The Birdfinders group enjoyed another highly successful tour 14-28 November 2003. Although the total numbers of species at 307 (average about 320) was down on previous years due to a distinct lack of Palearctic migrants, the quality was definitely there. It is always difficult to pick highlights especially as they are so many and varied in this wonderful, friendly country but, I will try, in species order: 

The often elusive White-backed Night-heron was particularly co-operative this year whilst African Pygmy-geese were found at a new site. Raptors were very obliging with fantastic views of 2 White-headed Vultures, a rare sight in Gambia these days, alongside White-backed and Ruppell's.  Bateleurs were especially common with no less than 10 birds seen on one day. In a veritable feast of eagles, Tawny & Wahlberg's Eagles were seen soaring together for a unique comparison, Beaudouin's, Brown & Western Banded made the hat-trick of snake-eagles, African Hawk-eagle and Long-crested Eagle were both seen on multiple occasions and best of all, we had 3 sightings of the mighty Martial Eagle. A melanistic Montagu's Harrier was found at Kau-ur alongside a Pallid Harrier and a single White-crowed Lapwing lingered from the rainy season together with good numbers of Egyptian Plovers. 

African Hobby, Lanner and Red-necked Falcon were all seen perched and in flight. Black Crowned-cranes are now more difficult with access to Pirang more limited so we were pleased to find them at a new site. A Temminck's Courser's nest (two eggs) was found on the north bank whilst watching an Abyssinian Ground-hornbill and Spotted Thick-knees were seen on no less than 3 days including 3 seen in daylight.  Audouin's & Kelp Gulls were seen at both Tanji and Banjul whilst a Baltic Gull was extremely unusual in Banjul. 7 Brown-necked Parrots were seen at a new site near Pirang and once again, cuckoos were well represented with Levaillant's, Klaas' and Diederik being normal but Great Spotted Cuckoo definitely unusual. As usual, we recorded good numbers of owls with African Scops-owl, White-faced Owl, Verreaux's Eagle-owl and Pearl-spotted Owlet all seen in daylight. On a night drive, two species of nightjar were seen, female Long-tailed and Standard-winged but the highlight for many was a full breeding-plumage male complete with standards watched from 6 feet!

Colour was definitely the order of the trip with every species of bee-eater on the Gambia list seen but as usual, Northern Carmine Bee-eaters stole the show with 9 seen at Basse. With the exception of Shining Blue, all the species of kingfisher were also seen including multiple views of the often difficult Grey-headed Kingfisher together with all of the rollers. Black Woodhoopoe is never easy to find but we have seen it for a number of years whilst this year we managed to find the extremely rare Spotted Honeyguide in a rare achievement of all 3 species on the Gambia list seen on a single tour! 

It was a good year for woodpeckers with both the often-difficult Cardinal and Brown Woodpeckers seen well together with the normal Grey and Fine-spotted. The normal site for Yellow-throated Longclaw had been damaged by an oil-spill but we found one elsewhere together with another very difficult specie,s Yellow-mantled Widowbird, and breeding plumage Yellow-crowned Bishops. Grey-headed Bristlebill gave amazing views in Abuko alongside Green Hylia and Yellow-breasted Apalis and many Collared Sunbirds. 

From the gaudy to the hard-to-identify and cryptically coloured; 6 species of cisticola included Singing, Whistling, Winding, Siffling, Rufous and Zitting whilst both Northern Anteater-chat and White-fronted Chat were seen displaying at breeding sites. We did extremely well for shrikes and their allies with Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrike, Grey-headed & Sulphur-bellied Bush-shrikes, Brubru, Senegal Batis, White Helmet-shrike, Northern Puffback, Black-crowned Tchagra and Yellow-billed Shrike. Yellow-bellied Hyliota, African Yellow White-eye, White-shouldered Black-tit and Yellow Penduline-tit can all be difficult but, we found them all including the nest of a penduline-tit.  Copper, Mouse-brown and Pygmy Sunbirds were seen in addition to the commoner species of sunbird and all of the weavers were seen in breeding plumage; Black-necked, Little, Village and Yellow-backed Weavers and Heuglin's & Vitelline Masked-weavers. Western Bluebill was nest-building in Abuko whilst this year, both male Brown-rumped and Cinnamon-breasted Buntings were seen. Good looks at male paradise-whydahs on the north and south banks of the river showed slight differences in tails shapes indicative of Northern and Long-tailed Paradise-whydahs respectively.

Birdfinders has the perfect itinerary for this tour, seven nights at the coast followed by four nights up-river and the final three nights at the coast. This ensures that you have enough time to see all of the specialities up-river but still have the opportunity to catch up with any species you may have missed earlier at the coast. Some tour companies try to cram this all into a week, spending just one night up-river but, this is far too short a time to enjoy all of the special birds. Birdfinders will be offering exactly the same superb-value tour again 12-26 November 2004, don't miss out as it always fills quickly and an additional departure 2-16 January 2004 has already filled. 

Vaughan Ashby
Birdfinders.
(Birdfinders@compuserve.com Web-site:www.Birdfinders.co.uk)