Inselaffe abroad: Senegal

Wetland at Diadiam III...

...with the inevitable rubbish

As I mentioned in the previous post, it was instructive to be handling Palearctic migrants in their winter quarters - and to see just what sort of habitat 'our' birds use while we're shivering in the fog back at Lake C. The wetland area was obviously well-inhabited by waders, many of which pass through in varying numbers each spring and autumn here in S. Germany: Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Greenshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper. There were also piles of Yellow Wagtails of varying flavour - flava, iberiae and flavissima for certain - other varieties may have been available. White Wagtails (maybe some of the Icelandic birds which pass through Slapton? Maybe Scandinavians?) weren't rare and we found a few Sedge, Reed and Grasshopper Warblers in the nets too.

Starter for 10: a Western Olivaceous Warbler. For a couple of weeks in January, I had my ear in to the song. Doubt that will last, sadly.

A nice male flava Yellow Wagtail.

This is the ecotone between wet Typha swamp and dry thorn scrub. A few metres of grazed grass, a handful of palms and a lot of Giant Milkweed... From the number of old thorn fences, the edge here is (was?) cultivated but there were no crops in there at present.

Typical thorn scrub around Diadiam III. Giant Milkweed, Mesquite and Simple-leaved Greenthorn

Slightly further from the influence of the wetland, the milkweed disappears and the ground cover becomes a sparse dead-grass layer with heavily-grazed thorn. Various Vachellia thorn species - all showing a clear browse line at cattle/donkey height cast surprisingly effective shade

This is where many passerines lurk. The difficulty is just finding them.

The thorn scrub was also used, but birds were way less abundant in general. There didn't appear to be all that many trees and shrubs in flower or fruit (though appearances were perhaps a little deceptive: certain trees were fruiting hard) and perhaps the general heat and dryness of the scrub meant that there just wasn't enough food around to support more insectivores. Familiar species like Common Redstart and Common Whitethroat were scattered around, and there were lots of Common Chiffchaffs - plenty of them already tuning up for the European spring. For me, there was a bit of spice in the presence of lots of Western Olivaceous and Subalpine Warblers (western - iberiae - were all we could identify with any degree of certainty) and a smattering of Western Bonelli's Warblers, along with the occasional Woodchat Shrike. The bulk birds in the scrub were, however, afrotropical residents. Lots of Mourning Collared Dove and Laughing Dove, and everywhere little groups of Namaqua Dove; small groups of Western Red-billed Hornbills; hordes of Sudan Golden Sparrows - and then in amongst them always some Red-billed Queleas, a scatter of Yellow-crowned Bishops, Black-headed and Little Weavers (and what appeared to be Vitelline Masked Weavers occasionally)... Look closely under the trees and you'll probably find the occasional Senegal Thick-knee or Long-tailed Nightjar snoozing away the heat of the day.

Namaqua Dove. A midget pigeon, with body size not much more than a sparrow

Long-tailed Nightjar pretending to be a branch on the ground

Common Bulbul trying to keep cool

Chestnut-bellied Starling being cool

Senegal Coucal - the epitome of cool.

A Grey-backed Camaroptera. The name is longer than the bird.

For a couple of nights at Diadiam III there was a tour group using the accommodation: they were well-equipped to see what additional wildlife they could lure in with a hefty UV light against a white sheet overnight. Some of the intrepid ringers weren't about to pass up the chance to nose around too, so had a good butchers' at the sheet in the early evening darkness. And there was plenty to admire, just not necessarily what was expected. Moths were sparse. A couple of Bedstraw and Striped Hawkmoths plus on Convolvulus Hawk were more or less the sum of the big-and-spectacular, and the small and less-spectacular were not much more diverse. But the beetles. Oh my... The second evening lamping brought the most astonishing numbers of water beetles and rove beetles to the sheet. There were so many on and around the sheet, that it became ever so slightly freaky to stand there with beetles crawling all over you. Between the beetles there were plenty of crickets, a few hefty cockroaches and the occasional damselfly. Not shabby.