September 2024

We were up and away by 5.30pm only to find our breakfast place closed. We motored on and stopped for a quick cup of tea and coffee that Dylan had stored in his flask last night. We failed to find any stores selling bread and made do with some biscuits. We stopped at a spot just before Akieni and found 4 Black-headed Bee-eaters, which pleased all of us as it was the main target bird in this area of Gabon. Red-eyed Puffback put in a brief appearance as did a couple of Black-winged Orioles. Nearing Makokou we stopped at a river bridge for Gosling’s Apalis and White-bibbed Swallows.

We were up for 6am and after breakfast drove to Ipassa-Makokou Strict Nature Reserve in the rain. The light levels were low and birding was going to be challenging in the rain. Our French-speaking driver and park ranger would not allow us into the forest on the trails as they said it was dangerous as Forest Elephants were present. After Jan, who is a Swiss participant, translated for us, we managed to negotiate that we could stay in the clearing where the dis-used bungalows were at the forest edge. Birding was good as we added Red-crowned Malimbe, Little Grey Flycatcher, White-bearded Greenbul, Square-tailed Saw-wing and Olive-green Camaroptera to my life list. Sadly I do not have any photos today as conditions did not allow for any to be taken. We drove back to our accommodation for lunch and birded the access track to the park for 2 hours before the light made it impossible to see any colours on any bird. I added another two lifers of Gabon Woodpecker and Maxwells Black Weavers before the end of the day.

Once again we were up early and along with two park rangers, who were supposedly there to keep us safe, goodness knows what with, we entered the forest and walked along a track-way within the forest itself. We watched a Blue-headed Coucal and an African Emerald Cuckoo before we went in around the clearing and watched Moustached Monkeys in the trees. Soon I had a few lifers in the form of Western Dwarf Hornbill, Bate’s Paradise Flycatcher, Pale-breasted Illadopsis and Dusky-crested Flycatcher. We had amazing views of Rufous-vented Paradise Flycatcher that sat right in front of us.

After lunch Dylan had arranged a lovely boat trip for us along the River Ivindo. It was glorious to see a flock of 73 Rock Partridges in flight before they settled on the rocks. A juvenile African Skimmer looked a bit lonely on one of the sandbars as we cruised along down river. After watching an African Fish Eagle and a few Hadada Ibises, I spotted a Finfoot running over a log at the river’s edge but sadly John was looking the wrong way, as it scuttled up the bank and into the forest. When we were nearly back to our starting point two Hartlubs Ducks flew by. I was so pleased as this has been an annoying gap in my African duck list for many years! We watched the sun set on the river before getting back to the vehicles and taken back to our accommodation for our evening meal.

We were up for 5am and loaded up the vehicles after breakfast for our long drive on some very rough roads back to Libreville which took all day. Gosh it was a long day and a very back-breaking experience. I shall never complain about British roads again!

We stopped a couple of times and admired an African Darter, Black Crake, Little Grebe, Blue-throated Roller and Scaly Spurfowl as we journeyed back to Libreville, arriving just before dusk.

We left our hotel at Libreville at 6am and had a 5 minute drive to the airport to catch a 45 minute flight to Port Gentil. We drove for 3 hours and were taken down to the riverside where we caught a boat to Ndole Lodge where we had a delightful lunch over-looking the river. At 3pm we were back on the boat for 3 hours down the river and taken deep into the forest. The mangrove edges held many Forest Elephants and many of the familiar birds that we would associate with water habitats. We watched Giant Kingfishers, Pied Kingfishers, Malachite Kingfishers and Shining Blue Kingfishers as we made our way upstream. However I was delighted with all the Rosy bee-eaters. When we neared the bush camp at Akaka we watched the River Martins, one of the key Gabonese targets. At dusk we also saw the Vermiculated Fishing Owl.

We had breakfast at 7am and having lost the toss for Gorilla trekking (grrrr….) we embarked on the boat with Dylan and a ranger and took a walk along a forest trail. The ranger gave instructions on how to behave as Forest Elephants are a real threat here. We walked for an hour and only saw a Shining Drongo and a pair of Chestnut Wattle-eyes. John wasn’t feeling well and took a trip to the bushes whilst Dylan and I watched Brown-eared Woodpecker, Plain Bulbul and Red-tailed Bristlebill. We started to walk back along the trail but an Elephant was close to the trail and we had a quick retreat to avoid it. It all became a bit tense as we had to retreat even further. Eventually we were signalled to walk quickly by. It was quite unnerving! We managed to get back to the boat all in one piece.

