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Gambia | Inglorious Bustards | Bird Party in The Gambia

Gambia | Inglorious Bustards | Bird Party in The Gambia

Tendaba
Kiang Central
Top Birding Ecotours
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Highlights

1. Experience the eye-popping colours of this tiny West African country, with birds like Violet and Green Turaco, Western Bluebill, Egyptian Plover, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Exclamatory Paradise Whyda, African Paradise and Blue Flycatchers, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Oriole Warbler, Four-banded Sandgrouse, Bearded Barbet, European, White-throated, Little, Little Green, Blue-cheeked, Red-throated and Northern Carmine Bee-eater, Greater Painted Snipe and Bruce´s Green Pigeon bringing all the colours of the rainbow!

2. Get to know the gleaming waters of the Gambia River - the country´s defining environmental features - on a series of boat trips to its shores creeks and mangroves, on the look out for African Finfoot, Adamawa Turtle Dove, Hadada Ibis, Black Crake, White-backed Night Heron and more.

3. Above unspoilt Sahelian scrub in the interior, look up to see a myriad of raptors, like Bateleur, African Hawk Eagle, Long-crested Eagle, Marshall´s Eagles, Wahlberg´s Eagle, Beaudouin´s, Short-toed and Brown Sanke Eagle, Grasshopper and Lizard Buzzards, Shikra, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Ruppell’s, Hooded, Palm Nut and White-backed Vultures

4. Enjoy mammalian encounters with Western Red Colobus, Patas and Green Monkeys, Guinea Baboons, Chimpanzees, Gambian Sun Squirrel, Common Warthog and Hippopotamus.

5. Travel with us all the way upriver, and experience the bustling market towns, peaceful villages, genuine warm welcomes and exceptionally tasty food of the real Gambia.

 

Overview

This tiny, friendly West African gem has long been a favourite with birders, and with good reason. As the gleaming Gambia River bends gently inland to form its welcoming ‘grin’, it provides access to teeming habitats ranging from coastal creeks to mangrove swamps to freshwater lakes, with species-rich Sahelian scrubland in between.

Occupying about the area of Norfolk and Suffolk combined, this small, accessible country embraces the shores of the languid Gambia River, which flows through its very heart before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Extensive protected areas interspersed with low-key traditional agriculture make for a welcoming wildlife haven, rich in eye-poppingly colourful flora and fauna.

Appealing, hospitable and easy to visit, this simply amazing birding destination provides an ideal introduction to sub-Saharan Africa, with raptors galore and a myriad of colourful and exciting target species. Bursting with life and culture, it is well-deserving of its nickname of ‘Africa’s Smiling Coast’, not just for its geographical appearance, but also because of the genuinely warm welcome waiting for you here.

Some of the highlights for our exceptionally long bird list can include:

Egyptian Plover, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, African Finfoot, Western Bluebill, Adamawa Turtle Dove, Oriole Warbler, Hadada Ibis, Black Crake, White-backed Night Heron, Four-banded Sandgrouse, Bateleur, African Hawk Eagle, Long-crested Eagle, Shikra, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Bearded Barbet, Violet and Green Turaco, European, White-throated, Little, Little Green, Blue-cheeked, Red-throated and Northern Carmine Bee-eater, Exclamatory Paradise Whyda, African Paradise and Blue Flycatchers, Ruppell’s, Hooded and White-backed Vultures, Greater Painted Snipe and Bruce´s Green Pigeon.

Mammals that may be encountered on this trip include Western Red Colobus, Patas and Green Monkeys, Guinea Baboons, Chimpanzees, Gambian Sun Squirrel, Common Warthog and Hippopotamus.

Despite its poverty, The Gambia is rich in culture and great food! A variety of ethnic groups – including Mandinka, Fula and Wolof people – live side-by-side in the Gambia, each preserving its own language and traditions. Cuisine includes simple but delicious dishes based on peanuts, rice, fish, meat, onions, tomatoes, cassava, chili peppers and oysters from the River Gambia.  In particular look out for yassa and domoda  – two unforgettable Gambian curries!

