Around Podor - La Cour du Fleuve - January 18th

A day spent primarily looking for Nightjars and Little Grey Woodpecker in the area around Podor. 

  We got up for 6.15 start to go for Golden Nightjar. We tried the original site but we only found Long-tailed nightjars so we went to the second place we visited last night and soon had one flying around but it didn't settle and we did have several Long-tailed Nightjars calling and flying around. The air was thick with flying insects.We walked around the site, which looked like it was cultivated at times and saw various birds like Village Indigo bird, Vitelline Masked Weaver, a nice Woodchat Shrike, Red-billed Quelea, Pin-tailed Whydah, Ruddy Shelduck, African Sacred Ibis, Grey Heron and Cattle Egrets flew around We returned for breakfast of bread and Hibiscus jam, there were Little Swifts flying around and we spent a bit of time on the roof where we saw a Veillot’s Barbet in the trees. Egrets and a Purple Heron flew along the river and there was a small group of women on the bank doing some washing. We spent some time peering into a tree as someone reported an owl but no luck. We then spent the day scanning an area for Little Grey Woodpecker. On the way back to the site we stopped at a pool which held 3 Painted Snipe, Night Heron, 

We went back for a 2.00 pm lunch of fish and rice before returning. I spent my time pottering around the area while the others ranged more widely but no luck. Among the birds we did see was a steady stream of Namaqua Doves plus things like Tawny Pipit, Green Wood Hoopoe, Fork-tailed Drongo, Woodchat Shrike, Green Bee-eater and Blue-napped Mousebird. It was very hot. 

We headed back to the second site and had two Golden Nightjars flying around but, similar to before, they didn’t hang around very long. There were several Long-tailed Nightjars calling and feeding in the very insects soup. As we made our way back we did some spotlighting from the van and one set of eye shine looked very promising, so we stopped the van and quietly walked along a raised bank. It was a Genet, seen by David and Chris to cross the path into some thickets, it appeared a little further on but I couldn’t see it. We made our way back slowly and a scan along the field edge showed eye shine again. This time the Genet walked slowly through the hedge, appearing a little later at the back of the field and giving excellent views as it made its way into a small copse. Brilliant!

We headed back for dinner and bed.