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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Independent Uganda September 15th - 30th (1 Viewer)

Mabamba Swamp

And so it was, that at 6am on our last full day in the country, we were cramming into the back of an old toyota corolla with two men we’d met the previous evening, and a guide called Peter.
We drove through the grey pre-dawn streets of Entebbe until we reached a dock on the edge of the city. It had been raining since we had awoken, and now even though the light was increasing, it seemed there was no break in the dark clouds. I wasn’t feeling particularly optimistic.
After waiting for 10 minutes for our boatman to arrive, we began to clamber into the leaky longboat, when a huge bolt of lightning shot directly into Lake Victoria. Our guide looked across the empty water and said rather sagely “perhaps it is not best to be the highest point in the lake in this weather” an excellent choice.
We waited for a further hour before the weather began to ease a little.

Along the shore a juvenile Wood sandpiper was pecking at the water's edge. It was incredible to think that here was a bird that had probably hatched out of an egg up in Scandinavia or Russian a few months ago, and had traversed all of Europe, the Mediterranean, the Sahara and a half of Africa to arrive at this very spot, before leaving sometime next year to do the same journey in reverse. There were other Palearctic migrants that had made the same journey too; White winged and Whiskered terns, Common sandpipers, European swift and Barn swallow all hawked over the water and reminded me that there are so many levels on which one can appreciate the world’s birds. I was here to try to see something a little less mobile, and considerably more sought after than all of these species however.

As we made our way across the lake a couple of new birds were noted, with Red knobbed coot and Yellow billed duck sitting on the surface. After a brief respite, the rain again arrived, and within 5 minutes I was soaked right through to my underpants.

We drew closer to the swamp, and we changed into a smaller boat with no outboard motor - we were going in. There were few birds about in the rain, but we did get good views of African and European Marsh harriers, Long toed lapwing, Blue headed coucal and Northern Brown throated weaver. Moving silently through the marshes, there was a strange ethereal feel, with constant drizzle, occasional patches of mist, and the throngs of papyrus waving as we went by.

Our guide perched at the front of the boat suddenly stood up and made a subtle hand gesture to the left. The boat moved silently towards a gap in the vegetation, and there stood a creature that seemed so perfect for this strange water world; Shoebill. This was a truly magical moment, and despite the fact that the bird stood motionless with its insanely glaring eyes and eponymous bill, it certainly ranks in my top 5 birding moments. We took the bird in for about 5 minutes until it silently opened it massive wings and lifted off a short distance across the swamp. Over the course of the next hour we encountered another 3 individuals, and had astonishing views of one bird as it lunged for something unseen below the surface.

I noted a couple of other birds as we drifted back, with a Black shouldered kite perched in the same clump of bushes as several Broad billed roller, and we had good views of Black egret, White faced whistling duck and Purple swamphen. There was a commotion near the front of the boat as our guide suddenly stood up again, but I couldn’t see what he and one of the other guests were looking at. Whatever it was scuttled into some reeds, and I was a bit annoyed to learn it was a Lesser jacana but as I’d seen Shoebill, I didn’t let it bother me too much.

We spent the afternoon having a relaxing wander around the Botanical gardens, which I must admit offered some excellent birding. We saw many of the species that had been observed during the trip extremely well, and I would strongly recommend this as a good introduction to the country when you arrive. I counted some 48 species in the afternoon, not bad at all, and the final addition to the triplist was a bird that I had expected to see fairly widely - African openbill - yet strangely this was the first one that I had registered during our travels.

It had been an incredible trip and a wonderful experience. The warmth of the people, stunning and varied landscapes and spectacular landscapes far exceeded my expectations. I had seen a good number of my target birds, and had ticked off another 3 species from my bucket list - Martial eagle, Carmine bee-eater and Shoebill. In total I recorded 317 species in 14 days, and considering that I only used a guide on 3 occasions and we had spent a lot of time driving between sites, I was pretty astonished at this total.
I cannot recommend a trip to Uganda highly enough to anybody with a keen interest in birds and the natural world, and I hope to return again in the future.
 
Systematic list

Here is a list of species recorded, I will put an annotated checklist on the completed trip report as a pdf, in the unlikely event anybody wants locations for specific species, send me a PM and I will be happy to help.

