Uganda Experiences, January 2017

I had outlined the planned tour previously: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=332268. It turned out nobody else wanted to join, so it was again a private tour in the end. Except that it did cost us more, this was just great, actually. Though we had originally planned to do the tour as a group of five. But when that fell apart, we decided to do it anyway. And that was clearly a very good decision.
Our tour guide and organizer was Deogratius Muhumuza of Uganda Eco Tours http://www.ecouganda.com. My brother had visited Uganda in July and he had warmly recommended Deo to us. I can only pass on this recommendation. Deo is both an unbelievably great spotter and a reliable and excellent organizer. The latter became particularly important when we needed a replacement tire shipped from Kampala as we had a flat that ruined one tire beyond repair. Deo had brought along Brian Tuhaise as a driver. But it quickly turned out that Brian was not only an incredibly fine driver (we had never felt as secure on any of our previous trips), but he was as well an excellent spotter in his own right. Actually, the two of them both seemed to have super-natural spotting capabilities, and they complemented each other to the finest. You definitely go for the best if you can book a tour with this incredible duo!

We did not go for maximal species numbers, my priority was to see as many of the species I had on my target list. But we wanted to see birds very well even if that meant missing some others. A maybe somewhat unusual approach among birders. But it's the way both my wife Doris and I can have a great time. It took our guides a bit of getting used to our way of doing things as they mostly lead tours for birders with "ants in their pants" as they called it. Others call them "gung ho" birders or whatever. Anyway, we specifically omitted two birding hot spots (Semliki and Budongo) to have more time at the other - less neck straining - locations. Nevertheless, at the end of our 16-day tour our bird species total of actually seen birds was over 380, plus a number we only heard. Way more than I actually "needed" to be happy. As I am rather slow at times to spot a bird, that simply shows the superb job both Deo and Brian did to get us to see as many species as possible. It would actually have been easy to get way over 400 to 430 bird species, but we also wanted to go for and spend some time with "big game" and the Mountain Gorillas. Uganda is actually the only country where all this, including Shoebill, Green Pitta and African Finfoot, can be so easily combined. And Chimpanzees would as well be possible. We had decided against including those as well, speculating that we might see them anyway. But it took us more time to get decent looks at the Green Pitta which had priority.

When touring Uganda for birds, most people essentially visit only the western part of the country. And the tours either start by going north first or starting in the southwest. With the visit to the Mabamba wetlands for the Shoebill either added at the onset or at the end. "North" can mean driving up to Murchison Falls NP or only up to Kibale. Sure, there are more options, but the standard tours go about that far. From Switzerland, we flew into Entebbe after having spent a night at Abu Dhabi. That just left time for an easy start with some birding at the Entebbe Botanical Garden.

On day two, we did the Mabamba wetlands boat tour. The Mabamba swamp is actually not far from Entebbe by aerial distance. But it takes a relatively long drive by car to get to the boat launch site. Mabamba seems a relatively secure place to actually get the Shoebill. Whether it can always be seen as close as we had it, I don't know. This was definitely my most wanted bird for this trip. So I was very happy that we got it right at the beginning of the tour. And it was great that we were able to spend a rather long time with the bird. First, it seemed to just stand there, almost motionless. Something I remembered from the days when the species could be seen at the Zurich (Switzerland) Zoo. Virtually never was there any great movement when I visited that bird there. So it was great when the Mabamba individual became more and more active, and we were able to just stay there and watch. Eventually, it flew without any coercion from our part. The boat tour also allowed fine observations of many other birds, so this was a great start.

On day three, we had a very long drive up north to Murchison Falls NP. About halfway, we had a flat tire. It turned out the tire had a hidden repair on the inside that blew. In the end, that tire was damaged beyond repair, possibly because we had to get the car off the main road first. Some birding was done along the road and Deo pointed out a formerly fine marsh that had just recently been drained and mostly destroyed. So more and more, good birding is restricted to protected areas in Uganda, it seems.

