Hannah Buschert began birding in faculty due to a required Biology of Birds course and a professor who included Sir David Attenborough’s Lifetime of Birds to punctuate classes. Nearly as if accidentally, Hannah landed the dream job of Park Ranger within the Rio Grande Valley at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park the place she guided many birders who stuffed her head with far-off locations and unbelievable birds. Referred to as house to the Oregon Coast to function the household motel, in her free time she leads Tufted Puffin walks and escapes to information at birding festivals and discover the world as typically as potential. Hannah is keen about journey, tourism, and birding and hopes to encourage others by way of her podcasts: Hannah and Erik Go Birding, Girls Birders (Completely satisfied Hour), and Hen Nerd E book Membership.
For myself and my husband, journey is versatile. There are some locations we need to see in our lives, birds we need to get, however we’re additionally pushed to go to locations the place we all know few individuals who have gone. eBird is a big assist with that. Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa are closely eBirded as a result of People commonly go to. So, when looking data, we observed a scarcity of eBird experiences in Senegal and The Gambia. There are some lists there from the few People which have visited and the rogue European birder that has taken to utilizing eBird, however in any other case, it’s pretty beneath eBirded. In accordance with Google, Senegal is about the identical measurement as South Dakota. eBird exhibits that as of this writing, 9479 have submitted 142.2K lists in South Dakota and Senegal has had 757 eBirders submit 12.1K lists. After all, there are components in play, a evident one being itemizing platform desire (eBird vs. BirdTrack, for instance).
With a heat, dry tropical local weather, it’s no shock that Senegal is a well-liked West African vacation spot for European vacationers as it’s a comparatively brief flight to flee winter climate.
To succeed in Kaolack, you’ll doubtless both fly into Dakar or Banjul, Gambia. Kaolack is a few three-hour drive from both start line (nonetheless with the Banjul route you get to take a wild ferry trip and undergo a maze of border verify stations). Driving by way of Senegal, you see dusty village streets with small, clay homes and ladies sitting out entrance promoting watermelons, bananas, or oranges. Sahara mud is heavy and really noticeable because it obscures the dawn and colours the sundown – to not point out fixed mud in your footwear. However one of many actual treasures of Senegal lies close to a city referred to as Kaolack. That is the place you discover a birding phenomenon that makes the annoyances of standard highway checkpoints with both navy officers or native legislation enforcement, whizzing scooters, and bumpy roads definitely worth the effort.
We ended up within the space 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 a neighborhood information from the village with dozens of wide-eyed youngsters shouting “toubab” on the automotive (interprets from Wolof to “white particular person”) and drove off in the direction of the river. I didn’t have an incredible thought of what we had been doing, however I used to be alongside for the trip, so I used to be a bit confused once we first parked, and the river was not in sight. I quickly understood that we had arrived a bit early so we might wander by way of a dusty, shrubby subject to spook up a Savile’s Bustard. Bustards are awkward birds who bounce round within the brush. To me, their silhouette seems like a big shorebird or miniature Ostrich, they’re good-sized birds with skinny necks and legs and enormous heads. Varied species could be present in dry grassland habitats in Africa, Eurasia, and Australia, so it’s enjoyable for a North American to bump into this not frequently-seen-bird. After scouring the terrain for about one-half mile we had been fortunate to have one flush up after which trot awkwardly away whereas donkeys seemed on and brayed in our path. Then off searching for the principle occasion!
The Saloum River floodplain is huge, salty, and muddy, so rain boots are extremely advisable. The native information paddled us throughout the brief, slow-flowing river in a slender canoe after which we sloshed by way of the mud in the direction of the tree-lined oasis throughout this hazard.
Our two native guides didn’t hassle with boots and easily walked barefoot by way of the thick mud which various from a good looking deep indigo colour when you broke the floor to a boot-sucking chocolate mess. As this can be a roost web site, the most effective time to take this journey can also be the most well liked a part of the day and with the issue of slogging by way of the mud with caked boots, I contemplated telling my group to proceed with out me.
Nonetheless, as soon as we reached the tree line, there was a well-worn path into the stake-out which was solely a few hundred toes additional. A lot to my pleasure, it was shaded and a great spot to get better from the warmth.
Because the solar moved in the direction of the west, we started to see our goal birds swarming within the blue – 1000’s of Scissor-tailed Kites. This can be a recognized web site for Scissor-tailed Kites who roost nightly throughout November by way of March. After a day of seeking out lizards, rodents, and bugs, they in a single day in humongous baobab timber alongside this stretch of river. Once we first arrived, they had been flying excessive up however because the solar lowered, so did the swarm. With the bare eye, you might see the silhouette of the birds with their lengthy, forked tail and total white undersides. Placing up binoculars you’ll be able to see the black patagial patch on every wing. All of a sudden, one after one other would swoop down in the direction of the very best branches of the baobab scoping out the scene. Finally, the swooping turned to perching and shortly the timber had been loaded with kites. They’re a good looking fowl of prey capped with grey that goes down their again and a streak of eyeliner making it look extra like a White-tailed Kite whereas perched than a Swallow-tailed Kite.
After the journey to succeed in this vacation spot and with out the noise of fixed visitors, honking horns, and speaking within the background it was simple to think about I used to be within the depths of the wilderness. So, I chuckled to myself when, sitting on the base of a big baobab tree within the wilds of Senegal in 100F afternoon warmth praying for each breath of wind as 1000’s of Scissor-tailed Kites swirl above me anticipating roosting for the evening, I acquired 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 timber or nonetheless hovering above. What an imposing fowl worthy of the wrestle to get to the positioning.
We walked again to the sting of the forest and scanned the river for a couple of minutes and tacked on Better Flamingoes, 70 Lesser Kestrels, and some vultures to the checklist earlier than the trek again over the mudflats to succeed in the canoe. The solar was setting, the air had cooled off, however a salt layer clung within the air as I felt some reduction that I had made it that far with out dying from the warmth. By the point we had made it again to the automotive 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 one other lifer to the day.
Scissor-tailed Kites – whereas not threatened now – are a weak species. Habitat degradation is a big potential menace to the species. And enormous congregations like we noticed, can simply be impacted by localized occasions resembling harm to the roosting web site. Pesticide use can also be a potential menace to the inhabitants. On eBird there are solely 556 data of this species, so that you may suppose they’re fairly uncommon. Nonetheless, that merely exhibits recording bias and a have to develop utilization OR
After having birded in Senegal, listed below are some notes I’d point out to different potential vacationers:
- Warmth. Within the dry season, day-after-day is between 95-100F with clear skies and little humidity.
- French and Wolof are the 2 commonest languages we encountered with English being very rare. We had been greeted with “bonjour, ca va?”
- I like to recommend a information or at the very least a driver. Crossing the border into Senegal is a multi-step course of that’s tremendous sophisticated with no directions. After which driving in Senegal? We had been met with common checkpoints and had been hassled by native authorities.
- 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 {Dollars}, and a collection of bank cards, and never certainly one of these had been accepted. Drinks at motels or at comfort shops needed to be bought with CFA, which we had been unable to order from our native financial institution.
Senegal may not be on the high of your journey checklist, however I believe there’s lots of magnificence within the hard-worked, desolate landscapes, ladies wearing vibrant, lovely clothes, contemporary watermelons, donkey-drawn carts loaded with hay, folks, or watermelons, and the attention-grabbing intersection of what French influences stays from colonization (which was comparatively latest, having solely gained independence in 1960), Islam influences, and Senegalese heritage. To not point out 1000’s of Scissor-tailed Kites!
