Everything went fine at Gatwick, all of the 11 strong group arrived on time and the Monarch flight went
smoothly. Six hours later we arrived in the Gambia, in bright sunshine, the temperature was around 30C
and as we descended over Banjul the river looked huge and imposing. As soon as we disembarked from the
plane we quickly made our first sightings......distant Hooded Vultures circling over the airfield. But it wasn’t
until an hour later, after we had cleared the airport, that we met our local guide Modou Colley and boarded
our private bus to the hotel, driven by Noah.
The birds came thick and fast and we stopped many times en-route to the district of Kololi. A group of
Piapiacs was found at the roadside whilst many doves (Laughing, Vinaceous & Red-eyed Doves) littered the
telephone wires, we also found 3 different Rollers in the first 10 minutes! Abyssinian, Blue-bellied and
Rufous-crowned Roller were all seen well and in good numbers, Pied Crows were common as were Hooded
Vultures. A couple of Lizard Buzzards sat on the wires waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey and we also
had good views of both Red-billed and African Grey Hornbills. Several other species were seen that included
Beautiful Sunbird, White-billed Buffalo Weaver, Village Weaver, Yellow-billed Black Kite, Double-spurred
Francolin, more Hooded Vultures and lots more doves.
It was another classic ‘Isles of Scilly in October’ Tour with plenty of exciting rare birds to look for, a variety of weather conditions to cope with and the ever-present outstanding beauty and tranquillity of this special pl...
View ReportWe had 15 glorious days of fun, laughter and, of course, some excellent birding. The weather was very kind to us as we had no rain, only very light showers and one late afternoon downpour. There are a whole string of highlights that I co...
View ReportIt was another successful tour of this magical and bird-rich island, we saw all of the 34 endemic species of birds in our total of 248 species. We also saw over 50 species of butterflies, 21 mammals and a dozen or so reptiles. This beaut...
View Report