Amongst the super-numerous butterflies we can expect beauties such as African Tiger, African Painted Lady, Guineafowl, Citrus Swallowtail, Orange Acraea, African Tiger blue and Common Zebra Blue.

 

Photo Gallery

Ethics

At Terra Incognita we support tours that do good in the world. They must help conserve the environment, support local people and provide educational opportunities for guests and staff, or be actively working to improve in these areas.

What conservation activities do you support through the tour, and your wider operations?

Based at Kotu Creek, near Brufut, The Gambia Birdwatchers Association was established in 2007.  It provides a headquarters for the area´s bird guides, trains the next generation of ornithologists, and carries out excellent project-based conservation work, including utilising local volunteers in the restoration of mangrove swamp habitat.  In The Gambia, many important forests are community-owned, and GBA are instrumental in setting up community reserves, training bird guides in the villages and enabling them to benefit from the preservation of forest habitat through well-thought-out ecotourism.

Inglorious Bustards work closely with GBA, giving project advice and consultation.  From 2019, we will be donating 10% of our profits from all our Gambia trips to supporting their high quality, objective-led work.

How does the tour support local people?

Inglorious Bustards always use locally-owned accommodation and catering providers, and experienced local guides, ensuring that much-needed ecotourism revenue remains within the country, strengthening support for environmental conservation work and protected areas, and ultimately protecting the wildlife and health of the countryside for the benefit of all local people.

Our support of the Gambia Birdwatchers Association enables communities to preserve their own forests and traditional ways of life by instrumenting creation of community forest reserves and training bird guides from the villages, enabling them to benefit from the preservation of forest habitat through well-thought-out ecotourism.

What type of environmental education activities do you incorporate into your tour?

We offer our Flyway Birders the opportunity to meet the conservationists of the Gambia Birdwatcher´s association first hand at their headquarters in Kotu Creek, where they can hear first hand about the organistion´s work and the challenges they face.

Our work for the RSPB on sustainable peanut farming and agriculture in The Gambia allows us to enhance our wildlife-watching experience by adding an eye-opening, educational angle, making sure that our groups leave understanding the human-created challenges that migrating wildlife faces across the Flyway, and understanding how this relates to the choices we make in every day life.

Do you provide any additional conservation, community or educational benefits through your wider operations that you’d like to mention?

All across the East Atlantic Flyway, there are passionate individuals and local NGOs running brilliant small-scale conservation initiatives, making immediate positive differences for their local wildlife.  As our company grows, so does our ability to contribute to their efforts.  Our portfolio of projects expands all the time, and you can read more on our website, but here´s a taster:

The Migres Foundation is a private non-profit scientific and cultural foundation, focused on the preservation and enhancement of natural heritage in the Straits of Gibraltar.

Migres has run a long-term monitoring program of bird migration through the Strait of Gibraltar since 1997, making it the greatest sustained effort for monitoring migratory birds in Europe, and is immensely important in monitoring population change and migratory patterns in many avian species, including endangered species such as Egyptian Vultures and Balearic Shearwaters.

The body of scientific research generated by Migres on interactions between soaring birds and wind turbines has global importance.

They also perform research and awareness programs, carry out advanced ornithological training activities and environmental education, organise conferences, and encourage activities promoting sustainable local development and nature tourism in general.

We work closely with Migres in assisting with monitoring, fundraising and promotional activities using our wealth of experience gained whilst working for the RSPB.

Marisma 21 is an organisation devoted to the restoration of the salt marshes in the Bay of Cadiz, on the south western coast of Spain. The salt marsh is an important ecological area and Marisma 21’s objectives are the recovery and holistic revitalisation of the salt pans using artisanal salt production methods. This not only ensures the maintenance of the macro-flora in the salt pans, an important food source for migratory wading birds, but enhances the local environment for aquatic salt-loving species.

