Date: 23 November
2009
What a wonderful relief it is to
be in the Cape Verde
Islands. Compared with the manic,
aggressive, greedy atmosphere of
Dakar, Mindelo on the
island of Sao
Vicente is an oasis of peace and tranquillity. I
will be writing more about it in later blogs.
The purpose of this blog is
solely to pander to the needs of any twitchers amongst you who must be gagging
to know exactly which were the 74 species of bird that Colin (mainly) and I
identified in the Sine Saloum delta. For his work in this valuable field, Colin
was awarded the coveted Mina2 Gold Star. Here goes, in the order in which they
were identified:
Black Kite
Grey Backed Gull
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Grey Heron
Reef Heron
Pelican
White Breasted Cormorant
Ruppel’s Griffon Vulture
West
African
River Eagle
Osprey
Mourning Dove
Red Billed Wood Dove
Lapwing
Turnstone
Curlew Sandpiper
Caspian Tern
Lesser Black Backed Gull
Common Tern
Little Tern
Black and White Tailed
Hornbill
Whimbrell
Grey Headed Sparrow
Pied Kingfisher
Senegal
Firefinch
Blue Billed Weaver
Village Weaver
Barbarry Strike
Blue Cheeked Bee Eater
Red Eyed Dove
Red Beaked Hornbill
Pygmy Long Tailed Sunbird
Spur Winged Plover
Senegal
Thick Knee
Swamp Flycatcher
Black Headed Oriole
Black Crowned Tchacorce
Red Cheeked Cordon Blue
Longtailed Nightjar
Goliath Heron
Swallow (European)
Longtailed Black Whydah
Pied Crow
Curlew
Black Winged Stilt
Crested Lark
Pied Wagtail
Sacred Ibis
Pallid Harrier
Grey Backed Strike
Red Bishop
Grey Kestrel
Red Throated Bee Eater
Yellow Wagtail
Double Spurred Francolin
Tiger Bittern
White Fronted Sand Plover
Ringed Plover
Marsh Sandpiper
Gull Billed Tern
Black Headed Weaver
Common Sandpiper
Common
Garden Bulbul
White Wagtail
Toth Billed Barbut
Great Sheerwater
Sooty Sheerwater
Grey Backed Camoroptera
Laughing Dove
Speckled Pigeon
Red Billed Tropic Bird
Pintailed Whydah
White Backed Vulture
Collared Sunbird
…and if there’s still anybody out
there reading this, give a thought for the poor chap who had to type all this –
and get a life!
