Hix Does Uganda (Part I) - All But A Shoebill
I didn't check with him but whatever the 'average' income in any country there are usually still some very rich people and India is a country with a great imbalance in the distribution of wealth. The 'average' income is fairly meaningless. I might be wrong about his EXACT heritage although I know a lot of people from India so not ludicrously inaccurate. I was sitting in front of him the whole time but was too interested in the wildlife to pay too much attention to people.
The remaining links have been inserted into the post.
And I think the guy was not a national of India as he spoke like someone who had grown up in the UK.
Hix
I am too but enjoying all the rest of it too, while I wait. Including the 'downtime' sections e.g. around the Swimming pool. I also remember in the hotel grounds seeing Cordon Bleus, Waxbills, Pin-tailed Whydahs(displaying), Mannikins and others flitting around- birds I was familiar with from the past in petshops and aviaries in the UK.
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and bangladeshis are often all referred to as 'Indian', as are a large fraction of the populations of Fiji and the Caribbean, and formerly Uganda. I was just curious where he was from, in particular if he was Ugandan and indeed I am curious if there are any 'Indians' left in Uganda. Fair points about the wealth disparity in India though.
I didn't notice anyone in Uganda particularly looking 'Indian' who would not have been a tourist but I'm pretty unobservant. A girl came to join my class at school who was one of the "Ugandan Asians" made to leave by Amin.
Have you forgotten about Osano, the Manager at the Silverback Lodge?
Hix
I have not forgotten him but I'm not sure how he fits in the discussion. Are you mixing him up with the manager at Kyambura who I had forgotten about.
Malachite kingfisher man that I was sitting by didn't speak like someone brought up in the UK so maybe we are talking about different people. Just a shame he wasn't at Lake Mburo where they were much easier to photograph.
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
Sorry, but I'm back at work and it doesn't leave me a lot of time for writing. The last one took all day and then an hour or so to add the links to the pics. Hoping to do Day 10 in the next day or two.
Hix
Are you writing your posts from memory or did you keep a diary of sorts on tour?
Two diaries of sorts: one is a travel journal where I listed things like when I got up, breakfast time, where we went and what we did (briefly), ranger names, weather etc.
The second is a book of species seen. It's just a notebook, titled with the day, date and location, and I write down the birds mammals and reptiles I saw that say. It is often updated later when animals photographed are eventually identified.
And some of the scenic shots remind of things which I can write about - a twelve hour ride in the back of a car doesn't make for good story-telling, but the things we saw frequently, or places we stopped, can be of interest.
Hix
The second is a book of species seen. It's just a notebook, titled with the day, date and location, and I write down the birds mammals and reptiles I saw that say. It is often updated later when animals photographed are eventually identified.
And some of the scenic shots remind of things which I can write about - a twelve hour ride in the back of a car doesn't make for good story-telling, but the things we saw frequently, or places we stopped, can be of interest.
Hix
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
Two diaries of sorts: one is a travel journal where I listed things like when I got up, breakfast time, where we went and what we did (briefly), ranger names, weather etc.
The second is a book of species seen. It's just a notebook, titled with the day, date and location, and I write down the birds mammals and reptiles I saw that say. It is often updated later when animals photographed are eventually identified.
And some of the scenic shots remind of things which I can write about - a twelve hour ride in the back of a car doesn't make for good story-telling, but the things we saw frequently, or places we stopped, can be of interest.
Hix
That's a good strategy to write things down. Couldn't you incorporate the species list into the other diary though? Like maybe keep the left page blank for species and use the right page for your diary notes?
The pages aren't big enough. The species lists are scribbled in and often change. And on some days, like when we do a game drive in the morning and a boat ride in the afternoon, there are two very long lists and I want to keep them separate.
When I download my photos at the end of the day, I then go through them and write down anything I've forgotten or missed. Unidentified birds are often recorded as (and these are actual excerpts):
Overall, it's just easier doing it in two books.
Hix
When I download my photos at the end of the day, I then go through them and write down anything I've forgotten or missed. Unidentified birds are often recorded as (and these are actual excerpts):
- LBJ #6 - black under bush
- Yellowheaded Thingy (white breast)
- Sunbird #3
- Things in the road
- Lo-Cho?
