A number of the large hotels in The Gambia have extensive gardens that are great for birders to see many of the common birds found in the country. The Senegambia in particular is where many birders stay and they can often be encountered around the gardens and are easily identified by their binoculars and long lenses. After our flight down to The Gambia we spent our first day doing some relaxing birding and we started at the Senegambia, which we knew well from our previous trip to the country in 2013 (https://johnandmaggiephotography.org/the-gambia-february-2013/).
At the Senegambia we saw quite a few of the species that had been around on our visit in 2013, many in exactly the same parts of the gardens. There we saw the Snowy-crowned Robin-chat, African Grey Woodpecker, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Brown Babbler, Cattle Egret, Blue-bellied Roller, Western Plantain-eater and Northern Red-billed Hornbill. Flying over were the ubiquitous Black Kites, along with African Palm-swift and Hooded Vultures. The vultures gather each morning ahead of a feeding session led by the resident bird guide.
After lunch we moved to the nearby Kairaba Hotel to see if there were some different birds next door. We had stayed there in 2013, however, we were shocked by the poor state of a number of the buildings and the general neglected gardens. We talked to some of the staff who were around and they told us that the hotel was being sold and that only 20 rooms were available for guests. Although most of the gardens had not been maintained, ironically this was quite good for the wildlife, with the birds enjoying the leaf cover on the ground and the lack of people walking around. In the couple of hours we were around we saw a good number of birds, with the highlights being a Senegal Coucal, Purple Starling, Yellow-billed Shrike and African Thrush.
A few days later we made a second visit to the Kairaba to try and get a few more species that we knew to be often around the gardens. On this occasion it was a lot sunnier and hotter and this did affect the number of birds around. However, we did see one of our major target birds, which was the Bearded Barbet. We saw a family group in the same tree used by the Bearded Barbets 11 years ago, which was amazing.
At the Ngala Lodge there weren’t as many birds as at the Senegambia or Kairaba, but it was still worth birding around the gardens in the early morning or late afternoon. On the day we arrived we did an evening circuit of the grounds and saw some of the common birds of the area, including Laughing Dove, Vinaceous Dove, Speckled Pigeon and Piapiac.
On days when we weren’t with a guide we spent time in the denser wooded area in front of the main hotel building and saw Northern Red-billed Hornbill, Western Plantain-eater, Common Bulbul, Snowy-crowned Robin-chat, the ever-present Black Kites and the male and female Beautiful Sunbird.
