Uganda 2018

 

In January, 2018, we visited Uganda. The focus of the trip was to see birds - lots of birds! But, we also went trekking to search for both Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees, took boat trips on various lakes and rivers (including the Nile), and went on game drives in several national parks.

 

Map of Africa As shown on the map, Uganda is a relatively-small country in East Africa, to the west of Kenya and north of Tanzania. It is inland from any coast, but is on the shore of Lake Victoria, one of Africa's great lakes.

Previously a British protectorate, the Republic of Uganda gained independence in 1962 but retains English as an official language.

 

Uganda is also on the equator!

 

The equator

 

Our route took us from Entebbe (the international airport), on a clockwise swing around the south-western portion of the country, visiting a number of national parks, before returning, through Kampala, back to Entebbe.

 

Birding trip

 

Our group was six in total. On the left, looking through the 'scope is Davis, our bird guide in training. Next is Deo (Deogratius Muhumuza) our bird guide and driver. Some guy is skulking in the centre-rear. Then, there is Thomas (son) and, on the far right, Tommy (father) our two new Danish birding friends.

 

Birding group

 

We often had additional "site guides", such as Rebecca, who is doing double duty, armed with binoculars with which to spot birds, and an AK47 to discourage any rogue elephants!

 

Guide and guard rolled into one

 

Our main mode of transportation

 

Safari Van

 

Accommodation was sometimes a tented bush camp...

 

Tented camp

 

...or some form of cottage or lodge

 

Lodge

 

One of our first birds was also one of our main targets - a pre-historic looking variety - the Shoebill Stork.

Shoebill Stork

In the foliage, it's hard to appreciate that this guy is 4-feet tall, just like his cousin outside a local restaurant!

Statue

 

Another weird and wonderful looking - and very colourful - member of the family, this time the Saddlebilled Stork

 

 

Not all the birds are quite as colourful as the Saddlebilled Stork, but some have quite colourful names.

This is a Toro-olive Greenbul.

The problem is that there are seven pages of Greenbuls in the field guide and they all look (more-or-less) like this!

Toro-olive Greenbul

 

Fortunately, there are many other species that are very easy to identify. [Hint - The name is a clue!]

 

Yellow-throated Longclaw

 


Yellow-throated Longclaw

 

Black-faced Rufous Warbler

 


Black-fasced Rufous Warbler

 

White-headed Barbet

 

White-headed Barbet

 

Searching through the foliage in the dark forests made it hard to see many species of birds well. We thought we would have better luck with gorillas.

But, not so fast, now we have to go bush-whacking! So, it's up and down steep ravines, off any identifiable trail, trying to get a foothold on plant stems beaten down - all parallel to the slope (of course!) - by our fellow trekkers.

What we need is a hiking pole (or two!) - and a local porter. He will carry the backpack and, quite literally, give us a hand, up-and-down dale!

So, meet Alex...

 

Alex

 

And, here's the problem. The members of our group are up ahead - somewhere. Perhaps this is why it's called an Impenetrable Forest!

 

Bush-whacking

 

It's almost the same problem to see the animals - there's a Mountain Gorilla in there - honest!

 

Mountain Gorilla

 

Told you!

 


Peek-a-boo

 

View videos* of the
Mountain Gorillas

Silverback (adult male)
(50.0 MB file download)

Mountain Gorilla video
Mother and baby gorilla
(56.2 MB file download)

 

* When you select one of the above videos, close any Dropbox dialogue box that may pop up. Simply click on the "Play Video" icon in the middle of the video image that is displayed.

Mountain Gorilla mother and baby video

 

Two happy trekkers

 

Two happy trekkers

 

Did we say that many of the birds were quite colourful? This applies particularly to bee eaters.

 

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

 

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

 

Red-throated Bee-eater

 

Red-throated Bee-eater

 

Little Bee-eater

 

Little Bee-eater

 

Chimpanzees are the closest relatives to humans...

 

Chimpanzee

 

See a video of one of the Chimpanzees
(31.6 MB MP4 file download)
Chimpanzee video

 

And, talking about humans, here are some photos from our "Faces of Africa" series...

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa

 

Faces of Africa?

 

OK, so that last one was actually a Red Colobus Monkey, one of eight ape species we saw on the trip.

 

In general, the country, especially the rural areas seemed fairly poor, with small towns and lots of subsistence farming.

 

Small town

 

Water was generally a problem, with people (often children) carrying plastic containers to and from a water source such as a communal village pump

 

Small town

 

Nevertheless, there was lots of food for sale at the roadside - and this was always decoratively arranged

 

Roadside stalls

 

An interesting feature of roadside commerce is that many of the shops are painted in bright colours. But, the content has nothing to do with what's being sold. These are billboards!

 

Roadside billboard!

 

Colour was also the order of the day when it came to fabrics being offered for sale

 

Fabrics on sale

 

The people, especially the children, seemed to be happy

 

Drummer in training

 

This was certainly the case when we stopped at Deo's village and handed out the school supplies that everyone had brought for them

 

School supplies

 

School supplies

 

The roads were generally very bumpy, very dusty - and had the occasional traffic hazard

 

Road hazard

 

Various other animals were seen on our game drives through the savannah areas, including lots of antelopes...

 

Antelopes

 

...which were mainly Ugandan Kobs

 

Ugandan Kob

 

There were also Waterbucks

 

Waterbucks

 

...and those black-and-white guys (who are not antelopes).

 

Zebras

 

There were also birds present on the savannah... such as Grey Crowned Cranes

 

Grey Crowned Cranes

 

... the Abyssinian Roller...

 

Abyssinian Roller

 

...and the Wire-tailed Swallow

 

Wire-tailed Swallow

 

While cruising the lakes and rivers, provides more animal sightings... some completely out of the water...

 

Elephants on shore

 

... and some almost completely in the water

 

Hippo

 

And, it wouldn't be the Nile with a crocodile!

 

Nile Crocodile

 

The water also produced more bird species, such as these Hamerkops...

 

Hamerkops

 

...a Giant Kingfisher, and...

 

Giant Kingfisher

 

...a rare visitor to Uganda, an Egyptian Plover

 

This species has only been seen in the last few years, and only as a single bird. We were lucky enough to see the 2018 version.

 

Egyptian Plover

 

The trip up river brought us to Murchison Falls

 

Murchison Falls

 

Head of the falls

 

Did we say that we saw a few birds? - 435 species in all - including... Speckled Mousebird

 

Speckled Mousebird

 

Speckled Pigeon

 

Speckled Pigeon,

 

and Speckled... no, make that... Tropical Boubou

 

Tropical Boubou

 

We also saw some pretty coloured flowers...

 

Pretty coloured flowers

 

...and lots more pretty coloured birds

 

Malachite Kingfisher

 

Malachite Kingfisher

 

Black-billed Barbet

 

Black-billed Barbet

 

Narina Trogon

 

Narina Trogon

 

Variable Sunbird

 

Variable Sunbird

 

And, with that, it's - Goodbye Uganda!

 

Goodbye Uganda