"I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year. All of the faces and all of the places, wondering where they all disappeared." ... Jimmy Buffett (of course)
The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, is the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian of the world. A meridian is a north-south line selected as the zero reference line for astronomical observations. The line in Greenwich represents the Prime Meridian of the World - Longitude 0º. Every place on Earth is measured in terms of its distance east or west from this line. The line itself divides the eastern and western hemispheres of the Earth - just as the Equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres.
In 1884 the Prime Meridian was defined by the position of
the large “Transit Circle” telescope in the Observatory’s Meridian Building.
The transit circle was built by Sir George Biddell Airy, the 7th Astronomer
Royal, in 1850. The cross-hairs in the eyepiece of the Transit Circle precisely
defined Longitude 0° for the world. As the earth’s crust is moving very
slightly all the time the exact position of the Prime Meridian is now moving
very slightly too, but the original reference for the prime meridian of the
world remains the Airy Transit Circle in the Royal Observatory, even if the
exact location of the line may move to either side of Airy’s meridian.
Since the late 19th century, the Prime Meridian at
Greenwich has served as the reference line for Greenwich Mean Time. Before
this, almost every town in the world kept its own local time. There were no
national or international conventions which set how time should be measured, or
when the day would begin and end, or what length an hour might be.
Greenwich Mean Time is represented by the acronym GMT and
it turns out that the African nation of The Gambia is not only in the GMT time
zone but there GMT has a special meaning because in The Gambia GMT also means “Gambian Maybe Time.”
Imagine island time.
Now imagine island time on steroids and remove the island, and that is a
succinct definition of Gambian Maybe Time.
The Jimmy Buffett song “Christmas in the Caribbean” contains the verse “We
don’t live in a hurry, send away for mistletoe.” Jimmy could have very correctly written that
verse about The Gambia.
Things happen when they happen in The Gambia (and before
we go any further I don’t have a clue why Gambia is called “The Gambia.” It just is).
A scheduled meeting at 9:00 a.m. might be put off a day because someone’s
neighbor’s second cousin was in the hospital.
Changing money at a foreign exchange office might not happen because “well,
we took all the currency to the bank already.
Leave your money with us and come back tomorrow and we will have the
currency then.” I don’t think so! A menu of 20 items may have only one thing
available because someone forgot to go to the market. Power may go out five or six times a day for
no apparent reason other than it hadn’t gone out in an hour or so. You can be
the only person in a restaurant and order a chicken sandwich and it takes an
hour for it to arrive. You begin to
wonder if they had to freshly kill the chicken for you. It is all very predictable. It’s all very survivable, and it’s all very
Gambian. And nothing is more Gambian
than Gambian Maybe Time. After I spent
my first 3 weeks in Costa Rica long ago I came home with the belief that it
should be a requirement of continued American citizenship to have to travel for
2 weeks in an alleged Third World country.
It would open everyone’s eyes and rest assured, the latest antics of the
Kardashians would be the furthest thing from your mind. Ten days in The Gambia would be a good start
on that travel requirement.
I spent 10 days on Gambian Maybe Time as my annual
birthday present trip to myself to some place new. This year I chose The Gambia and nearby
Senegal and the countries were the 110th and 111th
countries that I have visited worldwide.
My world bird list was just short of 6,000 species and I wanted the
6,000th species to be an African bird and travel to The Gambia is
easy and relatively close and I chose it as my birthday gift to myself. Not only is The Gambia the smallest nation on the African continent, it absolutely drips with birds.
As with almost every British birder who has ever visited
The Gambia I made my reservation through The Gambia Experience, a highly
efficient and extremely helpful tour operator based in the UK. Further because there are hundreds of trip
reports from The Gambia available at places like www.surfbirds.com and others I am not going
to write a traditional trip report. Suffice it to say that the birds I saw were
all regularly recorded in the exact same locations mentioned in any of 100
earlier reports.
I reached Banjul International Airport after a 6-hour
flight from London Gatwick on Monarch Airlines, a UK-based sort of scheduled
airline that does a lot of charter flights.
