I'd like to warn everyone planning an independent birding trip to The Gambia that some - maybe most - of the guides are simply useless!
We used the "help" of a group who's stake out is situated in or around Kotu Bridge. We hired them because they seemed to be real birders and they are apparently members of The Bird Guides Association. Namely they were Malick Suso and Lamin Sidibeh, the latter is the chairman of BGA! This group cares for nothing but your money!
Malick was all right though many times he misidentified birds and was not always helpful. One night he simply refused to take us out for owling!
The worst guide I've ever met was Lamin Sidibeh despite he identified birds well.
I never met someone who made me feel that I am nothing more than a walking moneybag! He always refused to start early! He wanted to finish at 6 p.m. though it is great time for birding! One day when I refused to leave the site he shouted at me, cursed at me and almost hit me ! He had at least three joints by noon every single day!
If these things hadn't happened I wouldn't have mentioned that he drove the car crazy, he left us in the car many times for a long time.
If you still want to hire a guide at Kotu Creek, ask for Pa Jallow, who know the sites, a nice guy, and knows that something has to be done for the money we pay for him!
Good luck!
Attila Simay