News and Photos (for sightings see sightings page)

Sharing guide and Transport  January 2007

A birder visiting The Gambia from 12.01.2007 to 26.01.2007 is offering to share guiding and transport costs for a couple of days.  This is his fifth visit and he is staying at the Holiday Beach Club Hotel in Kololi.  Tijan Kanteh will be his guide and provide transport as usual.

He will probably have 4 or 5 full days birding out of the fortnight and whilst he does not claim to be an expert he has a reasonably good knowledge of the country and its birds having experienced areas on thein the coastal area and  up - river.  He is interested in seeing as many species as possible in the time available and would like to to explore areas  new to him such as the Seleti water holes and/or the north bank around Barra or further into Senegal.

If you are interested in pursuing this please contact us at info@gambiabirding.org before 7th January 2006

Birdfair 2006
The Gambia stand at the British Birdwatching Fair was even busier this year.  Despite the indifferent weather (some heavy rain) we were surprised to find that we ran out of brochures by 2.00pm on the Sunday.  We have subsequently heard from the organisers that there were some 17,000 visitors over the weekend and increase on previous years.  There continues to be a strong level of interest in visiting the Gambia and it is always rewarding when people make a point of coming to say that having visited on the basis of our advice and guidance they have loved it and plan to return. 

The Gambia guides football team did well falling eventually to the Wildwings team who did have the advantage of a former professesional player.  The Gambia team fielded a new weapon on the shape of Solomon's son, Lamin, who popped one in the net have lurked inconspicously near the goalpost.
 

Mass Cham
We are very sorry to have to report the death of Mass Cham.  He had been receiving treatment for throat cancer in Senegal but died in hospital there in June.

Based at the Senegambia Hotel, Mass introduced many thousands of tourists to the delights of birdwatching for the first time and we know from comments people make at the birdfair this has often been the starting point for a continued interest back in the UK and elsewhere.

If you would like to contribute to a living memorial to Mass you can send your contribution to The Gambia Birding and Conservation Group (UK), 7 Tithe Barn Street, Horbury, Wakefield, WF4 6LJ. Please mark it 'Mass Cham' so we can ensure it is used for this purpose.   We are in discussions as to the possible  location(s) for tree planting.

There will also be an opportunity to make a contribution at the Bird Fair in August (the GTA stand is in the same marquee (4) as previous years  but on the opposite side of the gangway )

As you can see from the photo below Mass was with us at the birdfair last year  and we know that many people will be shocked and saddened when they call in to see him again and find he has passed away.
 

British Birdwatching Fair 2005

Three rump patterns of Whimbrel N. phaeopus in The Gambia with some information from Clive R Barlow and Chris Kehoe

(for a larger a brighter and better defined photograph email  Clivebarlow@gambianet.gm

Clive Barlow has picked up three dead Whimbrel N. phaeopus and saved them as study skins, two were found dead on the beach near Gunjur S. Gambia after very heavy storms in July 2003 and the other was passed to him by Kev Roy who saw the bird collide with a bus at Kotu in September 2004. The photograph above shows the variation in rump pattern in all three: no.i) has a dark rump, no.ii) has a white rump and no. iii) has a spotted rump. Clive thought that there may be a possibility of the dark rumped bird being of the N. American race N. p. hudsonicus and on the strength of this posted a request for assistance on the African Bird Club discussion group. There are only two West African records of hudsonicus; one from Cape Verde Islands and the other from Sierra Leone. Chris Kehoe of the British Birds Rarity Committee kindly came forward and several e-mails where exchanged. The text of the e-mail from Chris below is where the state of play currently lies. If anyone else wishes to comment further please do to clivebarlow@gambianet.gm ck1965@blueyonder.co.uk and info@Gambiabirding.org  Clive thanksTrevor Key, Kev Roy and Mark Longster for assistance in the field in The Gambia, Derek Greening helped with photography. 

i = the dark rumped bird
ii = the white rumped bird
iii = the spotted rumped bird 

(i)  The Gambia Gunjur Beach WD  13 July 2003
sex ? ad
WC 236 mm tarsus 63 mm wt 750 gm bill 92 mm plumage very worn no fat 