The sympathetic management and hand-harvesting of the pans not only generates multiple benefits for wildlife, it also brings employment to the area in the form of salt production work and nature tourism.

On selected tours, we offer you the opportunity to dine on site at the salt pans, watching breeding Little Terns and Kentish Plovers while eating delicious freshly-cooked tortillitas de camarrones, and shrimps fished from the salt pans just moments before!  You´ll have the opportunity to support their work by taking home some souvenir salt, an incredibly tasty product you´ll also get to sample at our picnics!

Based at Kotu Creek, near Brufut, The Gambia Birdwatchers Association was established in 2007.  It provides a headquarters for the area´s bird guides, trains the next generation of ornithologists, and carries out excellent project-based conservation work, including utilising local volunteers in the restoration of mangrove swamp habitat.  In The Gambia, many important forests are community-owned, and GBA are instrumental in setting up community reserves, training bird guides in the villages and enabling them to benefit from the preservation of forest habitat through well-thought-out ecotourism.

Inglorious Bustards work closely with GBA, giving project advice and consultation.  From 2019, we will be donating 10% of our profits from all our Gambia trips to supporting their high quality, objective-led work.

Certificates

Listed on Terra Incognita Ethical Bird Tours, 2018.

Registered on the Andalusian Tourism Registry (RTA), and licensed to operate in Natural Parks by the Junta de Andalucía.

World Land Trust Corporate Supporter.

Top 5 achievements

The Inglorious Bustards have a challenge!  As conservationists, we are only too aware of the environmental impact of the activities associated with our business.  We want to share with you the joy of watching wildlife all along the East Atlantic flyway, but in doing so we inevitably encourage consumption of the planet´s resources. Our challenge as a responsible ecotourism operator is to ensure that our activities can be channelled into a positive outcome for the environment.  We want to make sure that, when you travel with us, you´ll be benefitting, not exploiting the wildlife we see together.  On our trips, “eco-tourism” is a promise, not an oxymoron.

We call this concept #FlywayBirding.  We have turned traditional so-called “eco-tourism” on its head, putting conservation action and education at the very heart of what we do, not just as a guilt-assuaging afterthought to our trips.  We´ve thought hard about how to bring a completely fresh approach to delivering wildlife holidays from a sustainable standpoint, making only a positive impact on our surroundings.  And we’ve worked extremely hard to build some fantastic partnerships to help us!

Here is how we’re doing it – our #FlywayPromise to you.

1. We encourage sustainable land use.

Our work over decades for the RSPB, attempting to reverse the fortunes of UK, European and African farmland wildlife, has made us recognise the power of food choice and how it can affect the plight of declining species.

Latest findings presented at the IPCC in October 2018 were striking and conclusive.  While everyone talks about electricity generation and fossil fuel consumption, it is an oft-ignored fact that by far the best way of having a positive impact on our planet is to change what we eat.  Currently 85% of the world´s farmed land produces just 18% of our calories.  Loss of wildlife areas to agriculture is the leading cause of the current mass extinction of wildlife.  This is the legacy of meat and dairy production, which has enormous environmental costs in terms of habitat loss, air and water pollution and carbon release.

In order to keep global temperature rise below 2ºC by 2020, we as global citizens will need to eat around nine times less red meat, five times less poultry and five times more legumes, vegetables, nuts and seeds. On our trips we are working towards these changes by offering a higher proportion and better quality of vegetarian options on our dinner menus than ever before.  We want to make the choice to eat ethically an irresistible one!

We are also extremely proud to have teamed up with the Tarifa Ecocenter.  Operating under the slogan “The fork is the most powerful tool to change the planet.”, the Ecocenter is not just a superb vegetarian restaurant, it is a local hub for eco-consciousness.  Here you can partake in delicious, sustainably-sourced meals, made with produce from local wildlife-friendly farms.  The organic produce shop and meeting spaces are a sociable place designed to encourage the exchange of ideas.  We love working in partnership with them, along with their sister project, Molino de Guadalmesi – an organic farm, community centre, eatery and eco-lodge situated in a beautifully-restored water mill.  On selected tours, we visit the mill for dinner, offering our guests a thought-provoking experience around food choice and how positive change can help our wildlife and the wider environment – not to mention be extremely tasty!

