Tumani Tenda Sightings 27/28/02/2003

Excellent birding with Sanna Manneh , one of the local people trained by Makasutu Wildlife Trust.  The camp offers several different activities, another couple recommended the creek trip for kingfishers and herons.  Our birding started at 16.45 and finished as dusk fell at about 18.30. We walked through the cultivated area on the edge of the mangroves of the Kafuta Bolon and then through footpaths in the Kachokorr Community Forest.  The charge was D 50 per person.  .
 

Long-tailed Cormorant (Phalacrocorax africanus) Western Reef-egret (Egretta (garzetta) gularis)  Great White Egret (Egretta alba)  Stone Partridge (Ptilopachus petrosus)  Senegal Thick-knee (Burhinus senegalensis)  Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus)  Black-headed Lapwing (Vanellus tectus) Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus) Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola} Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata)  Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)  Mourning Collared-dove (Streptopelia decipiens)  Red-eyed Dove (Streptopelia semitorquata) Senegal Parrot (Poicephalus senegalus)  African Palm-swift (Cypsiurus parvus)

Blue-bellied Roller (Coracias cyanogaster) Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus)  African Grey Hornbill (Tockus nasutus)  Fine-spotted Woodpecker (Campethera (nubica) punctuligera)  Grey Woodpecker (Dendropicos goertae)  Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) African Golden Oriole (Oriolus auratus) * Grey-headed Bushshrike (Malaconotus blanchoti)  Piapiac (Ptilostomus afer)  Pied Crow (Corvus albus)  Grey-headed Sparrow (Passer griseus)  Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus)  Red-billed Firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala)  Red-cheeked Cordonbleu (Uraeginthus bengalus)

*We were treated to an interesting display, presumably territorial, by a male African Golden Oriole when another male landed in the same tree.  The incombant proceeded to fly aropund a bare area of the canopy rather like a moth whilst making its dry hissy kiaarr call.

Things got even better in the morning, when we were not really birdwatching, just having breakfast.  A loud squawking announced the arrival of a party of Brown-necked Parrots.  We had been told they flew through in the evening and the morning but on this occasion they were feeding on the trees around the camp.  As we sat in the open sided dining area having our breakfast a Snowy-crowned Robin Chat perched on a nearby branch.  As I was photographing him I noticed that just above him sat a a Blue-breasted Kingfisher.  The early morning activity also included a bunch of noisy Long-tailed Glossy Startlings and a group of Piapiacs including several juveniles with their red beaks. 

Neil & Jill Thomas