(ii) The Gambia nr Gunjur Beach WD 15 July 2003
sex f. ad tiny ovary
WC 230 mm  WSpan 800 mm L 452 mm
bill 90 mm tarsus 69 mm no fat, no moult
gizzard 20 gm - contains pieces of shore/ghost crab

(iii) The Gambia Kotu Stream WD 29 September 2004
sex ? 1st Calendar Year ?
WC 250 mm skull fully pneu bill 90 mm tarsus 68 mm
gizzard 23 gm - contains pieces of fiddler crab

Chris Kehoe responded

first impressions are:

Some extremely worn and faded (probably retained juvenile) tertials on the bird in question very strongly suggests a 2nd Calendar Year  individual, as do the very worn and faded primaries. My understanding is that all (or almost all) 2CY whimbrel remain in the wintering areas during their first-summer so that age category is highly feasible in your location. This age could be confirmed beyond question by the presence of active wing moult which should have been well underway at the date of death. This interpretation of the age underlies pretty much everything that follows.

I have what I hope is a tempting hypothesis to explain the unquestionably unusual rump/back colour while still remaining within a N. p. phaeopus framework:

Assuming it is a 2CY it is possible that the bird is retaining juvenile rump feathers (or even just 2nd-generation rump feathers of a particularly well marked juvenile type, i.e with rather heavy dark internal marks). Extrapolating from the rump/back pattern of your bird # 1 (I take this to be a well-marked juv.) I'd say that through the combined effects of, say, 8-12 months worth of wear and fading a similar pattern to your mystery bird could actually result: the blackish feather centres would fade to brown; the pale fringes would wear off revealing a greater extent of these dark feather centres. In addition, the remaining pale feather fringes on the rump/ back feathers (esp, near the preen gland, perhaps) may also have been subject to some soiling, easily done through preening by a bird living in a muddy environment with old feathers of low resilience.

I believe the net result of these processes (even just the first two) could lead to bird closely resembling your mystery individual though the rump/back would have to have been at the most strongly marked end of the spectrum at the outset.

I'd like this to be checked in skins (especially the precise patterns of the rump back vs hudsonicus) but it may take some time to get around to it. I hope you agree that it has some merit as a hypothesis anyway. If it does prove to be the correct answer to this riddle then it certainly adds a new dimension to the issue of identifying extralimital 'dark-rumped' races, at least based on relatively brief or flight only views. As the large majority of 2 CY Whimbrel remain in Africa any that do wander north and look like this would be a very unfamiliar sight to European birders and would present an obvious identification pitfall, albeit more for variegatus (one outstanding claim in the UK) than hudsonicus. 

Anyway, fascinating stuff, thanks for drawing this to my attention and for taking the trouble to prepare the pics. Until there is further clarification I'll certainly be recommending that age considerations are given a higher priority in the assesment of claims of 'dark-rumped' Whimbrel taxa in the UK!

Regards Chris

PS. I believe your bird # 2 is also a 2CY but one which has replaced it's rump/back feathers with nice white adult-like ones (probably recently)
 

For West Africaphiles a new publication:

Dodman, T., Barlow, C., Sa, J. & Robertson, P. 2004. Zonas Importantes para as Aves na Guine-Bissau / Important Bird Areas in Guinea-Bissau. Wetlands International, Dakar / Gabinete de Planificacao Costeira / ODZH, Bissau.

Published by: Wetlands International, www.wetlands.org

Available from: NHBS, www.nhbs.co.uk

The current species list stands at 518. The most recent available previous checklist, Catry (2001), gave 447 species, so this list represents a significant increase of 71 species.

Alpine Swift T. melba 
As previously noted here at www.gambiabirding.com and in the current bulletin of The African Bird Club in the 'Recent Reports' section, here is the photographic evidence for the fourth Gambian record for Alpine Swift T. melba - the remains include both wings (wing length 215 mm) both legs and feet. These remains were found under the active nest of F. chiquera Red-necked Falcon east of Basse 26 04 2004. An African Palm Swift C. parvus is laid aside for a comparison of size.'

Clive R Barlow & Kev Roy

Additional information on the photo label indicates the specimen was collected at Sabi, Upper River division on 26.04.2004

The rarity of this bird in the Gambia means it is essential that any visiting birders sighting this species of bustard should report it to all the interested parties listed on the sightings page (click here) 

 Clive Barlow clivebarlow@gambianet.gm