Marrakissa

I slept surprisingly well last night, despite the upset tummy yesterday afternoon and several rather unpleasant dreams overnight.

We are meeting Abdoulie first thing, who will be our birding guide for the morning. He is early, and so are we.

Brikama

Heading for Marrakissa, we drive through Brikama, which is the second largest town in The Gambia, and absolute pandemonium. I try some of my usual drive-by shooting (photographically speaking) as we are stuck in the traffic jam. The following images are photographed through the window glass of the car, so apologies for the somewhat inferior quality.

Waiting for the school bus

Bread delivery

Coffee on the go

Hitching a ride

Heading for the Laundry

Donkey Cart

Likky Bom

The sign on the rear bumper of a bright yellow car puzzles me greatly and I ask Abdoulie what it means. He is as bemused as we are, and to our surprise pulls over the driver to ask him. “It's my nickname” says the mystified kid in charge of the adorned car “nothing more than that”. I do wonder if he realises what sort of connotations the sign has, albeit with a slightly different spelling.

Marakissa

First we stop on a bridge to check out the birdlife along the wetlands area.

Senegal Coucal

Wire Tailed Swallow

Great Egret

Double Spurred Francolin

Cashew fruit with the nut hanging down below

Red Eyed Doves

Squacco Heron

Western Plantain Eater

Purple Glossy Starling

Senegal Parrot

Red Billed Firefinch

Yellow Fronted Tinkerbird, doing its best to hide

Common Bulbul nest building

Yellow Throated Leaflove

Piapiac

Lizard Buzzard

Ants

Abdoulie warns us to be careful when stepping over the marching ants. Too late, David has already been invaded. Lots of jumping, shouting and a few choice words later, he drops his trousers in the middle of the field to get rid of the ants. Thankfully I am too busy laughing to photograph it.

White Faced Whistling Ducks

African Jacana

Fine Spotted Woodpecker

Woodland Kingfisher

African Golden Oriole

White Billed Buffalo Weavers

Long Tailed Glossy Starling

Blue Bellied Roller

Black Faced Quail Finch

We see a number of these little birds fly out of bushes without warning, but trying to photograph them proves extremely difficult.

Eventually Abdoulie takes my camera and goes off stalking them.

After a lot of time and effort, he manages to creep up on one of the quail finches on the ground to grab a quick shot. Good man – I have to say I admire his patience.

Yellow Throated Leaflove

Grey Heron

Village Weaver

Pin Tailed Whydah

What an amazing place this is turning out to be. I shall leave you here now and continue in another blog entry. Ciao.