- Raptor on a tree (behind)
- LBJ in silhouette
- Bee-eater#2
- Blue fantail thing
- LBJ - B/W stripe head, spotted belly
- Robin-thingy
- Little Brown Ground Job
Overall, it's just easier doing it in two books.
Hix
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
The pages aren't big enough. The species lists are scribbled in and often change. And on some days, like when we do a game drive in the morning and a boat ride in the afternoon, there are two very long lists and I want to keep them separate.
When I download my photos at the end of the day, I then go through them and write down anything I've forgotten or missed. Unidentified birds are often recorded as (and these are actual excerpts):
When I have identified them I cross out the note and put in the real name.
- LBJ #6 - black under bush
- Yellowheaded Thingy (white breast)
- Sunbird #3
- Things in the road
- Lo-Cho?
- Raptor on a tree (behind)
- LBJ in silhouette
- Bee-eater#2
- Blue fantail thing
- LBJ - B/W stripe head, spotted belly
- Robin-thingy
- Little Brown Ground Job
Overall, it's just easier doing it in two books.
Hix
Well now that you explain it, two books seem about right. Are they pocket diaries or bigger ones to fit in your backpack?
Day 10, 6th September
As mentioned in previous posts, Queen Elizabeth National Park is the second biggest park in Uganda (only Murchison is bigger), and today we were travelling to the southern part of the park known as the Ishasha sector. Named after a village and river in the area the Ishasha region is known for its tree-climbing lions. Unlike our previous accommodations, we’d be staying at a hotel there for only one night before moving on to our next destination.
It was a clear sunny morning (clear meaning no clouds – I still couldn’t see the Rwenzoris) as we had breakfast and enjoyed the view for one last time. There were some Pied Crows on the fence near the pool, and several White-backed Vultures circling above, but not much else this morning.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/pied-crow-339964/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/whitebacked-vulture-339970/
We had been the only visitors staying at the Lodge for the two nights we were there, and as we were leaving I commented to the staff that I hoped they would get some business soon, and they replied another small group was arriving that evening. I guess the wet season really isn’t the peak time for tourists.
I had read about a couple of crater lakes nearby to Kyambura that had Lesser Flamingos, and I was keen to see them. Unfortunately, they were 20 kms in the opposite direction to which we were going (which would take us over an hour just to get there), and Joseph didn’t think there were any left anyway, having migrated the month before. I was disappointed as this was the second species here I had missed – I had also wanted to see African Skimmers on Kazinga, but there were none of those either.
So we set off for Ishasha. Much of the vegetation was grassland with thickets of thorn-scrub, but some vast grassy plains of many square kilometres with few or no trees. We had driven past waterbuck and kob, but stopped when we saw an elephant. At least, half an elephant – we couldn’t see the bottom half of it because the grass was so high. Not quite as high as an elephants eye, like the song says, but certainly as high as an elephants thigh. And while we were photographing it a reddish brown bird with a black head and tail, red eye and white neck flew onto a grass stem just in front of the car. We got a couple of photos of it and for some reason I thought it was a Marsh Tchagra.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/queen-elizabeth-national-park-grasslands-340805/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/elephant-339987/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/waterbuck-340002/
Tchagras are a small group of bush-shrikes that I’d never heard of before I arrived in Uganda. And apart from briefly glimpsing a Brown-headed Tchagra before it dived into a bush at Bigodi, I hadn’t thought much about them (and the one at Bigodi had been pointed out to me by the guide who knew what it was). So why I thought it was a Tchagra I don’t know. Actually, I didn’t think it at all, the name ‘Marsh Tchagra’ just popped into my head. If someone had asked me to describe a Tchagra five seconds earlier, I wouldn’t have even been able to visualise one. I was aware of all this while photographing the bird, so I said nothing about its identity. Then Joseph, who had been flipping through his field guide, showed me a picture of a bird which was clearly what we were looking – and it was a male Marsh Tchagra.
“Marsh Tchagra” I exclaimed “that was what I thought it was!”
Which was, of course, not quite true, but sounded better than “That was the name that popped into my head!”
