River at sunset with flying birds
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Gallery: bird-watching at Mandina Lodge

February 9, 2024 / 45 Comments

Stay in the right place and you may find you don’t have to stray far from your accommodation to see beautiful birds. Such a spot is Mandina Lodge in Gambia, a few miles inland and a million miles away in spirit from the coastal resorts.

So after my first ‘Bird Place of the Month’ took you to Senegal, this month I am taking you to neighbouring Gambia, which we actually visited the previous year!

Mandina consists of a small group of very individual lodges set among mangroves in the Makasutu Cultural Forest. Four of them are ‘floating lodges’, moored on the edge of the river, an off shoot of the Gambia. That is where we chose to stay.

From the deck

Every morning at Mandina tea or coffee is brought to your deck at a pre-agreed time. We were woken each morning by the pleasant sound of a tray being placed on the table outside and a cheerful ‘Good morning’. As soon as we were dressed we would hurry outside to enjoy our coffee. As we drank we would watch the river come to life around us. Both now at sunrise, and throughout the day, there was always something to see from this spot, including plenty of birds. Huge Goliath herons (up to 1.5 metres tall), other herons, pelicans, kingfishers and more.

Click on any image for a slideshow with captions

Tall slim bird at the top of a tree
Vivid orange and blue bird on a fence
Large grey bird in a tree
Large bird with big bill on a dead branch
Large white bird in a tree
Grey bird on a fence
Black and white bird with a long beak in a bare tree
By the pool

Of course if you’re willing to walk a few metres you may find even more! The large swimming pool here attracts not just people but birds too. Bee eaters swoop down to pick up insects from the water’s surface, while a small island in the middle is kept supplied with seeds by lodge staff.

Large grey and brown pigeon with red around eyes
Small yellow bird on a wooden ledge
Slender pale yellow bird with black markings in a bare tree
Grey and brown bird on a spiny trunk
Metallic blue bird with a long tail
Small red bird on stones by a tree trunk
Around the lodge

Drag yourself away from the lodge, perhaps on a walk with one of the resident naturalist guides or a boat ride on the river, and you will see yet more birds. My feature photo was taken during a sunset cruise when we witnessed hundreds of egrets, herons and others, all descending on a particular small island to roost.

Black and red bird on a bare branch
Two bright green birds in a dead tree
Large brown and black bird on a bare branch
White and black bird with large red bill on the ground
Brown bird with curved beak by a pile of shells
Two brown water birds by tree trunks
Rust-coloured duck among tree trunks by the water's edge
Disclaimer

If this sounds like an advert for this magical place, I apologise. I promise you, I’m not on commission! But if you love birds and want to experience a very different Gambia, away from the more tourist-developed coastline, albeit with plenty of creature comforts, you could do worse than stay here! For me it was certainly a very Happy Place, Happy Space.

I visited Mandina Lodge in 2014

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