Nigel Blake

Gambia, West Africa, 12^th December 2002

More Kotu area birds

Little Bee-eater again posed for pictures, they are such beautiful birds that it would be very easy to spend all day photographing them, which we did. The tide was out leaving lots of uncovered mud around the edge of the creek, many birds were, with patience, very approachable so Adrian and I spent much time working the species on show, again we did not cover the area as well as intended but as the intention was to get good images rather than a huge list it was worthwhile staying where we had a nice selection of species to point the cameras at.

Little Bee-eater Merops pusillus

It always puzzles me that birds that we have here in the U.K. seem to be more confiding when seen abroad, it was very easy to walk up to birds such as Whimbrel, Grey Plover (below) and Sandpipers.

Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus

Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola

The Mangroves at the edges of the creek were home to this Striated Heron, it was quite unconcerned by people playing one of the Golf course holes only yards away. We worked around the Golf course, this is a great birding site and many species were added to the list here particularly Raptors, Shikra, Lizard Buzzard, Grasshopper Buzzard, Harrier-Hawk and Vultures were all numerous, plus there were Francolins, Piapiac, Woodpeckers and lots of vividly metallic coloured Starlings, many of these were photographed, but we got better images later in the week so they are yet to come on the following pages.