This is a male Giant Kingfisher, (I took this photo early this morning).

I am now in to day 5 of my trip to the West African country of Gambia.  I am staying in a nice Hotel very close to the famous birding site of Koto Creek.  So whats it been like so far?  Well the birding and photographic opportunities ar just immense.  Its not all good.  I have to say that my experiences with the local birdguides is a tortuous affair.  They are obviously very knowledgeable about the local birds, the best sites and are able to find you all the common species in a fraction of the time that it would take you to find them.  It's also good to have birds instantly identified both on call and sight but they are no more slillfull in that than any other birder would be on his local patch. They charge a massively ridiculous amount of money, comparatively a crazy price. The more I think about it the more angry it is making me. Just chatting to the staff in the bar, they are telling me that they get paid less than £40's a month, knowing that, when you are being asked to pay £25, £30 for a couple of hours and as I did yesterday £40 pounds for a morning and evening session, well something is wrong somewhere?  So here is the real dichotomy, yesterday was probably the best days birding I have had in my life and to me it felt like real value for money. I photographed, Lizard Buzzard, Long tailed Nightjar, beautiful little waxbills and swallows all birds that I wouldn't have even seen, let alone photograph.  I walked with the guides in the bush along sandy paths, birds were on my left, then on my right, in the sky then flying in to beautiful flowering shrubs to feed.  Not a real paradise but very near to it!

I guess you would like to see some more images from the trip. This is an Orange cheeked Waxbill, a common bird in aviculture but a real gem here in the wild where they belong.
When I have seen them here they have been in small groups in the company of Lavender Waxbills, feeding in the sandy ground by scratching for fallen grass and weed seeds.

Lizard Buzzard
This is a Wire-tailed Swallow a species that is not difficult to see, or photograph here. A lovely little swallow.

One of the nicest birds that I have seen here and on numerous occasions, is the Little Bee-eater, I have taken hundreds and hundreds of photos of them and it s been hard to decide which ones I like the best.
I have been watching this pair of birds early in the morning. I know they are breeding somewhere because the male of the pair was flying constantly to catch insects and then passing the prey on to the female. A great experience. Its not all about birds and I was really taken by the this particular Red Colobus Monkey.