Mali or Kulikoro Firefinch is a very restricted-range West African endemic that is only accessible in Senegal (Mark Beaman) SENEGAL 11/24 – 27 FEBRUARY 2017 TOUR REPORT LEADER: MARK BEAMAN Our first ever ‘Senegal-only’ tour (all our previous visits to Senegal were combined either with Gambia or the Cape Verde Islands) followed on from my successful exploratory work in 2016 and early 2017, and what a great tour it turned out to be! We turned up an absolutely stunning variety of Sahel or other regional specialities among the 352 bird species recorded, including Scissor-tailed Kite, Beaudouin’s Snake Eagle, Savile’s Bustard, Black Crowned Crane, Four-banded Sandgrouse, Bruce’s Green Pigeon, African Collared Dove, Adamawa Turtle Dove, Guinea and Violet Turacos, Western Grey Plantain-eater, the fabulous Golden Nightjar, Blue-bellied Roller, Western Red-billed Hornbill, Vieillot’s and Bearded Barbets, Fine-spotted and Little Grey Woodpeckers, Senegal Parrot, Senegal Batis, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Piapiac, Sennar Penduline Tit, Sun Lark, Dorst’s Cisticola, River Prinia, Cricket and Oriole Warblers, White-crowned Robin-Chat, Long- tailed Glossy, Chestnut-bellied and Neumann’s Starlings, Pygmy Sunbird, Sudan Golden Sparrow, Mali and 1 Birdquest Tour Report: Senegal 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com The tiny Little Grey Woodpecker is restricted to the Sahel (Mark Beaman) Black-bellied Firefinches, Lavender Waxbill, Sahel Paradise Whydah, White-rumped Seedeater and Gosling’s Bunting. In addition we also found such great birds of more widespread distribution as the lovely White- backed Night Heron, Grasshopper Buzzard, Fox Kestrel, African Finfoot, the huge Arabian Bustard, the superb Egyptian Plover, the marmalade Pel’s Fishing Owl, Standard-winged Nightjar and Narina’s Trogon. Although the tour was to turn out to be a huge success, it started with a whimper rather than a bang when the Brussels Airlines flight into Dakar ended up being several hours late! Eventually I sent one vehicle ahead to the hotel in Thies with those who had arrived earlier, while I waited for the rest of the group. Next morning we headed off for Podor in the far north of Senegal, travelling via St Louis (the former joint capital of French Senegal and Mauritania and Richard Toll. The journey turned up more vultures than anywhere else on the tour, including Hooded, White-backed, Rüppell’s, Griffon and Lappet-faced Vultures. Our first specialities of the Sahel or West Africa more generally included Abyssinian Roller, Western Red-billed Hornbill, Senegal Parrot, Piapiac, River Prinia, Long-tailed Glossy and Chestnut-bellied Starlings, and Sudan Golden Sparrow (the first of many large flocks in the north). Among the many other species seen were Black Stork, Western Cattle and Great Egrets, Grey and Western Reef Herons, Great White Pelican, Western Osprey, Yellow-billed Kite, Senegal Thick-knee, Spur-winged Lapwing, Green Sandpiper, Slender-billed, Black-headed and Grey-headed Gulls, Gull-billed, Sandwich and Whiskered Terns, Speckled Pigeon, Mourning Collared Dove, Vinaceous, Laughing and Namaqua Doves, Black-billed Wood Dove, Pied Crow, Greater Blue-eared Starling, Anteater Chat, White-billed Buffalo Weaver, Red-billed Quelea (another species that was to be all too numerous in the north). Most of our stops were around the town of Richard Toll, close to the border with Mauritania. Here we covered some small wetland areas, but more importantly arid open country with scrub and some mature acacia 2 Birdquest Tour Report: Senegal 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com The dainty little Sennar Penduline Tit, another Sahelian speciality (Mark Beaman) woodland. The Richard Toll area produced a superb selection of specialities, including Blue-naped Mousebird, Vieillot’s Barbet, two pairs of Little Grey Woodpeckers, Yellow-crowned Gonolek, six Sennar Penduline Tits, Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Yellow-bellied and Senegal Eremomelas, Pygmy Sunbird, Further additions to the list around Richard Toll included Squacco and Purple Herons, Reed Cormorant, Western Marsh Harrier, Black Kite, African Swamphen, Black-winged Stilt, Black-headed Lapwing, African Jacana, Temminck’s Courser, Caspian Tern, Senegal Coucal, African Palm Swift, Striped Kingfisher, Green Bee-eater, Eurasian Hoopoe, Green Wood Hoopoe, African Grey Woodpecker, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Black- crowned Tchagra, Brubru, Southern Grey and Woodchat Shrikes, Fork-tailed Drongo, Crested Lark, Common Bulbul, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, Northern Crombec, Common Chiffchaff, Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Western Olivaceous Warbler, Western Orphean Warbler, Western Subalpine Warbler, Common Redstart, Northern Wheatear, Beautiful Sunbird, Northern Grey-headed Sparrow, Speckle-fronted, Vitelline Masked, Village and Black-headed Weavers, Red-billed