The afternoon was spent on another boat ride where we watched a pair of Finfoot, a murmuration of thousands of Rosy Bee-eaters and finally finishing photographing a Vermiculated Fishing Owl.

It was our turn for the gorilla trek this morning and Jean-Pierre took us by boat to the Gorilla research station where we had to have Covid tests, show our medical certificate saying that we were fit enough to trek and show our gorilla permits. We were given information on the gorilla troop and told how to behave in their presence. We set off behind two rangers who set a very fast pace through the forest following an elephant track for a few minutes only to be told to turn back as the gorillas had moved on from their position. We were loaded into the research station’s boat and taken to another location and after jumping into water set off along another track. After a few miles along the track we were met by another tracker who took us to where the gorillas were.

We were so lucky as we had some younger Lowland Gorillas in the trees and some mothers with young sat on the ground. The Silverback was sat up a tree. It was a bit unnerving when he descended. For a while we watched a four-year old playing until the Silverback got up and walked right by us. We were instructed to re-group and stand very still. The whole group followed and disappeared into the forest. We walked back to the research station and were met by the rest of our group and were taken on the river to our next lodge at Ndole where we had lunch.

Our afternoon was spent on a another boat ride and a safari to see Red River Hogs. It was a late evening back to the lodge after dark.

We were up for 6am just after first light and after breakfast boarded a safari vehicle and set off along the very soft sand tracks at the back of N’dola Lodge. The lodge is on an island and the vehicles had to be boated over to the lodge. We are right by the coast in a superior luxury tent with a built shower and toilet at the back with full air conditioning!

Our two rangers took us to a Rosy Bee-eater nesting colony. These bee-eaters nest in holes on the ground rather than in sandy cliffs. As we approached the colony a tree was lit up with Rosy Bee-eaters. An amazing sight to see! We stood a distance away from the nest holes so that we did not disturb them. We also saw Black-headed Bee-eater and Blue-headed Bee-eater on our travels as well as African Forest Buffaloes.

After lunch we had some down-time before getting on a boat once again that took us to the coast and boarded a vehicle that drove along the coast at the back of a lagoon. Eventually the sand was too deep for the vehicle and we walked back towards the camp along the tidal edge to the tern and African Skimmer roost. Here we saw West African Crested Tern, Caspian Tern, Damara Tern, Sandwich Tern and Common Tern as well as African Skimmers whilst an Osprey looked on.

We had a pre-breakfast walk today and saw a nesting pair of Square-tailed Nightjars. After breakfast we loaded the boats with all our suitcases and were transported along the river to awaiting vehicles who took us along a very rough road to Omboue where we got on a boat once again and bounced around in a speed boat across a lagoon before ending up in a river channel only to be attacked by Tsetse flies. We covered up and then enjoyed watching Hartlub’s Ducks, White-crested Tiger Herons, Finfoots and a magnificent Pel’s Fishing Owl. After a couple of hours we zoomed back across the water and had lunch in a riverside restaurant before heading to a peninsular beach where we watched shore birds and more terns.

We drove to a small airport and flew from Port Gentil to Libreville where we enjoyed a meal sitting in the warm African night by the sea eating huge prawns and avocados.

As many of you will now have realised I am still in Gabon and have had either no internet or exceedingly little in the very remote lodges and villages that I have been staying in. The roads here are extremely rough and take hours to travel along and much of our journeys and birding has been by small boats along the rivers. I am now in a fancy hotel with some internet and am trying to upload some photos that I was unable to load back in August when I was first here. Do take a look!

I started my day in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia but as it was dark I didn’t see any birds!

Amazingly I landed at Heathrow Airport in glorious sun. This doesn’t happen very often, but it was cold after the warmth of Gabon.

After travelling back home I spent my day meeting my new neighbours and filling up the washing machine with some very grubby clothes! Whilst hanging out the washing, I watched a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying over calling.