Great white pelican
Pink backed pelican
White breasted cormarant
Long tailed cormarant
African darter
Cattle egret
squacco heron
striated heron
little egret
intermediate egret
Great egret
Black egret
Goliath heron
Grey heron
Purple heron
Black headed heron
Hamerkop
Yellow billed stork
Woolly-necked stork
African openbill
Saddle-billed stork
Maribou
Shoebill
Sacred ibis
Hadada ibis
Glossy ibis
African spoonbill
Egyptian goose
White faced whistling duck
Yellow billed duck
Yellow billed kite
Black shouldered kite
African fish-eagle
Palm nut vulture
White headed vulture
White backed vulture
Ruppell's vulture
Lappet-faced vulture
Bateleur
Black chested snake eagle
Western banded snake eagle
Brown snake eagle
African Marsh harrier
European Marsh harrier
Dark chanting goshawk
Gabar goshawk
Lizard buzzard
African harrier hawk
Steppe buzzard
Tawny eagle
Wahlberg's eagle
African hawk-eagle
Long crested eagle
Martial eagle
Grey kestrel
African hobby
Red necked falcon
Helmeted guineafowl
Crested guineafowl
Nahan's francolin
Crested francolin
Red necked spurfowl
Harlequin quail
Common button quail
White spotted flufftail
Black crake
Purple swamphen
Red knobbed coot
African jacana
Grey crowned crane
Denham's bustard
Black bellied korhaan
Black winged stilt
Water thick-knee
Temminck's courser
Rock pratincole
Spur winged lapwing
Long toed lapwing
African wattled lapwing
Crowned lapwing
Senegal lapwing
Brown chested lapwing
Kittlitz's plover
Three banded plover
Ringed plover
Ruff
Common sandpiper
Wood sandpiper
Green sandpiper
Marsh sandpiper
Greenshank
Little stint
Turnstone
Grey headed gull
Baltic gull
White winged tern
Whiskered tern
African green pigeon
Afep pigeon
Blue-spotted wood-dove
Tamborine dove
RIng necked dove
Red eyed dove
African mourning dove
Laughing dove
Brown parrot
African Grey parrot
Red headed lovebird
Great blue turaco
Ross's turaco
Rwenzori turaco
Black billed turaco
Bare-faced go-away bird
Eastern grey plantain-eater
Red chested cuckoo
Black cuckoo
Dusky long-tailed cuckoo
Diederik cuckoo
African emerald cuckoo
Yellowbill
White-browned coucal
Senegal coucal
Blue headed coucal
Verraux's eagle-owl
Eurasian swift
African palm swift
Mottled spinetail
Speckled mousebird
Blue-naped mousebird
Narina trogon
Bar-tailed trogon
Pied kingfisher
Striped kingfisher
Grey headed kingfisher
Giant kingfisher
Woodland kingfisher
Blue breasted kingfisher
Chocolate backed kingfisher
Malachite kingfisher
African pygmy kingfisher
Little bee-eater
White throated bee-eater
Swallow-tailed bee-eater
European bee-eater
Red-throated bee-eater
Northern Carmine bee-eater
Broad-billed roller
Lilac breasted roller
Green wood-hoopoe
White headed wood-hoopoe
African hoopoe
Common scimitarbill
African grey hornbill
Crowned hornbill
White thighed hornbill
Black & White casqued hornbill
Abyssinian Ground hornbill
Yellow rumped tinkerbird
Yellow throated tinkerbird
Speckled tinkerbird
Yellow fronted tinkerbirder
Grey throated barbet
Red fronted barbet
Black throated barbet
Hairy breasted barbet
White headed barbet
Black billed barbet
Double toothed barbet
Lesser honeyguide
Brown eared woodpecker
Nubian woodpecker
Cardinal woodpecker
Yellow crested woodpecker
Grey woodpecker
African broadbill
Rufous naped lark
Flappet lark
Rock martin
Sand martin
Mosque swallow
Lesser striped swallow
Barn swallow
Angola swallow
Wire tailed swallow
Black saw-wing
White headed saw-wing
African Pied wagtail
Cape wagtail
Yellow throated longclaw
African pipit
Plain backed pipit
Black cuckoo-shrike
Common bulbul
Little bulbul
Mountain greenbul
Slender billed greenbul
Little grey greenbul
Cameroon sombre greenbul
Red tailed greenbul
White throated greenbul
Yellow throated leaflove
Spotted greenbul
Forest robin
Brown chested alethe
Fire-crested alethe
White browed robin-chat
Grey winged robin-chat
African thrush
Sooty chat
Whinchat
White browed scrub-robin
Brown backed scrub-robin
Spotted morning-thrush
Uganda woodland warbler
Green Hylia
Green crombec
Northern crombec
Black-faced rufous warbler
Zitting cisticola
Croaking cisticola
Rattling cisticola
Winding cisticola
Singing cisticola
Tawny flanked prinia
White chinned prinia
Grey backed camaroptera
Grey apalis
Blue-grey flycatcher
African dusky flycatcher
Grey throated flycatcher
Cassin's grey flycatcher
Sooty flycatcher
Forest flycatcher
Black headed batis
Ituri Batis
Brown throated wattle-eye
Black throated wattle-eye
Chestnut wattle-eye
African paradise flycatcher
Red bellied paradise flycatcher
Silverbird
African blue flycatcher
White tailed blue flycatcher
Chestnut capped flycatcher
Scaly breasted illadopsis
Pale breasted illadopsis
Brown illadopsis
Arrow marked babbler
Brown babbler
Black lored babbler
White shoulder tit
Yellow white-eye
Bronze sunbird
Rwenzori double collared sunbird
Green throated sunbird
Olive sunbird
Superb sunbird
Marico sunbird
Beautiful sunbird
Red chested sunbird
Collared sunbird
Common fiscal
Grey backed fiscal
Black headed gonolek
Black crowned tchagra
Brown crowned tchagra
Fork tailed drongo
Piapiac
Pied crown
White naped raven
African black headed oriole
Western black headed oriole
Montaine oriole
Yellow billed oxpecker
Stuhlmann's starling
Greater blue eared starling
Ruppell's long tailed starling
Purple headed starling
Violet backed starling
Wattled starling
House sparrow
Northern Grey-headed starling
Speckled fronted weaver
Chestnut crowned sparrow-weaver
Black headed (village) weaver
Lesser masked weaver
Spectacled weaver
Black necked weaver
Baglafecht weaver
Grosbeak weaver
Little weaver
Slender billed weaver
Golden backed weaver
Yellow backed weaver
Northern brown throated weaver
Vieillot's black weaver
Red billed quelea
Red collared widowbird
Fan-tailed widowbird
Black bishop
White winged widowbird
Northern red bishop
Grey headed nigrita
Green winged pytilia
Green backed twinspot
Red-headed bluebill
Red cheeked cordon-bleu
African firefinch
Red bellied firefinch
Black crowned waxbill
Bronze manikin
Black and white manikin
Pin tailed whydah
Village indigobird
Yellow fronted canary
African citril
Golden breasted bunting
 
