Tiktaalik
Member
So after a long delay due to school and work obligations I finally got to writing down the first couple of days of my trip to Uganda. I’m gonna split the trip into some different sections to divide the amount of text per post a bit. However there will be quite a long story in every post here, so if you’re here for the species lists just scroll down .
Mabamba Swamp & Lake Mburo National Park
After a long but uneventful flight that we just made in time after the chaos that is Schiphol airport nowadays we landed in Entebbe late in the evening. The next morning our driver-guide Sam took us out to Mabamba Swamp, which was only a stopover on our way to our final destination: Lake Mburo National Park. Sam was a fantastic driver and a good wildlife spotter too. Despite the fact that he was clearly not a birder he still knew quite a lot about birds and animals in general. As our operator was a general safari operator and not really a wildlife specialist, it was to be expected that we wouldn’t get a birding guide so I was actually very happy with Sam.
Mabamba Swamp is a large piece of swamp on the edge of Lake Victoria. It is only about 10-20 kilometers from Entebbe but to get there one has to drive for a considerably longer distance, and the drive took us about 1.5 hours. We got into one of the motorized canoes that is used for birdwatching there. Our guide was a nice lady called Maria and from the moment we set off she started to point out and name birds along the narrow channels of the swamp. Her knowledge about the wildlife was rather brilliant and I’m sure that I would have spotted much less if she wouldn’t have been there. We saw many common heron/egret/kingfisher species here that we would see all the time during the rest of the trip. Some of the more interesting species were blue-breasted bee-eater, African pygmy kingfisher and African marsh harrier. I had perhaps hoped for a bit more, but as we had to come from Entebbe and we had not left very early (the compromises of travelling with your family ) it was already quite late in the morning and bird activity had slowed down a bit. We also searched for papyrus gonolek, but our search was unsuccessful. But after an hour on the boat our nerves started to increase as we still had not spotted the main reason of our stopover at Mabamba. But we should not have worried as a short time (and a lot of pushing through the thick reed by our boat-driver that was helped by my brother) later a magnificent female shoebill could clearly be seen no more than about 15 meters from the boat. We knew this was a female as she was trying to hide a young shoebill out of view from us! We got fantastic views of this prehistoric looking bird and even a number of brief looks at the little one. We also saw another shoebill flying over, a brilliant sight. Needless to say we were pretty thrilled, but the boat trip got even better as on our way back another shoebill landed even closer to the boat and started hunting! We saw the shoebill diving but the hunt was not successful. So that makes 4 shoebills in total on the boat trip. Maria was clearly very happy as well and she said seeing so many shoebills was quite rare, as usually they see only one or maybe two on a trip.
After this we got in Sams car again for the long drive to Lake Mburo. On the way, we saw the first of many grey crowned crane. The final part of the way we went through the area around Lake Mburo, which is already much more sparsely populated than the rest of the country and therefore there are many animals there. On our short drive we saw a nice black-headed gonolek (which we would see a lot again and again during the trip) and our first warthogs. After we arrived and settled in at Rwakobo Rock, which is in a very nice location with stunning views and beautiful grounds, I went out again for a short birding walk, but I found mostly very common species such as the omnipresent common bulbuls, speckled mousebirds, hamerkops and vervet monkeys.
The next day we did a mountainbike safari in the area around the park, which I can recommend as it was good fun biking so closely to the animals, which seemed totally undisturbed by us. We saw Defassa waterbuck, olive baboons, plains zebras, impalas of which the latter can, surprisingly, only be found here in Uganda. Dwarf mongoose were extremely common here, but we did not see them again on the trip. It took our guide some time to find out that I was a birder, but once he realized this he started to identify many birds for me which was very useful as I often didn’t have time to get my camera or binoculars ready to identify the birds myself while I was biking. Some of the more interesting species we saw include African green pigeon, scimitarbill and red-billed firefinch. The guide also gave me quite some more birds than are on my list (most of them lbj’s), but I had of course forgotten most of their names again when we got back and updated by bird list…
In the afternoon we had no activity planned so I walked around the grounds of the lodge again and this time I was a little more successful. Among others, I saw white-browed robin chat, little bee eater, laughing dove, a magnificent blue-headed sunbird and I had absolutely fantastic views of two Nubian woodpeckers that were only about two meters away from me.