Day four brought a fine game drive with the only Giraffes we had on this tour, plus many other mammals including Elephants which we always love to see. Birds included Abyssinian Ground Hornbills and Rüppell's Vulture, the latter one of my target species.

The afternoon boat tour towards the Murchison Falls offered lots of fine observations of both mammals and birds. My favorite was the Rock Pratincole that I just barely managed to photograph on a rock before people stepped onto that rock from the boat for their stupid selfies in front of the still relatively distant falls. My only consolation was that I would not have been able to get that close to the pratincole if it had not been for the intended photo opportunities by the selfie shooters.
Murchison Falls NP is actually not far enough north for many savanna bird species. They would best have to be searched at Kidepo NP, but visiting there would require several days more.

Day five for us was mostly on the road driving to Kibale NP. But first, we visited the top of the falls. In many ways, that was more impressive than the view from the boat where one just did not get close enough. Along the way to Kibale NP, we had another flat tire. Actually, Brian, our driver, had earlier already noticed some loss of air in that tire. So we had it repaired locally, and a second previously existing patch was redone as well. Nevertheless, one of those patches had given way again later. Good thing our replacement spare tire had made it in time to Pakwach/Murchison Falls. But this tire change offered a great chance to be a bit more in contact with the local people and kids away from the main tourist route. So the delay was actually a most welcome event for us who did not have to do the work.

Day six was essentially split into two parts. In the early morning, we had a walk in Kibale NP in search of the Green Pitta which we eventually got to see, albeit only briefly. July seems to be the better time for this species. But at least we saw it. In the afternoon, we visited the Bigodi Wetland sanctuary, a community project. This place offered some good views of several species. But over all, species numbers were not all that great for this day.

Day seven made us realize just how important the banana trade is for Uganda. The drive brought us to Queen Elizabeth NP where we took the boat tour on the lower parts of Kazinga Channel. This boat cruise was one of the major highlights of the entire trip. There was such an impressive diversity of both birds and mammals along much of the shoreline. We were lucky to be on the 2 PM boat, as that meant there were still elephants at the water. Though a 1 PM boat would have been even better. Two specialties struck us in particular. For one, at least two of the elephants had tusks that reminded me a bit of pre-historic mammoths. Then, there was a albino (though the eyes looked very dark) Malachite Kingfisher. For the return to the hotel we used the picturesque drive along the explosion craters.

On day eight, we first took an interesting game drive that brought the only Temminck's Coursers of the tour. In fact the only coursers at all. Apparently, a pride of 16 (!) lions had been seen in the area. We did not find them, unfortunately, on our drive. And it was only with some special (and paid) extra help from a ranger that we got to see at least a single lioness in the area the next morning. She had a fresh kill but did not seem hungry. There was a pair of Grey Crowned Cranes with a small youngster, and along the main road we had a pair of Martial Eagles mating on their nest.

In the afternoon, we drove to the Katwe area where the historic salt works impressed us a lot. The area had a number of birds, both gulls and shorebirds. And with luck, I discovered a male Greater Painted Snipe when looking at a Wood Sandpiper. It was only the second or third time in my life that I got to see any painted snipe really well.

The next day, day nine, was entirely devoted to find lions plus to drive to the Ishasha part of Queen Elizabeth NP. Ishasha is famous for its tree climbing Lions. Once there, we spent considerable time searching. But we finally found four of them together in the same tree. It was a female with three younger ones, most likely her own.

On day ten, we spent much of the time birding in the Ishasha area, before making the relatively short trip to Buhoma, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest NP.

