Birding trip report Gabon (Gamba area) 14-29 Sep. 2009
John van der Woude    www.jvanderw.nl 
 See also  Species list   and   GPS waypoints/maps  
For photos of the birding sites etc., see the larger version (many MB's)
This was our first trip to west-central Africa, the tropical heart of this continent. Nollie and I stayed all the time in the Gamba area along the coast in south Gabon, as there was plenty to see for us and we had such a comfortable stay with relatives on the Shell compound there. Only a few bird species of this region did we pick up before in The Gambia and in Kakamega forest in west Kenya. Half of the 160 species we saw were lifers. We chose the second half of September as this would be the transition from the dry to the wet season, thus making the birds more active I presume. Moreover, the two most important species in this area if not in the whole of Gabon are African River Martin and Rosy Bee-eater, and both can be seen in especially this area from mid September, for a short period only. We saw hundreds of both species. The photo above shows the bee-eater. 
The most abundant bird families were: hornbills (I think we saw them at least every half hour or so), cuckoos (more heard than seen), bee-eaters, greenbuls and sunbirds.
Gabon as a whole is essentially lowland rainforest, with estuaries, rivers, lakes, lagoons, beaches, and some grasslands between the forests. The Gamba area has all of it, and still has few inhabitants. The Gamba complex (a small town, the Shell plant, an airport and Yenzi, the compound of Shell employees) was founded by Shell in the middle of nowhere. 
We owe a lot to Dave Sargeant's extensive report of the birds of the area in the early nineties (D.E. Sargeant 1993 - Gabon, a birder's guide; with emphasis on the Gamba area). There is also a local Smithsonian institute, and around 2005 a few articles appeared about the broader area. Nevertheless, we had to sort out many things locally ourselves, partly also because two birding contacts we had hoped to meet happened to be out. However, we really liked to explore the area, and this was hugely facilitated by the permanent use of the Toyota Landcruiser of our hosts Nolda and Jonathan. As a matter of fact, their very employment at Shell Gabon (Gamba) gave us the opportunity for coming to this remote destination. Actually, visiting the Gamba area without such contacts will not be easy. That said, it was a pleasant experience to be part of the Shell community in this isolated location.
Obtaining visas for Gabon became a sort of narrow escape as there were post-election troubles before the start of our trip. These troubles were over when we arrived.
We booked our Air France flight to Libreville from Paris instead of from Amsterdam, as the fare was over 400 euro per person cheaper this way.
Forest Elephants roam the Gamba area at night, and they are especially fond of the mango trees in the gardens of Yenzi, the Shell village. As these animals can be grumpy, one has to be very careful. For example, walking at night in Yenzi was not allowed. Of course, while walking forest tracks during the day we were always on our guard and hoping not to meet an elephant. After the tragic loss in April 2009 of a Dutch worldbirder due to a forest elephant in India, we were always very keen on hearing any branches breaking. This also meant that we only rarely left the forest tracks for finding skulking birds along the often indistinct elephant/buffalo trails. Snakes can be more difficult to see on those trails as well (we saw two big ones, although both from the car). We never encountered an elephant in the forests, but on the last night we saw a few closeby in Yenzi, from our (screened) veranda.
We took anti-malaria pills for the whole period, as there have been casualties in the area.
Although we hardly met anyone on our day trips, speaking French in this former French colony made things easier when we asked local people near plantations about the roads etc. Or, for learning from a local driver one morning in the middle of nowhere, that we had just 'missed' a silverback gorilla with two young...
The sites we visited were (see also GPS overview map):
Yenzi - the compound of the Shell employees; see first photo below; lush green open woodland and lawns.
Golf course - between Yenzi, lake Yenzi and woodland.
Open woodland W of Yenzi.
Degraded woodland/forest E of Yenzi lake.
'Mangrove road' opposite airport, leading to the sea; coastal scrub, mangrove, woodland.
'Vera plains' generic term for the rolling grassland hills E of airport area; mainly the forest blocks between them, like Bibonga, Tondou and 'Mark's forest'.
Bibonga forest - primary forest, hardly affected.
'Tondou forest' - Dave Sargeant's favorite and indeed very good although being affected bit by bit now; the forest is hard to find these days (but see GPS section), and the locals we met don't use the name Tondou.
'Mark's forest' - hard to find lush forest track pointed out to us by Mark (see GPS section), good for mixed species flocks.
Colas - coastal scrub and beach.
Nyanga - coastal scrub, small lagoons, estuary, beach.
Matsiegui lagoon - lake and a tidal mudflat/lagoon.
Totou road - tall forest.
Plus several minor sites.

All in all, we had a lovely time on a single and comfortable location in a remote near-wilderness, where we had a good introduction to the birds of tropical west-central Africa, plus several restricted-range specialties like African River-Martin and Rosy Bee-eater.