Trip to western Mali – Day 3

Today was reserved for driving through the entire study area and getting a feel for the different habitats represented and seeing where the various infrastructure are planned. We started in the south, arriving at a large grassy plain surrounded by closed woodland and thickets. The change in scenery was quite dramatic and gave us an indication of how heterogenous the area is. The reason for the lack of trees and shrubs is because the laterite is almost unweathered and presents as sheetrock in many places, giving no place for trees to send down roots. This rock layer just below the surface also results in temporary flooding during the wet season and extreme drought during the dry season, making it a hostile environment foAs to be expected, the birds present on the open plains were quite different to the surrounding woodlands. These included Sun Lark, Wattled Lapwing, Forbes’ Plover, small groups of Red-throated Bee-eaters, and mixed flocks of Red-throated and Pied-winged Swallows. A small troop of attractive Patas Monkeys ran off into the woodlands at our arrival. One of the highlights in this area was a small temporary pan that was covered with a mass of aquatic plants, including the sky-blue Monochoria brevipetiolata, an unidentified Dopatrium species and the clover-leaf fern Marsilea cf. polycarpa.  A short walk into the surrounding woodlands produced a birding highlight in the form of a pair of Adamawa Turtle Doves that perched in full view for a few minutes. This very localised species was unknown from Mali until recently, and I was really hoping to find it! We then continued to a track that followed the Faleme River to the eastern boundary of the tenement area, where I encountered my first Khaya senegalensis trees, and other typical riparian forest species such as Uvaria chamae and Spondias mombin. We then drove through the centre of the tenement area, across laterite plains that had scattered Impala Lilies, to a ridge along the eastern boundary from where we could look down onto a large portion of the survey area.