It was a busy day at work today helping in the Welcome Hub and cafe at Titchwell, as the good weather brought out lots of visitors. So after being inside all day it was nice to join friends on the West Bank path after work to wander down with Neil and admire an American Golden Plover on the Freshmarsh. Peter told me where to find it hiding amongst the Dock leaves as it wasn’t giving very good views. However we didn’t have long to wait long until it got up and started to wander around. I cursed that I hadn’t taken my camera with me as the bird was closer than I had expected, so I had to make do with phone/scope photos. It was a lovely evening as we admired all the Golden Plovers resplendent in their golden colouring reflecting in the sunlight.

It was another extremely busy day at Titchwell today as I spoke to over 300 visitors that arrived at the Welcome Hub. All were greeted and told about the birds on the reserve. Later I needed to help out in the cafe as many visitors wanted cups of tea in our lovely newly-refurbished cafe. However I was also needed down at the car park at Snettisham as people turned up very early for the ‘Wader Spectacular’ event. Carrie and I were kept very busy and were helped by our wonderful volunteers who had managed the situation until we arrived.

We managed all the cars as our car park was already full and then made our way to the reserve, telling visitors where they needed to be to have the best vantage point for seeing our whirling waders as the tide approached high tide. In the hide the Black-tailed Godwits were all twittering and Spoonbills and Little Egrets stood around. We wandered back out to the watch point and watched in awe as the Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Oystercatchers, Dunlin and Sanderling put on a spectacular display once again over The Wash as the sun began to set. Carrie and I were exhausted by the end of the day!

I was due for an early start at work today as I was leading the Wader Spectacular walk at Snettisham, where Les and I greeted eight participants for their trip around the reserve and an explanation about the birds that we expected to see and watching the movements and shapes that thousands of birds can make. Les and I arrived as it was still getting light, but with the wind pushing into The Wash the tide was running ahead of itself and much of the mud that we could view was already covered with water. Our participants were soon parked up and we walked towards Shore Hide but stopped half way to listen to the whoosh over our heads as hundreds of Knot flew close above us, causing us to stop and stare in amazement at the spectacle unfolding in front of us. The waders were making amazing shapes in the air and then as they got closer, flew over us very close. We walked a little more and stopped once more watching, Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit and then heard a skein of Pink-footed Geese approaching, having freshly arrived from the Arctic.

We wandered into Shore Hide and saw hundreds of Knot on the ground in front of us. They were shimmying around and their calls were wonderful to hear as they jostled for space as more arrived. We looked at the 26 Spoonbills, Little Egrets, Cormorants and Shelduck before wandering around to Knots Landing where we settled in and admired a Common Sandpiper very close to the hide enjoying its bathing routine. More Black-tailed Godwits arrived along with Bar-tailed Godwits and Knot before our time was up and we walked back to the Wader watch point. The tide was on the turn and some of the waders came back out of the pits and gave us another wonderful display of the shapes that they could make in the air as they swirled around.

All too soon our stomachs were beginning to rumble as we all drove to The Rose and Crown where we all enjoyed a delicious English cooked breakfast.

My afternoon was spent sorting out my bird data as we have all lost two ticks now that the Redpolls have been lumped. This was then followed by sorting out a ‘wants’ list for my up-coming holiday to South Africa. Yes I know what you are all saying……………. but what mum would not want to support her son playing for his country in the World Championships for hockey in Cape Town? Hopefully between matches, John and I will be able to squeeze a little bit of birding in!

My evening was spent at the Wensum Valley Birdwatching Society club meeting amongst friends who watched a talk about the bears in Romania and birds of the Danube Delta. I have yet to see European Brown Bear, which I hope to out right next year! The Carpathian Mountains also looked interesting. I shall have to investigate these further!

John and I had a late start today when we met up with all the West Norfolk birders at Holme NWT, to look in the few Sycamore trees in the car park, that held Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Yellow-browed Warbler, Common Redstart and two Chiffchaffs. It was not easy viewing as the birds flitted around and trying to sort out which was a Chiffchaff and which was a Yellow-browed Warbler was a challenge for some of the visitors. An arriving part of Long-tailed Tits did not help our cause either!

I managed a photo of the Spotted Flycatcher but only underside views of the Yellow-browed Warbler that I deleted! It was nice to catch up with many friends and to have a drink with Tim at lunchtime. John and I went for a walk along the boardwalk and looked at four Pintail and a Little Grebe on Broadwater . Whilst seeing most of the aforementioned birds, I never did see the Pied Flycatcher!