Gorilla tracking day
Day eleven was reserved for our booked tour of tracking of a group of Mountain Gorillas. We had been a bit uneasy about this tour as one hears about very variable efforts that one has to put into seeing them. As a precaution, we each took a porter which was definitely a smart decision. Porters not only carry the backpack with lunch, camera etc., they also help in difficult terrain. We had to traverse and finally climb some steep slope. So it was good to have someone helping not to lose the balance, a problem that tends to come with age (we are both around 74). The group of gorillas we visited has been habituated to humans for a very long time. Nevertheless, we were very much impressed by the relaxed way these great apes dealt with our visit. It was definitely a superb experience for us. Sure, it's costly, but realizing the benefits, it seems well worth the expenses. The benefit is at least four-fold. For one, the gorillas benefit from being protected, but it is also to the advantage of all the other creatures of these forests that they can keep their habitat. Third, of course, these activities provide a lot of income to the local people. This involves tracking teams who constantly monitor where the habituated groups move to. Then the guides, the porters and the people at the hotels etc. And finally, it is a great chance for us visitors to meet our close relatives in a way that one gets the feeling of being at a comparable level. Some people claim the visits would stress the gorillas. We did not get that impression at all. If there is an element of stress, it comes from the guides trying to cut away ferns and other vegetation that gets into the way for taking decent pictures. But the visit is limited to one hour per day only. So it's not a constant bother at any rate. One sign of us not having bothered the group came after we had left the gorillas. We had gone back to the road when we suddenly realized that the gorilla group had essentially followed us and was now crossing the road very close to us.
"Our" group consisted of the silverback male plus four females with a youngster each. The youngest gorilla was only three months old, the other youngsters were around one, two and three years old if I remember correctly.

On day twelve, we transferred from the Buhoma area to the Ruhija sector of Bwindi, and had an elephant replenishing its mineral needs on the steep slopes where I wondered that they were used by elephants at all. Elephants were also the reason why we were told not to keep any bananas in our tent cabin. Birding was very rewarding in the NECK area along the way to our lodge. We had several of the so-called Albertine Rift endemics. Among them was Purple-breasted Sunbird that is usually a high canopy species. We had it again the following day, also lower down than customary on the Mubwindi Swamp trail.

As a side note, power for electricity and hot water is always somewhat of a problem for lodges in these remote locations when they try to minimize the use of generators. The hydro-power option of the Uganda power grid is also not too good an option as it is very unreliable. Our guide mentioned it could be out of work for weeks. Thus one often finds solar installations. A less attractive but locally feasible variety is the use of firewood to heat water tanks. Both at Buhoma and at our Ruhija area lodge, warm water was furnished in this way.Day thirteen was reserved for the Mubwindi Swamp trail. We did not find the African Green Broadbill that I had in my top-priority target list. Apparently, July is better for this species, when it is breeding. I did, however, get to see two other such top-priority target species on this trail, the Black-billed Turaco and the White-headed Wood-Hoopoe. The latter was literally a last-minute chance after we had earlier only heard the birds.
Mubwindi swamp itself was not very productive on our visit, it was along the trail to get there where we had many very interesting birds. The Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater was not new that day, but it presented itself nicely in the evening at the lodge.On day fourteen, we transferred to Lake Mburo NP and had an interesting night game drive there later
on. Much of the day was used just for the transfer, with only few birding opportunities along the way. We did, however, spend a bit less than an hour trying to get the air conditioning fixed at Kabale, the first larger town we got to. The belt to the air conditioner had snapped two days earlier. Fortunately, that was not a critical incident out in the "boondocks". It turned out that there was another problem with that air condition, so they were unable to fix it. As the time spent for this repair-attempt was not longer, we actually had the chance to get a more profound impression of such a Ugandan local country center. So the break was actually quite welcome. Along the way, Deo stopped at a small place where he knew they were selling local organically produced eggs. These are then sold along the roadside, well packed in special wrapping, forty at a time.The night game drive provided - among others - the hoped-for Leopard, very nicely "draped" on a look out rock. But we also got to see a beautiful Common Genet which pleased us even more as it was a "lifer" species for us.Lake Mburo NP
Day fifteen was our last full observation-day. We spent the morning on a game walk, and the afternoon was mainly used for a boat tour plus some birding and game watching later on from the car.
Lake Mburo NP is the smallest of the east African savanna parks, according to our local ranger-guide. The park also has more intensive joint use of the grazing lands by local people than we had seen before. So zebras, antelopes, warthogs and buffalos can - at times - be seen grazing next to a herd of cattle. With their so impressive horns, these look just like another wild game species. Encountering zebras, antelopes and buffalo not from the car but on foot is a somewhat different experience. Particularly so when our armed ranger leader told us there was also a single male lion in the park. Apparently, that lion had found its way to the park on its own, moving in via a suitable corridor from not all that far Tanzania. The mammals we encountered were usually curious but then went their own way. If not, our ranger functioned as a policeman, in one case telling the warthog to go in a different direction by using sign language just like what we are used for directing traffic. Quite a funny experience for us, actually. The head of that warthog can just barely be seen sticking out of the grass in the upper right of the picture in front of the far trees.
The game walk finally provided good looks at Ross's Turaco, my top-priority target after the shoebill. For some reason, this not all that rare species had eluded us so far. We had by then only heard it a few times. In the evening, we also had Bare-faced Go-away Birds, another not really rare member of the turaco family that we had not seen till then.
The boat tour showed us African Finfoot quite nicely. That was also one of my top target species. We missed, however, the other two target species, the Papyrus Gonolek and the White-backed Night Heron. A morning tour would probably have been better for the gonolek, and the best area for that night heron was not accessible for our boat due to the low water level.