Our picnics always contain seasonal local produce from small farmers.  In all of our destinations, we are lucky enough to find a wealth of small artisanal producers, many of whom are organic.  In 2019 we will source at least 50% of the fresh goods in our picnics from them.  Our aim is to increase this to 75+% by 2020.  Luckily, local extensively grazed goats´ and sheeps´ cheeses are invariably superb, and Andalusian organic tomatoes and peppers are quite simply world-beaters!  Our picnic fruit and vegetables for our Straits-based tours are now sourced wherever possible from the Tarifa Eco-centre, being grown locally on their farm.  In all of our trips to Africa, we source fresh from local markets and village traders.

2. We minimise packaging waste.

It seems that after many years of campaigning, the horror of the extent of our plastic consumption has finally entered the public consciousness, and changes might actually be made.  Our history of avoidance, reuse and recycling of plastic goes back many years, but when we are out cetacean-watching on the Straits enjoying copious marine life, we are certainly pleased to be part of the current wave!

Of all the hazardous materials littering our seas today, plastic poses one of the greatest threats.  Thanks to our locally-produced food sourcing, the excess of packaging associated with supermarkets is immediately eliminated.  When we buy dry and other goods, we buy in bulk and manage their use carefully, thus reducing both food and packaging waste. Luckily Niki is from Yorkshire originally, so thrift comes naturally!

We ask our clients to bring their own water bottles which are filled from taps or potable mountain springs.  In countries outside the EU where tap water is not drinkable, we buy large containers and decant into personal bottles to reduce plastic waste.

3. We minimise our in-country transport emissions - what we can´t eliminate, we offset.

In Spain, we minimise the emissions associated with our in-country transport by use of modern, fuel-efficient vehicles.  Our minibus is a Renault Trafic, known as being one of the most economical vans on the market, returning an impressive mpg of 50, with further features such as Stop & Start, Cruise Control and ECO mode adding to its green credentials.

Our focus on hosting trips along the glorious East Atlantic Flyway means that we are able to arrive at 90% of our tour destinations to meet you without boarding a flight ourselves.

We know our areas well, so we are also able to apply careful route-planning to minimise driving distances between sites.

Inglorious Bustards have pledged to offset unavoidable carbon emissions through World Land Trust’s (WLT) Carbon Balanced programme.

Unlike some carbon-offsetting schemes, this is not simply a case of absolving guilt by shoving some trees in an ill-thought-out location!  WLT funds the purchase or lease of threatened land to create nature reserves, protecting both habitats and their wildlife.  By protecting and restoring threatened forest in key areas of conservation importance, CO₂ emissions are prevented and carbon storage enhanced.  To make projects like this work, this fore-sighted organisation includes, rather than excludes local communities.  It funds partner NGOs to employ local people as reserve rangers, sustainably managing some of the world’s most threatened habitats and the animals found within them.

We balance all the CO₂ emissions associated with our staff flights and all in-country travel and accommodation associated with our tours.  In 2018, we offset over 24 tonnes of CO₂, funds for which went directly to acquiring and preserving threatened forest habitat.  We are also encouraging you to offset your own holiday flights through WLT. Currently this can be done directly through their website, but in early 2019 we will be introducing an option to our booking form allowing you to offset as you book your trip!

4. We encourage respectful wildlife-watching.

For the prosperity of the species that we enjoy watching so much, and for our own ongoing enjoyment, it is imperative that we avoid disturbing the wildlife we are trying to see.

