Hannah Buschert began birding in faculty because of a required Biology of Birds direction and a professor who integrated Sir David Attenborough’s Lifetime of Birds to punctuate courses. Nearly as though by chance, Hannah landed the dream task of Park Ranger within the Rio Grande Valley at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park the place she guided many birders who crammed her head with far away locations and fantastic birds. Known as house to the Oregon Coast to function the circle of relatives motel, in her unfastened time she leads Tufted Puffin walks and escapes to lead at birding fairs and discover the sector as frequently as imaginable. Hannah is enthusiastic about go back and forth, tourism, and birding and hopes to encourage others thru her podcasts: Hannah and Erik Pass Birding, Ladies Birders (Satisfied Hour), and Chook Nerd Ebook Membership.
For myself and my husband, go back and forth is versatile. There are some puts we need to see in our lives, birds we need to get, however we also are pushed to talk over with puts the place we all know few individuals who have long gone. eBird is a large lend a hand with that. Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa are closely eBirded as a result of American citizens often talk over with. So, when looking data, we spotted a loss of eBird reviews in Senegal and The Gambia. There are some lists there from the few American citizens that experience visited and the rogue Ecu birder that has taken to the use of eBird, however differently, it’s moderately underneath eBirded. In step with Google, Senegal is set the similar dimension as South Dakota. eBird presentations that as of this writing, 9479 have submitted 142.2K lists in South Dakota and Senegal has had 757 eBirders put up 12.1K lists. After all, there are elements in play, a evident one being record platform choice (eBird vs. BirdTrack, for instance).
With a heat, dry tropical local weather, it isn’t surprising that Senegal is a well-liked West African vacation spot for Ecu vacationers as this can be a quite brief flight to flee iciness climate.
To achieve Kaolack, you’re going to most likely both fly into Dakar or Banjul, Gambia. Kaolack is set a three-hour pressure from both place to begin (on the other hand with the Banjul path you get to take a wild ferry experience and undergo a maze of border test stations). Riding thru Senegal, you notice dusty village streets with small, clay properties and ladies sitting out entrance promoting watermelons, bananas, or oranges. Sahara mud is heavy and really noticeable because it obscures the first light and hues the sundown – to not point out consistent mud for your footwear. However one of the most actual treasures of Senegal lies close to a the city known as Kaolack. That is the place you discover a birding phenomenon that makes the annoyances of standard highway checkpoints with both army officials or native legislation enforcement, whizzing scooters, and bumpy roads well worth the effort.
We ended up within the house simply south of Kaolack at round 4:00 pm the place we headed off the freeway right into a small village alongside the Saloum River. There, we picked up an area information from the village with dozens of wide-eyed children shouting “toubab” on the automobile (interprets from Wolof to “white particular person”) and drove off against the river. I didn’t have an ideal concept of what we had been doing, however I used to be alongside for the experience, so I used to be a little puzzled once we first parked, and the river was once now not in sight. I quickly understood that we had arrived a little early so shall we wander thru a dusty, shrubby box to spook up a Savile’s Bustard. Bustards are awkward birds who jump round within the brush. To me, their silhouette looks as if a big shorebird or miniature Ostrich, they’re good-sized birds with skinny necks and legs and big heads. More than a few species can also be present in dry grassland habitats in Africa, Eurasia, and Australia, so it’s a laugh for a North American to bump into this now not frequently-seen-bird. After scouring the terrain for approximately one-half mile we had been fortunate to have one flush up after which trot awkwardly away whilst donkeys seemed on and brayed in our path. Then off searching for the principle match!
The Saloum River floodplain is extensive, salty, and muddy, so rain boots are extremely beneficial. The native information paddled us around the brief, slow-flowing river in a slender canoe after which we sloshed in the course of the dust against the tree-lined oasis throughout this danger.
Our two native guides didn’t hassle with boots and easily walked barefoot in the course of the thick dust which numerous from a gorgeous deep indigo colour when you broke the outside to a boot-sucking chocolate mess. As this can be a roost website, the most productive time to take this adventure may be the most up to date a part of the day and with the trouble of slogging in the course of the dust with caked boots, I pondered telling my workforce to proceed with out me.
