was no surprise we hadn't seen them before. 

Baobolong Camp. The trees are full of birds here, and Vultures roost on the transmitter tower.

After packing up we headed to Janjanbureh West End, the opposite side of the island that we were staying on. This is the site of the former Bird Safari Camp, now in a state of considerable ruin. I'm not entirely clear on the story, but from what I have read it seems as if this majority European-owned enterprise was 'taken over' by the minority Gambian co-owner, who with the local authorities in his pocket was able to block any attempt to recover the property despite the obvious fraud that must have taken place. I am not entirely sure what has been gained here given the entire place is now falling to bits and nobody occupies it, so it just seems like a massive loss, especially as we saw 50 species in under two hours. All that hard work and enterprise for naught, and the end of somebody's dream for good measure. Highlights here were Violet Turaco, more Bruce's Green-Pigeon, Green Woodhoopoe, Bearded Barbet, our only Wryneck of the trip, Fine-spotted Woodpecker, Northern Puffback, Oriole Warbler, White-crowned Robin-Chat, and a large mixed flocks of Weavers, Quelea, Firefinch and Waxbill. Some Long-tailed Glossy Starling jumped around the foetid ex-swimming pool.

African Grey Hornbill

Long-tailed Glossy Starling

Yellow-crowned Gonolek

African Green Bee-eater

We were on the road by 10.30am, headed along the south bank, i.e. a route we had not taken before. Our first scheduled stop was not far away, Fulabantang village, and here we found Brown Snake-Eagle and Wahlberg's Eagle whilst looking at the Marabou Stork colony that most birding tours stop for. A little further on at Brikama Ba we stopped at a known Verreaux's Eagle Owl stake-out and found two in the massive trees just outside the village.

Our main planned stop for the day was the Jakhaly Rice Fields, an agriculatural area with a grid system of paddies. What a great site this was, and although many of the fields were dry once we hit upon a few with water it was a bonanza and our species count soared. Black-winged Stilt, Greater Painted-Snipe, Kittlitz's Plover, Blackwit, Common Snipe, Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers, Little Stint, Ruff, Collared Pratincole, Black Crake, Coucals, tons of Cattle Egret and Jacanas. Yankuba didn't feature much here, there were clearly issues he was having to deal with elsewhere, and he spent much of the time on the phone. Thinking about it this was the day when things started to go downhill a bit, and from here on in it was clear that his mind was elsewhere. Unfortunately he didn't have much of a choice, but things did become a bit strained as a result, as he seemed not to really want to go out of his way at this point and we had to really push to get in as much birding as we knew we could. Still, Mick and I had a good time exploring the habitat and trying to advance the list as much as possible.

Dalaba Wetland. Somewhere in here is an African Pygmy Goose

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

By mid-afternoon we had moved on the Dalaba Wetland where our main target was an invisible and then very flightly African Pygmy Goose. Our final stop of the day was Wurokang, a known spot for Abyssinian Ground Hornbill and Temminck's Courser. We didn't get the former, but a long search (by myself, as Yankuba stayed close to the car as a hint that he wanted to get going - a hint I ignored as I really wanted to see the Courser) did find a handful of the latter, and in beautiful evening light I managed a few photos. Finally back at the car we insisted that Mick get to see them as well, so a quick drive across the area ensued, with Yankuba complaining all the way. There were also Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark, a Pied-winged Swallow, Piapiac, a Woodchat Shrike and a Northern Wheatear. Later it turned out that Yankuba did not like driving in the dark which we had not realised, and had wanted to be back at Kotu Creek in daylight and furthermore that we shouldn't have birded Janjanbureh West End in the morning as it caused us to be behind schedule. He also wanted us to pay for a hotel for him that evening so he didn't have to go home. This had not been part of the agreed plan or costs and so we politely refused, our decision being partly swayed by the lack of lunches to this point (especially as he bought himself proper lunches!) and the feeling that we were being short-changed at almost every point. Maybe we should have done as it might have got him back on side and made for an easier final couple of days. 

Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark

Temminck's Courser

Fork-tailed Drongo

Nonetheless we made it to Kotu and our mostly un-used hotel safely, stopping one final time on the way to drop off the chair at Yankuba's house seeing as we were passing anyway - it's quite close to the airport. It was in the dark but not especially late. We agreed to meet again the following morning for our scheduled boat trip up the creek. It had for sure been a really long day and as we were clearly all very tired so we agreed on a later than usual start. We hoped that the next day would see everyone back on form and that some time at home would perk our guide up ready for the final one and a half days.