After dinner it was time for our night drive. Lake Mburo national park has a very good reputation for leopard and hyena sightings on the night drive, and we were very curious to see whether we could find one of these. Sam had popped up the roof of our Landcruiser so we could stand up to look over the long grass. After picking up the guide from the national park and the big spotlight we went into the park. It was still not dark so we did see a couple of animals before the sunset, of which Rotschild’s giraffe was the most interesting. The first nocturnal animal we spotted was a large-spotted genet but a little later the national park guide spotted a magnificent leopard. We followed this animal for a while and got very close to it. I even got some very good photos of it even though it was very dark. The leopard was stalking a group of impalas and even attacked one of them, but could not catch it. Still, fantastic to see. Later on the drive we saw quite large numbers of African savannah hare and greater galago. We also saw another large-spotted genet, and this time I could even get a picture of the animal. Overall, definitely not a bad night drive, although I had perhaps hoped for some more of the smaller nocturnal animals.
Birds
94. Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)
95. Northern gray-headed sparrow (Passer griseus)
96. Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia)
97. African jacana (Actophilus africanus)
98. Malachite kingfisher (Corythornis cristatus)
99. Pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)
100. Blue breasted bee eater (Merops variegatus)
101. African pygmy kingfisher (Ispidina picta)
102. Purple heron (Ardea purpurea)
103. African marsh harrier (Circus ranivorus)
104. Marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer)
105. Eastern grey plantain eater (Crinifer zonurus)
106. Hadada ibis (Bostrychia hagedash)
107. Grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum)
108. Speckled mousebird (Colius striatus)
109. Black necked weaver (Ploceus nigricollis)
110. Common bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus)
111. Hamerkop (Scopus umbrette)
112. Reed cormorant (Microcarbo africanus)
113. Squacco heron (Ardeola ralloides)
114. Helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris)
115. African green pigeon (Treron calvus)
116. Ring necked dove (Streptopelia capicola)
117. Red billed firefinch (Lagonostica senegala)
118. African pied wagtail (Motacilla aguimp)
119. White browed coucal (Centropus superciliosus)
120. Ruppells starling (Lamprotornis purpuroptera)
121. Fork tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis)
122. African wattled lapwing (Vanellus senegallus)
123. Red necked spurfowl (Pternistis afer)
124. Common Scimitarbill (Rhinopomastus cyanomelas)
125. Little bee eater (Merops pusillus)
126. Laughing dove (Spinopelia senegalensis)
127. Blue headed sunbird (Cyanomitra alinae)
128. Nubian woodpecker (Campethera nubica)
129. White browed robin chat (Cossypha heuglini)
130. Water thick knee (Burhinus vermiculatus)
131. Spot flanked barbet (Tricholaema lacrymosa)
Mammals
10. Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)
11. Impala (Aepyceros melampus)
12. Plains zebra (Equus quagga)
13. (Rotschild) Giraffe (Giraffa cameleopardis rotschildi)
14. Olive baboon (Papio Anubis)
15. Vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) NB The matter of speciation of vervet and tantalus monkeys seems to be a matter of discussion for taxonomists. The population in southeastern Uganda (i.e. in Lake Mburo) is supposed to be pygerythrus and in the rest of the country the species is supposed to be tantalus. Does anyone know more about this matter and/or know more details on how to tell both ‘species’ apart?