It was a fully-packed 757 with excellent service. Our route of flight took us south over the
Bay of Biscay to Spain, across the Iberian peninsula to the Mediterranean at
Malaga, Spain (from which I flew to Africa on my first ever trip to the
Continent). We made African landfall
over Tangiers, Morocco, then south over Casablanca, past the High Atlas
Mountains and then across Western Sahara,
Mauritania to Dakar, Senegal before touching down on time in Banjul. From the air Mauritania appears to be one
huge sand box!
I stayed at the Senegambia Beach Hotel because of the
recommendations of almost everyone else who has stayed there. Its big draw is the bird-filled 20 acre
garden that surrounds the hotel grounds and this hotel is highly recommended
for that reason.
Most days I was out in the field around sunrise (6:30 a.m.)
and stayed there until about 11:00 a.m. after which is was way too hot to
breathe let alone look for birds. After
an afternoon siesta somewhere I would return to the field about 4:00 p.m. and
stay out until 7:00 p.m. or so. I lost
only one day to “Banjul Belly” which in Mexico is known as “Montezuma’s Revenge”
and almost everywhere else is known simply as “I have the shits.” The weather was incredibly hot and I was told
this wasn’t even the hot part of the year.
Imagine a Florida afternoon in August and then increase the heat index
by ¼ and you have an approximation of the intensity of the heat. Banjul lies at the same latitude as
Bridgetown Barbados or San Salvador, El Salvador. Despite that distance from the Equator (13
degrees north) I have never been hotter anywhere. You know that it’s hot when you drink 4
liters of water and never even think about urinating!
A view of the ocean and the African Sand Palm forest at the south boundary of the Bijolo Forest Park
My 10-day itinerary follows.
Tuesday October
29 Flight from the UK to The
Gambia.
Wednesday October
30 Garden of the
Senegambia Hotel
Thursday October
31 Happy 62nd freaking
birthday. Bijolo Forest Park (also known
as the Monkey Park, a 10 minute walk from the hotel).
Friday November
1 Day trip to Senegal
Saturday November
2 Abuko Forest Reserve and Kotu Creek
Sunday November
3 Brufut Woods and the Tanji Preserve
Monday November
4 A “Lazy Day” on the backwaters of
the River Gambia by boat
Tuesday November
5 Marikissa area south of
Banjul
Wednesday November
6 Tendaba Camp 160 km upstream from
Banjul
Thursday November
7 Tendaba Camp and return to Banjul
Friday November
8 Return to the UK in late afternoon
One thing that is essential is to hire a good birding
guide or birding guides. It is
absolutely suicidal to rent a car and try to drive around The Gambia. There is
only one traffic light in the entire country and it does not work. Road signs are almost completely non-existent
and driving on Gambian roads is not for the weak of heart. Plan on taking tourist taxis or city taxis everywhere
you go unless you have prior arrangements with your guide or tour operator.
My species total was 239 of which 119 were life birds and
most importantly a Senegal Parrot, appropriately in Senegal on November 1 was
my 6,000th life bird. Many trips that travel to The Gambia pick up
300 or so species but I was not that lucky.
For one thing I did not see one single Palearctic migrant songbird. Not
one! All of the bird guides said that
they simply had not arrived yet. Another
contributing factor is that I did not make it all the way out to Georgetown
where Egyptian Plover winters and where an entirely different suite of birds
can be found.
My life list now stands at 6,072 species and I’m not sure
where to go next. I’d like to try Uganda
and Ethiopia and there’s always India.
However the poverty of The Gambia really got to me and I’m a little sour
on traveling in developing nation’s right now. (Of course that will change in about a week and planning for next year's trip will begin). The
average worker in The Gambia makes the equivalent of $1.25 US per day and with
a 1.5 liter bottle of water costing about $0.75 cents US per day, there is not
much room for anything in the lives of Gambians.
One day I met a Muslim man who did not own any
shoes. I gave him an extra pair of flip
flops that I brought with me and when I handed them to him he said “You are a
very good man. I will pray for you and
Allah will smile kindly on you.” His was
typical of the attitude and outlook of almost every Gambian I met. Travel through 111 countries worldwide now has
taught me one very important lesson. The
richest people on earth are those who have nothing. Most Gambians are that sort of rich and it’s
probably because of Gambian Maybe Time not forcing them to exert themselves too
much in the baking sun.