Last day: day 16 was mostly another transfer day, only a bit of birding in the morning. Somewhere along the road there are the Kaku ponds where we stopped for a few minutes. Apparently, in November these were almost dry. Now, there was quite a bit of water and there were lots of birds, though no definite new species. But we were a bit far as getting closer makes one lose the overview. At any rate, this place had an impressive number of birds in an equally impressive variety. A scope was definitely needed,however. I had brought along my own scope, and Deo had one as well. So we were very comfortably equipped whenever it made sense to use a scope. As part of our wanting to be able to really see the birds well approach, the scopes were ideal.

As our flight was an early afternoon flight, there would not have been enough time to securely catch it on the last day of the tour. So we spent another night at the hotel where we had started out from. There had been some rains on return, thus clearing the haze and smoke traces that had accompanied us for the whole tour. So we finally got to see Lake Victoria from the hotel as its name implied.

While we spent a night at Abu Dhabi on the way to our Uganda tour, we did not do this again as we flew back. We had, however around 6 hours of lay-over time there. So we decided to have a look at the large modern Sheikh Zayed Mosque to shorten our waiting time. The visit was very much worthwhile. We had already seen the mosque on the previous visit, but only from outside. This time, we wanted to see it from inside as well. It is open till 10 PM which fit our schedule well enough. To facilitate things, we asked a freelance taxi driver to be our guide and bring us back to the airport as well. This was a bit costlier than necessary, but it was worth it for us to be sure it would all work out in time. The only thing that did not work well was that the fellow cheated us on the exchange rate. My fault, I should have done my homework better, or more precisely I should simply have consulted my own notes in time.

To finish this report: There is always the question about the costs of such a birding tour. Over all, including our flights, we spent a total of around US$ 11000 for the two of us. That includes tips, and all the extra expenses. So it was not a cheap trip, and compared to our Madagascar trip in 2015, that was over a week longer, it was actually considerably more expensive with a comparable luxury of it being a private tour. But then, $1200 plus tips was just for the Gorilla tracking. Add to this the fact that we actually had two superb guides not just one, and that we had a more comfortable car. And Uganda is a more expensive place to begin with. If we had been able to do the tour as being part of a 5-person group as originally planned, we could have saved about $2150. And we did not want to be in a larger group than that. So in the end, we are extremely happy that we were able to visit Uganda the way we did, and we can only repeat that Deo and Brian (see post #1) are a team that is
hard to beat.

My total is 413 species seen well, plus 7 seen, but not well, plus 13 heard only. So my over all species total for this trip is actually at 433. I still need to determine the number of lifers.