We never flush birds.  The reward of seeing a Red-necked Nightjar or a Tawny Owl at rest after patient and quiet searching from afar is so much greater than glimpsing one fly away after some idiot has just booted it out of the undergrowth!  For ground-nesters such as the Moroccan Marsh Owl, we now only offer trips outside the breeding season, and time our site visits to maximise the chance of finding the birds active rather than roosting.

We use fieldcraft to find passerines.  Usually with a little patience and listening, it is perfectly possible to find the bird you are looking for.  On the very rare occasions we choose to use a tape, we do so sensitively, always adhering to the guidelines published in the article “The Proper Use of Playback in Birding” by Sibley et al.

Where we work through other companies, for example for cetacean-watching boat trips or to look for Iberian Lynx, we only work with reputable firms who have non-intrusive wildlife-watching protocols in place.

5. We challenge the unethical.

While we as individuals have no problem with sustainable subsistence hunting within local communities, we personally find hunting for so-called ‘sport’ abhorrent, and unsustainable trophy hunting completely unacceptable.  The hunting industry seems to be out of control, able to damage ecosystems and illegally kill native wildlife with impunity.  Of the thirty optics companies that were examined in the 2018 Ethical Consumer report entitled “Shooting Wildlife II”, 83% were found to specifically market to hunters as well as birders.  And a disappointing 13 of these actively glamorise trophy hunting in their promotional material, including targets like lions and bears.

That´s why we´re proud to be ambassadors for Viking Optical – a British-based company which is one of only a handful of companies that produce high quality optics solely for the wildlife-watching market.  They too have nature at their heart and support a variety of conservation projects including being RSPB Species Champions for two critically endangered birds and long-time sponsors of the Birdfair.  We love the personal contact, trust and compassion involved in working with them.  They really put their optics where their mouth is, enabling us to loan binoculars to volunteers monitoring the raptor migration across the Straits of Gibraltar, to bird-watching newcomers, and to budding young Gambian ornithologists.

What new sustainability steps or initiatives do you plan to take next?

We are growing a little very year, and as we do, so does the work we can do with our partners to deliver real conservation benefits on the ground.  For 2019-20 we have some really exciting projects in the pipeline in Spain and The Gambia.  All will be revealed…

We´re also working closely with our accommodation providers across the board to come up with balanced menus that are not so heavily meat-based.  We are lucky enough to know some really talented chefs, and in 2019-20 we will be working towards introducing at least one meat-free day to every trip (an approach pioneered in partnership with our Straits accommodation provider, Huerta Grande eco-lodge), as well as making sure vegetarian options are as superb as the rest of the menu!

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Company Name

Inglorious Bustards

Birding, Conservation & Wildlife Tours

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About Company

Here at the Inglorious Bustards, experiencing the powerful event of bird migration has led to a life-long fascination with avian migration and #FlywayBirding. It’s no accident that we have chosen our base to be here in the Straits of Gibraltar. Our location near Tarifa puts us right at the epicentre of birding in the Straits and, from a migrating raptor’s point of view, we must surely also be at the centre of the world!

We love not only to marvel at the birds passing but also to follow them on their migratory journey, and explore the whole range of fascinating and varied terrains they traverse each year.

More than that though, we love to share our adventures with you! As well as our home-from-home in southern Spain, we take pride in bringing you the best of birding and migration spectacles along the whole East Atlantic flyway journey, through Europe, and North Africa, right down to the steamy wintering grounds of many of our nomads, south of the Sahara. Our #FlywayBirding tours have nothing to do with racing around ticking birds and everything to do with enjoying landscapes, habitats and cultures and having a good laugh – at a relaxed pace.

If like us you enjoy amazing wildlife spectacles where adventure meets relaxation and fun, then you have found the right place!

Tour Website

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Cost

€2,400 for 11 days – price includes all accommodation, meals, guiding, transportation, taxes and entrances but excludes flights, incidental refreshments and items of a personal nature.

Deposit €480

Single supplement €130

Tendaba
Kiang Central
+34 665 945992
info@ingloriousbustards.com
ingloriousbustards.com

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