Senegal - Birding the Sahel

After indirect flights via Madrid and a night in Dakar, we immediately head north to the Senegal River and the border with Mauritania where we will spend 3 nights. Here the Sahel is semi-desert with limited vegetation, and is the best place to look for sought after species such as Cricket Warbler, Little Grey Woodpecker, Sennar Penduline Tit and the enigmatic Golden Nightjar. We then head to Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary for 2 nights, home to some of the most important wetlands in the Sahel, where enormous numbers of waterbirds can be found including Marbled Duck, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Greater Painted-snipe and Greater Swamp Warbler. This is an unheralded spectacle which few people see, and the sheer volume of birdlife is one of the highlights of the tour. The scrubland here also affords a good chance to see the critically endangered Arabian Bustard and species such as Egyptian Nightjar and Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse. 

We then head south to an area where Quail-plover is a possibility, and then continue south-east to reach the River Gambia for another night. Here we will look for Egyptian Plover, African Finfoot, Red-throated Bee-eater, amongst others, before driving south to a hilly, forested part of the country for the next two nights, close to the Guinea and Mali borders. This change of habitat introduces a wealth of species not seen so far, such as Exclamatory Paradise-Whydah, Fox Kestrel, Narina Trogon and five species of firefinch. We retrace our steps with another night on the River Gambia to break up the journey, and then head to Kaolack for the night where Scissor-tailed Kites and Lesser Kestrels are known to roost in large numbers. Our final destination is the Saloum Delta where a host of other special birds can be found, including the elusive White-crested Tiger-Heron. After a night on the delta, we will head north to Dakar, in time for our overnight flight back to London.