Bee-eaters and standard-winged nightjar, Gambia

Thursday 9 February.

Again, around Janjanbureh.

A long-tailed glossy starling on a wire near Baobolong.

10:25: a dark chanting goshawk on a fence.

10:40 we are back at yesterday’s quarry housing the red-throated bee-eater colony.

There are also holes smaller than the bee-eaters’ nest holes: they house sand martins.

Northern anteater-chats. They are especially active around a termite mound.

An Abyssinian roller.

A striped ground squirrel.

Then, something really special, a standard-winged nightjar.

Before coming to Gambia, I knew this spectacular species lived there. But I thought I would see those nocturnal birds not at all, or only vaguely in the dark.

Yet here it is, only a few meters away, soundly asleep, trusting its mimicry colours making it look similarly to the earth of the field where it rests. An adult male in breeding plumage, meaning tail-feathers are longer than the body.