…part 2 of the photos from our recent trip to The Gambia (ahead of a tour there in 2020).
Day 3 – 28th November
We headed slightly further afield today, to the area around Farasuto. We walked in through an area of overgrown fields with scattered trees. A flowering tree held a good selection of sunbirds feeding on nectar. A small reserve has been set up here with drinking pools and pots and we stopped here for a while to watch the variety of birds coming in to drink.
Afterwards, we made our way on to the Farasuto Forest Community Nature Reserve, with the local forest guide taking us on a short diversion on the way there to show us Greyish Eagle Owl and Standard-winged Nightjar. The Forest itself added African Wood Owl and, on the edge of the mangroves beyond the trees, White-backed Night Heron. In the afternoon, we went back to the first place with drinking pools and also explored the neighbouring cultivations here.
Day 4 – 29th November
Today we made our way down to Kartong, an area of old sand mines on the coast in the far south of The Gambia, close to the border with Senegal. The pools here held a good variety of waterbirds, the surrounding open savannah woodland was packed with migrant warblers from Europe and we then made our way through the mangroves and out onto the beach.
In the afternoon, after it had cooled down a little from the heat of the day, we stopped on our way back at Tanji fishing village – a good spot for gulls, terns and waders. We finished with a walk through Tanji bird reserve, an area of open bushes and scrub behind the coast.
Having enjoyed a very productive few days on the coast, it would be time to start heading inland and upriver tomorrow.