Thanks Bubbs, that's probably the best word to describe Uganda.

Thanks to all of those that provided information before I headed out there, Jon Turner, Swissboy (Robert I believe) David and Sarah Blair, Bokmakierie99, Tim Marlow and Roger Evans.

To anybody thinking of doing the trip independently, don't hesitate.
Its good fun (depending upon what car you have) and as long as you pace the trip, the distances between the sites aren't unmanageable.
I'd say 2 weeks would be the minimum for this loop (if you don't want to be driving all the time) and 3 weeks would be better. Bwindi and Budongo definitely warranted more time than we were able to give them, and I think another 2 days to explore Ruhija and the neck, as well as another full day in Budongo would make for a cracking trip.
If you were doing this specifically for birding I'm sure you could get a much higher trip list than I managed (particularly using guides), but it really is worth spending some time enjoying the other wildlife, and chatting with local people.
 
A few photos

Thanks for the kind words Pete and Viator.

Here are a couple of images, including the charging elephant. I should probably have been driving at this point, but it made a cool photo, and we just about got away.
 

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A few more

A few more images, excuse the Green-backed twinspot, the light was terrible and my photographic skills are more miss than hit.
 

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Final few

It had to be done!
 

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Great finale! I didn't get up to Murchison, but it sounds like a great segment for you (despite the traffic dramas). I think that it should be noted, the driver should not also be a photographer where elephants are concerned.
For your next trip (if not already done) Tanzania.
 
Thanks for an excellent report. I have my beady eye on a future trip to Uganda, but self-driving sounds a little too exciting!

Cheers
Mike
 
Thanks Jurek, Fiscalshrike and Mike - I may be asking you for some info on Sri Lanka soon if that is ok. Generally the driving is fine, and I'm not sure I mentioned about the Police - if you ever get lost, just ask a policeman for the nearest big town along your route and they are generally happy to help.
 
Excellent Report

Great report, we also missed Black Bee-eater (no time for guide to stop as we chased towards the Gorillas - it took us 6 hours to get to the troop) and it was years later before we caught up with them in Ghana. Still haven't seen Green Pitta and slightly regret not giving it more effort in Kibale although we did see Chimps eating a dead buffalo which is why we were distracted.
As others have said Uganda is a wonderful country and is sure to give great memories.
 
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