Senegal and the Gambia January 2026 - Part 4 - 25th - 29th Podor to St Louis, back to Kaolack and back in The Gambia.

 Sunday 25th. Having left Lampsar Lodge at 9.00 we traveled up the N2 towards Richard Toll after about an hour we stopped in the town and ordered our lunch. It was decided that we would prefer to have baguettes that we could take with us rather than spend time in a restaurant.  Our orders were given and we journeyed to a grassy area just off the main road that was also used as a rubbish dump. The highlight here was a flock of around 100 Stone Curlews.

Stone Curlews

Hoping for a Cricket Warbler but it wasn't to be be we did see a Blue-naped Mousebird, Senegal Eremomela plus Little Bee-eater, Woodchat Shrike and a Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin.

Blue-naped Mousebird

Senegal Eremomela

We returned to town and collected our baguettes, that were filled cold chips and the wrong fillings.

Richard Toll

Our lunch stop was near Fanaye Dieri on the N2, and the highlights here were 

African Little Green Bee-eater

Little Weaver

We arrived in Podor at La Cour de Fleuve hotel around 3.00 pm, everyone was given the keys to their rooms except me when I was told I'm staying in the hotel down the street named Auberge Du Tekrour as this hotel is full. It turned out to be ok as I had wifi and the others didn't. The room however was dark and tired but so was I and I didn't have much choice.

Auberge Du Tekrour

Hotel Courtyard

My room, at least it had a mosquito net

View from the balcony overlooking The Senegal River,
 with the ferry to Mauritania in the background. 

We met up at 5.00 pm and went the short journey to the Diator track where we met a local guide who took us across several dusty ploughed fields to where a Golden Nightjar was roosting under a bush.

Golden Nightjar

I was feeling extremely relieved as it was for this bird it was the main reason to come to Senegal, we watched it not move other than a blink of an eye for around 20 minutes and left it in peace.

Our local guide with a couple of hangers on! 

We returned to the bus where there was an area of wetland and spent the rest of the daylight hours there. The highlights being a Painted Snipe

Painted Snipe

Also seen were European Turtle Doves, Little-ringed Plovers, Wood Sandpiper, Collared Pratincoles, Black and Squacco Herons and a flock of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters.

Monday 26th, The same routine with breakfast at 7 and we left at 9 and went to Mourkadie and found a donkey carrying 3 Yellow-billed Oxpeckers.

Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Other birds included

African Collared Dove

Little Grey Woodpecker (female)

Laughing Dove

Grey-headed Sparrow

Young African Grey Woodpecker in a nest hole

Our next stop was at Gamadji Sare where the River Doue (a tributary of The Senegal River) is, finding 

African Silverbills

 

Hammerkop

Cricket Warber (Longtail)

Egyptian Plover

Also seen were numerous Little and Horus Swifts that nest in the river banks

 

Wash day at The River Doue

Rubbish bird watching!

River Doue

We returned to the hotel for our pre-ordered lunch of baguettes which were good, and then at 4.30 pm we returned to the wetland on the Diatar Track where Chris found a Great Grey Shrike

Great Grey Shrike

Also seen were around 50 Turtle Doves, 20 Collared Pratincoles, 2 Green Sandpipers a Beaudouin's Snake Eagle and a Black Scrub Robin.

After dinner Clare arranged a game of Boules and challenged the locals.

Tuesday 27th, this morning we started our journey back heading south west towards St Louis. After a couple of hours we stopped at a site near Keur Mbaye which Paul had seen from reports on E-bird. Our target here was Sennar Penduline Tit and within minutes Ebrima heard one calling, in fact we ended up seeing possibly 4.

Sennar Penduline Tit

We also had excellent views of a male Little Grey Woodpecker, a flock of Green Wood-hoopoes and some Sudan Golden Sparrows.

Little Grey Woodpecker (male)

 

Green Wood-hoopoes

Sudan Golden Sparrow with Common Bulbuls

We arrived at our St Louis accommodation Ranche de Bango a very comfortable hotel with excellent food at lunch time and ate our packed lunches around the pool.

Rooms

After a swim, we had a walk around the hotel grounds which included a lake. Highlights included a Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Green-backed Cameroptera, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, White-faced and Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Blackk Crake, Common, Green, and Wood Sandpipers, Gull-billed and Caspian Terns a Sacred Ibis and Malachite Kingfisher.

Yellow-crowned Gonolek

Fulvous Whistling Ducks

Malachite Kingfisher

A short walk around the neighbouring streets found a Village Indigo Bird and a Sudan Golden Sparrow with some non breeding plumaged Northern Red Bishops.

Village Indigo Bird

Sudan Golden Sparrow with Northern Red Bishops

The evening was spent enjoying a lovely meal and probably too many drinks afterwards.

Wednesday 28th. Today we started the longest part of our journey back, but first had a whistle stop tour of the colonial centre of St Louis. We made a couple of stops on our journey back to Kaolack the first being where there were 3 Griffon Vultures perched close to the road.

Griffon Vultures

Lappet-faced Vulture

Ruppell's Vulture

Eurasian Griffon and Ruppell's Griffon Vulture

Our journey took us back through the busy towns of Louga and Touba.

Transport in Touba

Our lunch stop was back at Typ where in the intense heat some of us again looked for Quail Plover possibly seeing one in flight and several Button Quails. Also seen was a Savile's Bustard, Black-headed Lapwing, Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark and Singing Bushlarks, 

We arrived back at Le Relais De Kaolack around 5.30 pm. We checked in quite promptly this time however I went for a shower and had no hot water and very little cold so asked for a change of room. It took about an hour for the maintenance man to check and then give me another room. So I dipped on the shower and had a swim in the pool. Dinner was at 8 with once again a choice of Beef Chicken of Fish.

My final room

Thursday 29th, this morning we managed to persuade Ebrima to try a different site for Quail Plover as on E-Bird there had been sightings not far from the hotel. We walked through some scrubby farm land and it wasn't long before I saw something scurrying away from a yard away. Jo managed a photo and Paul confirmed it was a Quail Plover the group managed to track it or another down and Paul managed to get the scope on it. Frustratingly I could only see it through the scope and couldn't find it with the camera. Fortunately Simon managed to get a few shots of this highly sort after bird.

Quail Plover by Simon

Other highlights were a Savile's Bustard in flight, a couple of Small Buttonquail, flocks of African Grey Hornbills and Piapiac. From here traveled to the border the Senegal departure quick and computerised, but entry back into the Gambia was hand written and took a bit longer. We continued on to Barra where we had our packed lunches while waiting for the ferry and some bought fresh coconut to drink.

We didn't have to wait too long to bord the ferry to Banjul, we were kept amused by people being carried off the small passenger only ferry.

During the 45 minute crossing we saw similar birds to that when we headed to Barra. We made a short stop at the Bund Road on the outskirts of Banjul seeing Black-winged Stilts, Marsh Sandpipers, Ruff and a Curlew Sandpiper. We arrived back at the Lemon Creek Hotel mid afternoon and checked into our rooms. Again I didn't have hot water, but with sorting people's currency back to Gambian Dalasis and then with Clare trying to sort out our dinner arrangements I couldn't be bothered to change room.

We decided to eat at Roots Restaurant along the beach but we had to be there by 6pm, fortunately I managed to find everyone in time for us to get there and we had a pleasant meal and afew drinks as the sunset over the Gambian Atlantic.

Sunset at Roots