It was a beautiful day when I woke up so I quickly made my way down to the supermarket to beat the traffic that was surely going to jam up the A149 later on. After completing household chores I decided to have a lazy afternoon in the garden. However the day seemed to nice not to be out and about so I went for a walk on Roydon Common  where I made my over to the quarry where I watched a Green Woodpecker (and heard two others at different locations) and three Stonechats. A Common Buzzard put all the corvids up that wheeled around over the top fields. A flock of 30 Goldfinches flew into a tree that a chiffchaff was calling from. A lone Hare stopped and stared at me as I counted six Fox Moth caterpillars on my return to the car park.

It was going to be another long day at work today as I started early in the morning leading another guided walk down at Snettisham. The tide was still a long way out, as I explained all about the birds and the tides in The Wash to the participants booked onto the walk. I expected to wait some time before the waders did their amazing spectacular displays but a juvenile Marsh Harrier had other ideas and flew over the waders along the tideline and put them all up into the air. It wasn’t giving up easily and the waders were all put up into the air giving us an early spectacular display right in front of us, as they decided to fly over us and descend into the pits before they normally do. By the time we had watched the display the tide had raced in and we had to walk quickly to keep up with it.

We stopped to watch, Shelduck, Little Egret, Oystercatchers, Knot, Curlew and Dunlin whilst being entertained by two Sanderling who were also having trouble walking quickly enough to avoid the oncoming tide. We stopped in Shore Hide to watch all the Knot jostling for space before walking onto the screen to admire all the Oystercatchers and Black-tailed Godwits present. At Knot’s Landing we looked through the one-way glass, where we had very close-up views of a Common Sandpiper bobbing right in front of the hide. The Black-tailed Godwits, Knot, Avocets and a lone Lapwing gave excellent views as we looked at the Spoonbills and Little Egrets all stood motionless in the water and up on the bank. Cormorants were drying out their wings on the rocks as we walked back to the cars , watching a Northern Wheatear, Linnets and Meadow Pipits and drove onto Titchwell, where after passing on my participants to Chris, I spent the rest of the morning in the Welcome Hub before helping out in the cafe.

Thankfully by mid-afternoon the rush in the cafe was over and I could return back to the Welcome Hub and sort out some photographs ready for my other work at Titchwell.

I spent some of my working day auditing the clip frames on the reserve at Titchwell today but at least I got to walk down to the Island Hide, Parrinder Hide and Fen Hide and enjoyed some fresh air. I heard a Yellow-browed Warbler calling as I wandered back from Fen Hide. Back in the office I had several other documents to audit. I think there will be some changes to some!

Back at home I was worried about two of my children who have both had flooding issues as they live in the west of the country. With more rain forecast, it’s not good news for them.

After catching up with domestic chores at home, I attended the NarVOS bird club meeting in Swaffham. The talk on Iceland brought back many memories when my daughter and I visited 23 years ago. How time flies! It brought back memories of Gyr Falcons, Harlequin Ducks, Red-necked Phalaropes and Redwings singing all night. We watched Minke Whales as well as seeing sights of geysers, waterfalls that we had been to. I also remember Ptarmigans running around a cafe that we had stopped at too.

Later some of us met in a local pub. It would seem that we are all off somewhere exotic in the next few weeks where the birding and wildlife will surely be very exciting and we will all be glad of some better weather than here!

It was a blustery north-westerly wind when I arrived at Cley this morning. Foam from the waves was spilling over the top of the shingle as I sheltered with John in the Cley beach shelter. We watched parties of Arctic Skuas and Bonxies go by as well as a small trickle of Gannets. Common Scoters and Wigeon were also on the move. John called a juvenile Long-tailed Skua which some of us managed to see as it passed by. A Red-throated Diver battled against the wind before someone spotted a falcon over the sea. We watched it dive down several times putting up some duck that had been riding the waves. The consensus was that it was a Peregrine.

Later John and I had a pleasant afternoon with Ann and Andrew, where we listened to all  their exciting birding trips that they have planned. Our chatter was interrupted when we were alerted to a passing Sabine’s Gull passing Sheringham flying east. We raced upstairs as we had time to look out from a bedroom window over the sea but sadly we suspect it flew below the cliff line and we failed to see it when minutes later it was reported from Cromer.