Firefinch, Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu, Western Yellow and White Wagtails, as well as a fine Nile Monitor and a Striped Ground Squirrel. Eventually we reached the small town of Podor, which is situated on the Senegal River just a short distance from Mauritania. There was no daylight left by this time, but an evening excursion proved hugely rewarding with one of our most important targets, Golden Nightjar, seen very well (we found a calling male and a female, and heard another calling male). As well as this beautiful nightjar, we also found two Standard-winged Nightjars (how amazing the male looked, with two black moths seemingly following it around!), a couple of Scrub Hares and two dainty Pale (or Sand) Foxes. Our enjoyable explorations in the mostly arid Podor area produced a number of additional Sahel or Saharan specialities, including five Cream-coloured Coursers, a good number of African Collared Doves, six delightful little Cricket Warblers, two Fulvous Babblers and numerous Black Scrub Robins, as well as about 40 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse. 3 Birdquest Tour Report: Senegal 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com Seeing a Golden Nightjar like this is a lifelong ambition for many birders (Mark Beaman) Other new species, which included some waterbirds around the few wetlands, included Black-crowned Night Heron, Little Egret, Hamerkop, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Common Moorhen, Common and Little Ringed Plovers, Common Snipe, Spotted Redshank, Wood and Common Sandpipers, Little Stint, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Little Swift, Pied Kingfisher, African Grey Hornbill, Common Kestrel, Chestnut-backed Sparrow- Lark, Zitting Cisticola, Little Weaver, Village Indigobird and Plain-backed Pipit, not to mention the unassuming Unstriped Grass Rat. Those who opted for another evening outing, instead of extra sleep, were rewarded with two Western Barn Owls, two Northern White-faced Owls, another Golden Nightjar, a Four-toed Hedgehog, two more Pale Foxes, three Common Genets and no fewer than three Wild Cats! A bonus were a number of Senegal Gerbils and the truly superb little Lesser Egyptian Jerboa. From Podor we returned westwards to the St Louis area. Another stop around Richard Toll added Eurasian and Spotted Thick-knees, more Temminck’s Coursers and African Silverbill. We spent most of the afternoon, and the following morning, at the remarkable Parc National des Oiseaux du Djoudj, which is one of the moist important wetlands on the entire West Eurasian-African flyway. Numbers of waterfowl here are truly extraordinary, with a high proportion of Europe’s Garganeys wintering here (maybe 20-25,000 were present during our visit, where they really did blacken the skies when they took off). Equally spectacular were the 15,000 or so (give or take a few thousands!) White-faced Whistling Ducks, which made a deafening racket every time they suffered a ‘dread’ and took to the air. Amazing stuff! The remaining waterfowl were rather overshadowed by these gigantic numbers, but we enjoyed all the Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Spur-winged and Egyptian Geese, Northern Shovelers and Northern Pintails as well. By carefully scanning the flocks we managed to find much smaller numbers of Knob-billed Ducks, Gadwalls, 4 Birdquest Tour Report: Senegal 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com Great White Pelicans were numerous in the Djoudj (Mark Beaman) Eurasian Wigeons, and Eurasian Teals, and, more unexpectedly, no fewer than 15 Marbled Duck. This rare species is not always present in the Djoudj. The many other waterbirds in this avian paradise included great numbers of Greater and Lesser Flamingoes, Eurasian Spoonbills, Great White Pelicans, White-breasted Cormorants and Pied Avocets, as well as Little Grebe, Yellow-billed and Black Storks, African Sacred and Glossy Ibises, African Spoonbill, Black Heron, Pink-backed Pelican, African Darter, Black Crake, African Wattled Lapwing, Kittlitz’s and Kentish Plovers, Greater Painted-Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Redshank, Marsh and Curlew Sandpipers, Common Greenshank, Dunlin, Ruff, Collared Pratincole, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and Little and White-winged Terns. One of the great prizes of the Djoudj is the huge and stately Arabian Bustard, a species that was once quite common in the area, but which has declined drastically in recent decades owing to land reclamation for rice growing and much increased hunting pressure. We failed to find any the first afternoon, but we enjoyed good views of one the next morning, much to everyone’s relief! Another great bird that generally feeds in the dry country surrounding the Djoudj marshes is the magnificent Black Crowned Crane and we were fortunate to record up to 38 of these beautiful birds on each visit. A further speciality of the area, the rather dull little River Prinia, was easy