Tendaba — Bao Bolong mangrove creeks and Kiang West savanna
African fish eagle, goliath & purple herons, pelicans, Pel's fishing owl, blue-breasted kingfisher, mouse-brown sunbird; bateleur, martial eagle; sitatunga, manatee; wintering ospreys and whimbrel. Kiang West National Park & Bao Bolong Wetland Reserve, Lower River, The Gambia.
Best time: 15 Nov – 15 Feb (November to February). Where: Tendaba – river jetty, Bao Bolong Wetland Reserve creeks (north bank), Kiang West NP – Dumbutu HQ & Toubab Kollon viewpoint (The Gambia). Time of day: Creek pirogue from first light (departures about 07:00) for 3 hours.
- Partly on your own
- Low cost
- Binoculars helpful
- Sound 4/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 15 Nov – 15 Feb. Mid November to mid February; the bateleurs are most often seen July–September
Active from 1 Nov to 30 Apr (November to April) in a typical year.
Time of day
Creek pirogue from first light (departures about 07:00) for 3 hours; the river at dusk for fish eagles and the roost; owls after dark from the camp jetty
- Creek pirogue: first light → 3 h after sunrise
- River dusk: 1 h before sunset → 1 h after last light
Depends on the tide: best around high tide. Check local tide tables.
What will you hear?
Fish eagles duetting across the Gambia river, the mangrove's clicks and splashes at low water, kingfishers and bee-eaters in the creeks, and Pel's fishing owl's deep hoot from the camp at night.
Binoculars?
Binoculars helpful. Kingfishers and herons are within metres in the bolongs; binoculars for fish eagles across the river and the Toubab Kollon view.
Where to go
- Tendaba – river jetty — River village on the south bank, 145 km from Banjul, with the old river camp; pirogues across to the Bao Bolong creeks leave from the jetty. Map
- Bao Bolong Wetland Reserve creeks (north bank) — Ramsar mangrove reserve opposite Tendaba; the tunnel-like Kisi and Tunku bolongs. Map
- Kiang West NP – Dumbutu HQ & Toubab Kollon viewpoint — Escarpment viewpoint over the river; walking and vehicle tracks from the HQ village. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Public transport along the South Bank road to Kwinella junction, then a 5 km walk or a lift to Tendaba (or to Dumbutu for Kiang West). Kiang West tracks and the Toubab Kollon viewpoint can be walked alone with the DPWM park fee; the mangrove creeks are only by pirogue, hired directly at the Tendaba jetty (no operator needed).
Cost: Kiang West DPWM fee small; Tendaba creek pirogue shared, roughly 300–500 dalasi per person (recent reports) — check current prices.
Free or no-guide alternative: The Toubab Kollon viewpoint in Kiang West and the riverbank at Tendaba village give fish eagles, herons and the river dusk without a boat; the Kiang West park fee is small and there is no guide requirement.
Field-recording notes
Creek pirogues are quiet inside the bolongs (paddled or slow) but the crossing is by outboard; ask for a paddle-only hour at high water. Tendaba has generators (evenings) and a village; the Kiang West escarpment is silent. Harmattan dust in January and February, big temperature swings. Kiang West is walkable with a park permit; Bao Bolong is a wetland reserve with no gate, but the creeks are boat-only.
Sources
Similar spectacles
Lauwersmeer in winter: barnacle geese, wigeon and sea eaglesBarnacle geese yapping in a continuous chorus on the polder and the roar of 10,000 lifting at once; greylags and white-fronts honking in the dawn flight; wigeon whistling in the dark; eagles' yelps; the Dark Sky Park is genuinely quiet at night.
Wadden Sea autumn: geese, waders and whooper swans in the marshBarnacle goose yapping in flocks of tens of thousands over the Ballum marsh, brent geese growling on the flats, golden plover flocks whistling, whooper swan families bugling on the polders at night, curlew; the tide.
Pink-footed goose dawn flightsTens of thousands of geese lifting off the mudflats at first light in a wall of 'wink-wink' calls, wave after wave overhead.
Whooper swans & barnacle geeseBugling whoopers and yapping barnacle flocks like a huge crowd; the whole Svalbard barnacle population is on one estuary.
Arctic geese on the Lower RhineWhite-fronted geese's high yelping in skeins of thousands, bean geese's deeper 'kayak', the roar of a roost lifting off the Rhine at first light, whooper swans on the Bislicher Altrhein; barges and the A57 underneath.
Lower Oder Valley: whooper swans, geese and the flooded poldersWhooper swan bugling in chorus over the polder ice-edge, geese lifting at dawn by the thousand, smew and goldeneye wing-whistle, eagle yelps; in October, cranes; in May, corncrakes at night.
More: all spectacles in The Gambia · eagles · winter geese, swans and ducks · The Gambia in January · The Gambia in February · The Gambia in November · The Gambia in December