16. Leopard (Panthera pardus)
17. African savanna hare (Lepus victoriae)
18. Brown greater galago (Otolemur crassicaudatus)
19. Large spotted genet (Genetta tigrina)
20. Dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula)
21. (Defassa) waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus)
22. Bushbuck (Tragephalus scriptus)
Mabamba Swamp & Lake Mburo National Park
After a long but uneventful flight that we just made in time after the chaos that is Schiphol airport nowadays we landed in Entebbe late in the evening. The next morning our driver-guide Sam took us out to Mabamba Swamp, which was only a stopover on our way to our final destination: Lake Mburo National Park. Sam was a fantastic driver and a good wildlife spotter too. Despite the fact that he was clearly not a birder he still knew quite a lot about birds and animals in general. As our operator was a general safari operator and not really a wildlife specialist, it was to be expected that we wouldn’t get a birding guide so I was actually very happy with Sam.
Mabamba Swamp is a large piece of swamp on the edge of Lake Victoria. It is only about 10-20 kilometers from Entebbe but to get there one has to drive for a considerably longer distance, and the drive took us about 1.5 hours. We got into one of the motorized canoes that is used for birdwatching there. Our guide was a nice lady called Maria and from the moment we set off she started to point out and name birds along the narrow channels of the swamp. Her knowledge about the wildlife was rather brilliant and I’m sure that I would have spotted much less if she wouldn’t have been there. We saw many common heron/egret/kingfisher species here that we would see all the time during the rest of the trip. Some of the more interesting species were blue-breasted bee-eater, African pygmy kingfisher and African marsh harrier. I had perhaps hoped for a bit more, but as we had to come from Entebbe and we had not left very early (the compromises of travelling with your family ) it was already quite late in the morning and bird activity had slowed down a bit. We also searched for papyrus gonolek, but our search was unsuccessful. But after an hour on the boat our nerves started to increase as we still had not spotted the main reason of our stopover at Mabamba. But we should not have worried as a short time (and a lot of pushing through the thick reed by our boat-driver that was helped by my brother) later a magnificent female shoebill could clearly be seen no more than about 15 meters from the boat. We knew this was a female as she was trying to hide a young shoebill out of view from us! We got fantastic views of this prehistoric looking bird and even a number of brief looks at the little one. We also saw another shoebill flying over, a brilliant sight. Needless to say we were pretty thrilled, but the boat trip got even better as on our way back another shoebill landed even closer to the boat and started hunting! We saw the shoebill diving but the hunt was not successful. So that makes 4 shoebills in total on the boat trip. Maria was clearly very happy as well and she said seeing so many shoebills was quite rare, as usually they see only one or maybe two on a trip.
After this we got in Sams car again for the long drive to Lake Mburo. On the way, we saw the first of many grey crowned crane. The final part of the way we went through the area around Lake Mburo, which is already much more sparsely populated than the rest of the country and therefore there are many animals there. On our short drive we saw a nice black-headed gonolek (which we would see a lot again and again during the trip) and our first warthogs. After we arrived and settled in at Rwakobo Rock, which is in a very nice location with stunning views and beautiful grounds, I went out again for a short birding walk, but I found mostly very common species such as the omnipresent common bulbuls, speckled mousebirds, hamerkops and vervet monkeys.
The next day we did a mountainbike safari in the area around the park, which I can recommend as it was good fun biking so closely to the animals, which seemed totally undisturbed by us. We saw Defassa waterbuck, olive baboons, plains zebras, impalas of which the latter can, surprisingly, only be found here in Uganda. Dwarf mongoose were extremely common here, but we did not see them again on the trip. It took our guide some time to find out that I was a birder, but once he realized this he started to identify many birds for me which was very useful as I often didn’t have time to get my camera or binoculars ready to identify the birds myself while I was biking. Some of the more interesting species we saw include African green pigeon, scimitarbill and red-billed firefinch. The guide also gave me quite some more birds than are on my list (most of them lbj’s), but I had of course forgotten most of their names again when we got back and updated by bird list…
In the afternoon we had no activity planned so I walked around the grounds of the lodge again and this time I was a little more successful. Among others, I saw white-browed robin chat, little bee eater, laughing dove, a magnificent blue-headed sunbird and I had absolutely fantastic views of two Nubian woodpeckers that were only about two meters away from me.
