Tuesday normal breakfast time, collected my packed lunch and we set off around 8.15 picking up Ebrimah in Serekunda, the traffic was very slow moving all the way to Brikama where we stopped to let Babacah and Ebrimah get their breakfast and lunch. Shortly after we turned off the main road down a rough track into Farasuto Forest where me a local guide who took us around showing the roosting specialities. Firstly this Greyish Eagle Owl.
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| Greyish Eagle Owl |
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| Greyish Eagle Owl |
and then this Standard-winged Nightjar
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| Standard-winged Nightjar |
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Standard-winged Nightjar
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A walk around the forest ending up at a drinks bar with some water pots we found many birds including
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| Sulphur-breasted Bush Shrike |
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| Sulphur-breasted Bush Shrike |
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| Yellow-crowned Gonolek |
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| Yellow-crowned Gonolek |
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| Brown Babler |
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| Klaas's Cuckoo |
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| Black-rumped Waxbills, Male Cordon Bleu, Grey Woodpecker |
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| Common Wattle-eye |
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| Common Wattle-eye |
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| Fine-spotted Woodpecker |
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| Fine-spotted Woodpecker |
At the edge of the forest were some disused Gravel Pits which held several Crocodiles
A short drive back along the track onto the main road for 5 minutes we then turned off onto another track into Bonto forest where we met more local guides, and had our lunch break which seemed to go on forever despite sitting at some water pots very little came to drink. After a good 2 hours one of the locals Edrissa took us into the forest to show us his speciality a roosting Verreaux's Eagle Owl.
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| Verreaux's Eagle Owl |
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| Verreaux's Eagle Owl |
Also seen in the forest was this stunning African Pied Hornbill
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| African Pied Hornbill |
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| African Pied Hornbill |
Back on the main track we looked over into a fenced field of scrub where I noticed something moving showing Ebrimah he exclaimed Wow that's a Bronze-winged Courser, Edrissa said he had never seen one before. Apparently its a species highly sort after and rarely seen and that's "up river"
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| Bronze-winged Courser |
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| Bronze-winged Courser |
I was now expecting to go to the Faraba Banta Bush track to look for raptors but time had ran out due to their long lunch break!! Finally a Red-necked Falcon posed as we set off back to Farakuku.
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Red-necked Falcon.
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New species added to my list today were:- Black-crowned Night Heron, Red-necked Falcon, Bronze-winged Courser, Klass's Cuckoo, Greyish Eagle Owl, Verreaux's Eagle Owl, Standard-winged Nightjar, Cardinal Woodpecker, Common Bulbul, African Paradise Flycatcher, Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher, Common Wattle-eye, Sulphue Breasted Bushshrike, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Black-rumped Waxbill, Village Indigo Bird.
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