Alternatively, when we reached the tree line, there was once a well-worn trail into the stake-out which was once handiest a few hundred ft additional. A lot to my excitement, it was once shaded and a great place to recuperate from the warmth.
Because the solar moved against the west, we started to peer our goal birds swarming within the blue – 1000’s of Scissor-tailed Kites. It is a recognized website for Scissor-tailed Kites who roost nightly all the way through November thru March. After an afternoon of looking for lizards, rodents, and insects, they in a single day in humongous baobab bushes alongside this stretch of river. After we first arrived, they had been flying prime up however because the solar decreased, so did the swarm. With the bare eye, it is advisable see the silhouette of the birds with their lengthy, forked tail and general white undersides. Placing up binoculars you’ll be able to see the black patagial patch on every wing. Abruptly, one after some other would swoop down against the best possible branches of the baobab scoping out the scene. Ultimately, the swooping became to perching and shortly the bushes had been loaded with kites. They’re a gorgeous chook of prey capped with grey that is going down their again and a streak of eyeliner making it glance extra like a White-tailed Kite whilst perched than a Swallow-tailed Kite.
After the adventure to achieve this vacation spot and with out the noise of continuing site visitors, honking horns, and speaking within the background it was once simple to consider I used to be within the depths of the barren region. So, I chuckled to myself when, sitting on the base of a giant baobab tree within the wilds of Senegal in 100F afternoon warmth praying for each and every breath of wind as 1000’s of Scissor-tailed Kites swirl above me expecting roosting for the evening, I were given the ding of a Costco advert on my telephone. An hour into the spectacle, we had counted 2500 Scissor-tailed Kites who had been perched within the bushes or nonetheless hovering above. What an imposing chook worthy of the combat to get to the website.
We walked again to the brink of the wooded area and scanned the river for a couple of mins and tacked on Higher Flamingoes, 70 Lesser Kestrels, and a couple of vultures to the checklist earlier than the trek again over the mudflats to achieve the canoe. The solar was once environment, the air had cooled off, however a salt layer clung within the air as I felt some aid that I had made it that a ways with out demise from the warmth. By the point we had made it again to the automobile and had been heading again to drop off our information within the village, a Lengthy-tailed Nightjar flew in entrance of the headlights and aided us in including some other lifer to the day.
Scissor-tailed Kites – whilst now not threatened now – are a susceptible species. Habitat degradation is a large imaginable risk to the species. And massive congregations like we noticed, can simply be impacted by means of localized occasions equivalent to harm to the roosting website. Pesticide use may be a imaginable risk to the inhabitants. On eBird there are handiest 556 data of this species, so you could assume they’re slightly uncommon. Alternatively, that merely presentations recording bias and a wish to increase utilization OR
After having birded in Senegal, listed below are some notes I’d point out to different doable vacationers:
- Warmth. Within the dry season, each day is between 95-100F with transparent skies and little humidity.
- French and Wolof are the 2 maximum commonplace languages we encountered with English being very rare. We had been greeted with “bonjour, ca va?”
- I like to recommend a information or a minimum of a driving force. Crossing the border into Senegal is a multi-step procedure this is tremendous difficult with out a directions. After which riding in Senegal? We had been met with common checkpoints and had been hassled by means of native government.
- You higher have CFA (West African Francs). We spent a few week in Senegal, and we had traveled there loaded with British Kilos, Gambian Dalasi, and United States Bucks, and a set of bank cards, and now not this type of had been approved. Beverages at accommodations or at comfort shops needed to be bought with CFA, which we had been not able to reserve from our native financial institution.
Senegal is probably not on the best of your go back and forth checklist, however I believe there may be a large number of good looks within the hard-worked, desolate landscapes, girls wearing vivid, stunning clothes, contemporary watermelons, donkey-drawn carts loaded with hay, other people, or watermelons, and the fascinating intersection of what French influences stays from colonization (which was once quite fresh, having handiest received independence in 1960), Islam influences, and Senegalese heritage. To not point out 1000’s of Scissor-tailed Kites!