My trip list of birds follows. Its taxonomy and phylogeny follow Clements
Checklist of the Birds of the World.
DUCKS, GEESE, AND WATERFOWL
White-faced Whistling-Duck
Comb Duck
NEW WORLD QUAIL
Stone Partridge
PHEASANTS, GROUSE, AND ALLIES
Ahanta Francolin
Double-spurred Francolin
GREBES
Little Grebe
FLAMINGOS
Greater Flamingo
STORKS
Marabou Stork
CORMORANTS AND SHAGS
Long-tailed Cormorant
ANHINGAS
African Darter
PELICANS
Great White Pelican
Pink-backed Pelican
HAMERKOP
Hamerkop
HERONS, EGRETS, AND BITTERNS
Gray Heron
Black-headed Heron
Goliath Heron
Purple Heron
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Western Reef-Heron
Black Heron
Cattle Egret
Squacco Heron
Striated Heron
IBISES AND SPOONBILLS
Sacred Ibis
African Spoonbill
OSPREY
Osprey
HAWKS, EAGLES, AND KITES
Black-shouldered Kite
African Harrier-Hawk
Palm-nut Vulture
White-headed Vulture
Hooded Vulture
Rueppell's Griffon
Beaudouin's Snake-Eagle
Brown Snake-Eagle
Banded Snake-Eagle
Long-crested Eagle
Lizard Buzzard
Dark Chanting-Goshawk
Shikra
Red-thighed Sparrowhawk
Black Kite
RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS
Purple Swamphen
FLUFFTAILS
White-spotted Flufftail
THICK-KNEES
Senegal Thick-knee
PLOVERS AND LAPWINGS
Black-headed Lapwing
Wattled Lapwing
Common Ringed Plover
JACANAS
African Jacana
SANDPIPERS AND ALLIES
Common Sandpiper
Green Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Marsh Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Common Redshank
Whimbrel
Black-tailed Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Ruff
Curlew Sandpiper
Little Stint
PRATINCOLES AND COURSERS
Collared Pratincole
SKUAS AND JAEGERS
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
GULLS, TERNS, AND SKIMMERS
Slender-billed Gull
Gray-hooded Gull
Black-headed Gull
Kelp Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
White-winged Tern
Whiskered Tern
Common Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Lesser Crested Tern
SANDGROUSE
Four-banded Sandgrouse
PIGEONS AND DOVES
Speckled Pigeon
Mourning Collared-Dove
Red-eyed Dove
Vinaceous Dove
Laughing Dove
Black-billed Wood-Dove
Blue-spotted Wood-Dove
African Green-Pigeon
TURACOS
Guinea Turaco
Violet Turaco
Western Plantain-eater
CUCKOOS
African Cuckoo
Klaas's Cuckoo
Dideric Cuckoo
Yellowbill
Senegal Coucal
OWLS
African Scops-Owl
Northern White-faced Owl
Grayish Eagle-Owl
Pearl-spotted Owlet
NIGHTJARS AND ALLIES
Long-tailed Nightjar
SWIFTS
Mottled Spinetail
Little Swift
African Palm-Swift
KINGFISHERS
Malachite Kingfisher
African Pygmy-Kingfisher
Woodland Kingfisher
Blue-breasted Kingfisher
Giant Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
BEE-EATERS
Red-throated Bee-eater
Little Bee-eater
Swallow-tailed Bee-eater
White-throated Bee-eater
Northern Carmine Bee-eater
ROLLERS
Abyssinian Roller
Rufous-crowned Roller
Blue-bellied Roller
Broad-billed Roller
WOODHOOPOES AND SCIMITAR-BILLS
Green Woodhoopoe
Black Scimitar-bill
HORNBILLS
Western Red-billed Hornbill
African Pied Hornbill
African Gray Hornbill
GROUND-HORNBILLS
Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill
AFRICAN BARBETS
Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird
Vieillot's Barbet
Bearded Barbet
HONEYGUIDES
Lesser Honeyguide
WOODPECKERS
