Abyssinian Roller
My last full day of guided birding saw us heading to another area of open woodland at Marakissa. This was, however much degraded and very busy, and the repetition of the same kind of habitat led us to finding only seven new species, a Western Band Snake-Eagle carrying a large snake being the highlight. A short boat trip from the nearby Kingfisher's Lodge, where an African Scops-Owl became the sixth owl species of my trip, provided a bit of variety but, all in all, it felt like a wasted day. I thus decided to add a half-day trip to Kartong wetlands for my final day in The Gambia and it was very nice to do some wetland birding for a change. A group of African Spoonbills flew over as soon as we stepped out of the minibus, a Beaudouin's Snake-Eagle (below) posed nicely, and I saw my only Red-billed Queleas of the trip. Palearctic migrants were very much in evidence too, such as several hunting Marsh Harriers, Whinchat and Woodchat Shrike, which bumped up the list nicely, taking my total tally to 224 species over the week, 144 of which were lifers. I ended up having 4.5 days with my guide at a very reasonable price and can thoroughly recommend him should you want to use his services; http://bestgambianbirdguide.blogspot.co.uk/
Juvenile African Pygmy-Geese
Common Tiger butterfly
