MONKEY BUSINESS

Venturing out for the first time was a little daunting as we had read of excessive hassling of tourists by locals but having been to India and Turkey this was childs play,the people were mostly polite and friendly and a firm no thanks,maybe later was enough to keep them happy.
Bijilo Forest Park is a short walk along the beach and a good place to start,there are"free" guides to show you around and Yussuf was pretty good and we hired him for a later trip.
It is known locally as the monkey park as tourists go there principally to see and feed the monkeys.
Two breeds exist side by side here,the Green Vervet and Red Colobus,the green being most numerous and receptive to humans,the colubus being more wary and aloof.

GREEN VERVET FAMILY GROUP

RED COLOBUS

Birdwise it was a good place for bee eaters and three species were seen .

 

LITTLE BEE EATER

WHITE THROATED BEE EATER.
The swallow tailed bee eater was seen but too distant to photograph here but was seen again later.
The Abbysinian Roller was spotted sitting up nicely

ABBYSSINIAN ROLLER

GREY HORNBILL

RED BILLED FIREFINCH

GREY PLANTAIN EATER a member of the TURACO family

It has a huge tail that it fans from side to side, and strangely does not eat plantains or bananas in the wild.

NAMAQUA DOVE moulting into breeding plumage.

This large flock of PINK BACKED PELICANS was seen in the distance.

RED EYED DOVE

BLACKCAP BABBLER

NORTHERN BLACK FLYCATCHER

CITRUS SWALLOWTAIL

ART GEKKO

COMMON GRASS YELLOW

AFRICAN TIGER
A few more Colobus monkeys to finish with.

WELCOME TO THE HOTEL SENEGAMBIA

Spent last week basking in glorious temperatures of 32c,arrive home to 32f and 75mm of snow,got a few birds for you to look at,firstly in the hotel gardens.

WESTERN RED BILLED HORNBILL.

YELLOW CROWNED GONOLEK

YELLOW BILLED SHRIKE

YELLOW BILLED SHRIKE

PIAPIAC

COMMON BULBUL

SENEGAL COUCAL

SPECKLED PIGEON

LONG TAILED GLOSSY STARLING

BROAD BILLED ROLLER

BROAD BILLED ROLLER, Hawking insects.

GONOLEK

RED HORNBILL

HAMMERKOP
This strange looking bird had a huge nest in a tree near our room.

HAMMERKOP on the nest.

PURPLE GLOSSY STARLING

CATTLE EGRET these were plentiful around the hotel even waiting for the chance share a breakfast titbit .

WHITE CROWNED ROBIN CHAT

AFRICAN THRUSH

VILLAGE WEAVER

AFRICAN GREY HORNBILL

Don`t fancy getting my fingers caught in there,and note the eye lashes.

HOODED VULTURE waiting for lunch.

HOODED VULTURE

Up to100 Hooded Vultures hung around the garden waiting for feeding time.

BLACK KITE

They had also learnt that an easy meal was available in the garden.

PALM NUT VULTURE, I was lucky to see this bird fly over the garden one afternoon.

BEAUTIFUL SUN BIRD, save the best till last,this lovely little bird was a regular visitor to this tree blossom and was very mobile,only 4" long including tail,a real challenge.
So with lots of new birds to see in the hotel garden,the next thing was to venture outside into the wilds of the dark continent.