My Seventh Day in the Gambia: Farewells and One More Blue Ring...

A Final Morning in The Gambia

I woke up early for my final morning in the Gambia, wanting to make the most of the time I had left. As I left my room and looked to the sky, the first bird I saw was an Osprey - I'm not typically superstitious but I thought this a good sign of things to come later in the day. I set off once more to Bolongfenyo, a place I will sorely miss - as I will for all of the Gambia. As I walked down, and the water started to come into view, it wasn't the same as I had seen it previously. Before, I had always visited later in the day, and it had always been packed with life, but not like this. Everywhere I looked, I started seeing more and more birds; hundreds of terns and gulls, a posse of egrets all wading in the shallows, flocks of White-Faced Whistling Ducks passing overhead - I didn't really know where to look.

Slowly scanning along the surrounding trees, I came across a bird that immediately made me very excited. Among a small group of Long-Tailed Cormorants, a single Black-Crowned Night Heron sat hunched in its smart black and white plumage. As I watched it, another bird (until this point unseen) took flight from below it - my immediate thought was that it resembled bitterns that I had seen in the UK, but this was a juvenile Night heron, and when it landed it joined 3 others of it's sort... and another adult Black-Crowned Night Heron - I couldn't believe my eyes.

A Morning with the School Group

I didn't want to leave the site - it was such a rush seeing so many fantastic birds in one place - but I had plans to meet with the school group at 9am so made my way back to the Project. I met with Brendan and we started our walk down to Gunjur Beach where we would be looking for Ospreys and other local species. As we got to the beach, we saw many of the typical species we were expecting to see, such as various Gulls, Terns, and Cormorants, but they were only preparing the group for what would make this morning really special; the Ospreys (and one in particular).

As we continued walking along the beach, I was met with a similar sight to before; wave after wave of ospreys passing overhead to a perch inland where they could feed. As usual this triggered my frantic snapping hoping to see any sign of a ringed bird - this was the last day, of course, and I had that classic "now or never" motivation flooding through me.

I had little luck finding ringed birds until two ospreys appeared, flying close together. Having taken quick pictures of both birds, I found that they were both blue ringed! Knowing I had little time until they passed overhead, I chose to focus on just one of them and get as many pictures as I could - giving myself every opportunity to get a clear view of that blue ring. When I came back to look at the images later, I was delighted that one of them was nearly readable from my camera alone - I would surely be able to work it out using my laptop later. Seeing these two ringed birds in particular hit me with an immense wave of emotion. Knowing I would be leaving that evening, combined with the possibility that I knew these individuals, really struck me. It really drove home the immense journey these birds undertake. I will look at them in a slightly different light when they return this Spring.

A Final Osprey Search

We continued walking with the school group until we reached the Gunjur Sand Quarry. The children had been fantastic, really engaged by the birds that we had been seeing, and had taken the competition to see the most species very seriously. It was starting to get hot and, as the children had already walked a considerable distance at this point, it was decided that they would head back from this point. Knowing that this was my last opportunity to see these Ospreys, I asked Brendan if he would be happy with me continuing, and he very generously offered to come with me. I said my farewells to the rest of the group, in particular, Sulayman, whose company had been invaluable throughout the duration of the visit - it was fantastic to have met him, and his immense knowledge and passion was very inspiring.

As the walk continued we saw more and more ospreys, mainly all on perches feeding on their recent catches. There were some other lovely birds on display as well, like the familiar yet new-to-me Crested Larks darting between the scrub bushes, and the now quite familiar Little Bee-Eaters and Pied Kingfishers - of which there were many. Whilst I was keen to check for rings on as many of them as possible, the distance we were from most of them made getting a clear picture unachievable, and the few times the Ospreys were sat close and with legs showing, they were always unringed (typical!). By this point, the heat had become too much to continue, so we headed back. By the end of the morning, we had seen 36 different Ospreys and it felt bittersweet that this would be the last trip to the beach I would make.

Saying Goodbye to The Gambia

When we returned to the Project, I set about packing my things and having a final birdwatch in the garden before setting off to the airport. Before leaving, I was keen to try Attaya (green tea) and watched as Kasim, one of the Gambian staff, carefully prepared it. I hadn’t realised how much effort went into the process, with constant attention needed to get it just right. It was a real experience - and absolutely delicious when I finally got to try it. It was time to set off for the airport, and say final goodbyes. I had a fantastic week, and at it's core it was due to the kindness and hospitality of those at the Gunjur Project who made it that way. I want to say a massive thank you to Brendan, Jenny, and the whole team who were so welcoming and generous with all they introduced me to over the course of the week - I hope to return in the future.

A Perfect Ending to the Trip

As the flight began, I watched as the Gambia got smaller and smaller behind me and the feeling was bittersweet; I was glad to be home again, but knew I would miss everything immensely. But there was one thing I still needed to do and I opened my laptop to start looking through the images I had taken of that one blue-ringed osprey from earlier. After hours of zooming, editing, and an awful lot of squinting, I had come to realise the first and last digit of the ring: "0" and "9". With this in mind, I got in touch with Tim Mackrill to confirm the identification. By matching the underwing pattern, he concluded that I had found 019 - one of the female ospreys translocated to Poole Harbour in 2019, now breeding at a nest site in North Wales since 2022. This was the perfect way to end an already incredibly special trip. As I suspected on Day 1, this will be one I remember forever.

My visit to The Gambia has been supported by The Osprey Leadership Foundation. I've been working with OLF over the winter months to support the delivery of their training and education programmes and I'm an active member of their Evolving Leaders Programme. While I'm here, I'm spending time with their partners The Gunjur Project and the Kartong Bird Observatory to learn more about the impact OLF's support is having here and I will hopefully have the opportunity to meet other participants of OLF's programmes.

A massive thank you to the amazing donors who help fund the OLF's work and helped make this trip possible. If you would like to support the work of OLF, you can join as a Friend of the Foundation here