Fine-spotted Woodpecker
Buff-spotted Woodpecker
Cardinal Woodpecker
Gray Woodpecker
Brown-backed Woodpecker
FALCONS AND CARACARAS
Gray Kestrel
African Hobby
Lanner Falcon
PARROTS
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Brown-necked Parrot
Senegal Parrot
WATTLE-EYES AND BATISES
Brown-throated Wattle-eye
BUSHSHRIKES AND ALLIES
Brubru
Northern Puffback
Black-crowned Tchagra
Common Gonolek
Gray-headed Bushshrike
CUCKOOSHRIKES
Red-shouldered Cuckooshrike
SHRIKES
Yellow-billed Shrike
OLD WORLD ORIOLES
African Golden Oriole
DRONGOS
Fork-tailed Drongo
MONARCH FLYCATCHERS
Black-headed Paradise-Flycatcher
African Paradise-Flycatcher
CROWS, JAYS, AND MAGPIES
Piapiac
Pied Crow
LARKS
Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark
Crested Lark
SWALLOWS
Red-chested Swallow
Pied-winged Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Rufous-chested Swallow
Fanti Sawwing
FAIRY FLYCATCHERS
African Blue-Flycatcher
PENDULINE-TITS
Yellow Penduline-Tit
BULBULS
Gray-headed Bristlebill
Yellow-throated Greenbul
Little Greenbul
Common Bulbul
AFRICAN WARBLERS
Northern Crombec
Green Hylia
CISTICOLAS AND ALLIES
Green-backed Camaroptera
Singing Cisticola
Whistling Cisticola
Winding Cisticola
Oriole Warbler
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Red-winged Prinia
Senegal Eremomela
YUHINAS, WHITE-EYES, AND ALLIES
African Yellow White-eye
LAUGHINGTHRUSHES AND ALLIES
Blackcap Babbler
Brown Babbler
HYLIOTAS
Yellow-bellied Hyliota
OLD WORLD FLYCATCHERS
Northern Black-Flycatcher
Swamp Flycatcher
Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat
White-crowned Robin-Chat
Northern Anteater-Chat
White-fronted Black-Chat
THRUSHES AND ALLIES
African Thrush
STARLINGS
Lesser Blue-eared Glossy-Starling
Bronze-tailed Glossy-Starling
Purple Glossy-Starling
Long-tailed Glossy-Starling
Chestnut-bellied Starling
OXPECKERS
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
SUNBIRDS AND SPIDERHUNTERS
Mouse-brown Sunbird
Western Violet-backed Sunbird
Collared Sunbird
Pygmy Sunbird
Green-headed Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Beautiful Sunbird
Splendid Sunbird
Variable Sunbird
Copper Sunbird
WAGTAILS AND PIPITS
Tree Pipit
BUNTINGS AND NEW WORLD SPARROWS
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
SISKINS, CROSSBILLS, AND ALLIES
White-rumped Seedeater
Yellow-fronted Canary
OLD WORLD SPARROWS
Northern Gray-headed Sparrow
Sudan Golden Sparrow
Bush Petronia
WEAVERS AND ALLIES
White-billed Buffalo-Weaver
Speckle-fronted Weaver
Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver
Little Weaver
Black-necked Weaver
Vitelline Masked-Weaver
Heuglin's Masked-Weaver
Village Weaver
Black-headed Weaver
Red-billed Quelea
Orange Bishop
Black-winged Bishop
Yellow-crowned Bishop
Yellow-shouldered Widowbird
WAXBILLS AND ALLIES
Lavender Waxbill
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Black-rumped Waxbill
Western Bluebill
Crimson Seedcracker
Red-cheeked Cordonbleu
Red-winged Pytilia
Red-billed Firefinch
Bar-breasted Firefinch
Black-faced Firefinch
Cut-throat
Black-faced Quailfinch
Bronze Mannikin
African Silverbill
INDIGOBIRDS
Northern Paradise-Whydah
Long-tailed Paradise-Whydah
Village Indigobird
Species seen - 239
No comments:
Post a Comment