After dinner it was time for our night drive. Lake Mburo national park has a very good reputation for leopard and hyena sightings on the night drive, and we were very curious to see whether we could find one of these. Sam had popped up the roof of our Landcruiser so we could stand up to look over the long grass. After picking up the guide from the national park and the big spotlight we went into the park. It was still not dark so we did see a couple of animals before the sunset, of which Rotschild’s giraffe was the most interesting. The first nocturnal animal we spotted was a large-spotted genet but a little later the national park guide spotted a magnificent leopard. We followed this animal for a while and got very close to it. I even got some very good photos of it even though it was very dark. The leopard was stalking a group of impalas and even attacked one of them, but could not catch it. Still, fantastic to see. Later on the drive we saw quite large numbers of African savannah hare and greater galago. We also saw another large-spotted genet, and this time I could even get a picture of the animal. Overall, definitely not a bad night drive, although I had perhaps hoped for some more of the smaller nocturnal animals.
Birds
94. Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)
95. Northern gray-headed sparrow (Passer griseus)
96. Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia)
97. African jacana (Actophilus africanus)
98. Malachite kingfisher (Corythornis cristatus)
99. Pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)
100. Blue breasted bee eater (Merops variegatus)
101. African pygmy kingfisher (Ispidina picta)
102. Purple heron (Ardea purpurea)
103. African marsh harrier (Circus ranivorus)
104. Marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer)
105. Eastern grey plantain eater (Crinifer zonurus)
106. Hadada ibis (Bostrychia hagedash)
107. Grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum)
108. Speckled mousebird (Colius striatus)
109. Black necked weaver (Ploceus nigricollis)
110. Common bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus)
111. Hamerkop (Scopus umbrette)
112. Reed cormorant (Microcarbo africanus)
113. Squacco heron (Ardeola ralloides)
114. Helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris)
115. African green pigeon (Treron calvus)
116. Ring necked dove (Streptopelia capicola)
117. Red billed firefinch (Lagonostica senegala)
118. African pied wagtail (Motacilla aguimp)
119. White browed coucal (Centropus superciliosus)
120. Ruppells starling (Lamprotornis purpuroptera)
121. Fork tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis)
122. African wattled lapwing (Vanellus senegallus)
123. Red necked spurfowl (Pternistis afer)
124. Common Scimitarbill (Rhinopomastus cyanomelas)
125. Little bee eater (Merops pusillus)
126. Laughing dove (Spinopelia senegalensis)
127. Blue headed sunbird (Cyanomitra alinae)
128. Nubian woodpecker (Campethera nubica)
129. White browed robin chat (Cossypha heuglini)
130. Water thick knee (Burhinus vermiculatus)
131. Spot flanked barbet (Tricholaema lacrymosa)
Mammals
10. Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)
11. Impala (Aepyceros melampus)
12. Plains zebra (Equus quagga)
13. (Rotschild) Giraffe (Giraffa cameleopardis rotschildi)
14. Olive baboon (Papio Anubis)
15. Vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) NB The matter of speciation of vervet and tantalus monkeys seems to be a matter of discussion for taxonomists. The population in southeastern Uganda (i.e. in Lake Mburo) is supposed to be pygerythrus and in the rest of the country the species is supposed to be tantalus. Does anyone know more about this matter and/or know more details on how to tell both ‘species’ apart?
16. Leopard (Panthera pardus)
17. African savanna hare (Lepus victoriae)
18. Brown greater galago (Otolemur crassicaudatus)
19. Large spotted genet (Genetta tigrina)
20. Dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula)
21. (Defassa) waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus)
22. Bushbuck (Tragephalus scriptus)