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/marsh-tchagra-339997/
We stopped for some other birds along the way too – Helmeted Guineafowl, another Long Crested Eagle (which appears to be a very common raptor in Western Uganda) and some White-throated Bee-eaters. And then, as we drove past, a bird flew out of the grass and into a tree clutching something dark brown or black in its feet. It looked like a small owl with rat, but this was around 9:45am in bright sunlight. We stopped the car and backed up to the tree and found the bird sitting on a branch, but its feet were obscured so we couldn’t see what it was holding. It looked straight at me and I could see it was definitely an owl of some kind, but it wasn’t until later that I identified it as a Pearl-spotted Owlet, a species which is partially diurnal.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/helmeted-guineafowl-339988/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/long-crested-eagle-339985/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/pearl-spotted-owlet-339993/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/pearl-spotted-owlet-339994/
Many (if not all) of the large National Parks have entry fees to enter the parks and go on game drives etc., but many have public roads running through them, and the road we were on was one of them. Occasionally we would pass someone on a bicycle, either cycling to a village to sell their goods, or cycling home again with something they had bought. These are not bicycles built for speed or racing obviously, but it amazed me we would see people on the road in the middle of nowhere, seemingly dozens of kilometres from any town or village, with the biker laden down with a giant hand of bananas or a large bag bulging with foodstuffs. In a few days time we would even see people with five giant hands of bananas balanced on the bike, and the cyclists walking alongside pushing the bike because there is no room for him to sit on it.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/cyclists-340004/
In the middle of the National Park is the very large Maramagambo Forest, an area which we had not had the opportunity to visit, unfortunately. But while driving along the southwestern edge of the forest we saw the silhouette of a large monitor run across the road several hundred metres in front of us. We stopped alongside where it had crossed the road and found it had climbed a tree by the side of the road. It had climbed about six feet up, and its tail was just touching the ground. Because of all the vegetation (leaves and twigs) in front of it, I had to zoom into its eye to get any kind of half-decent picture. And then we decided to get out of the car to see if we could get better pictures.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/maramagambo-forest-339991/
Orangeperson was by the door, but as soon as she exited the lizard dropped to the ground and scurried off into the bush; it was gone by the time I had left the car. But I could hear it dragging itself through the grass. Although there were bushes lining the edge of the road, a few metres in there appeared to be a pathway through the bushes running parallel to the road. So I got onto this path and tracked the monitor back along the path for a short distance until I came upon it in a little clearing, perfectly posed in the sun. But it saw me the same instant I saw it, and before I could point my camera it had scurried off into a thicket where I couldn’t follow. But I had seen enough to confirm it was a Nile Monitor (there are a couple of other uncommon monitors found in Uganda), so I pushed through the bush and popped back onto the road a hundred metres or so from the car. Walking back I saw a female Blue-headed Tree Agama sitting on a log, and some Red-tailed Monkeys in the tree.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/nile-monitor-339992/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/red-tailed-monkey-339995/
Further down the road we saw another black silhouette cross the road but from its shape and the way it trotted we could tell it was a mammal, short legged and with a bushy tail. In my head I tried to identify which species this shape might belong to. Was it a Genet? Nah, not in the middle of the day. A Ratel maybe? Nope again, tail too long, body shape all wrong. Perhaps one of the many species of Squirrel? No, too large and it didn’t have that squirrel-type bounding gait or frantic bolt. These thoughts all flashed through my mind (and were rejected) in the two or three seconds the animal crossed the road. But Joseph knew what it was.
“Mongoose.”
Of course it was! Uganda has seven species of mongoose and one cusimanse, so an accurate ID on this black shape was impossible. A little exciting just the same! Unlike the monitor there was absolutely no sign of it when we arrived at the point where it crossed the road.
Some miles further along we came to had left the forest and were passing a small swampy area when I saw behind the swamp a couple of brown antelope with a herd of buffalo – Topi! We stopped for a quick look, and then I noticed a number of birds in the swamp. There was a Black-headed Heron, a couple of Black Crakes, a pair of Jacana, a Sacred Ibis, and a number of birds I thought at first were Hadada Ibis, but turned out to be Open-billed Storks. Shortly afterwards we came upon more Topi, a couple of hundred of them, strung out in a line about a kilometre long, along with a couple of hundred kob. All the animals were looking at the tail-end of the topi line, which were all running towards the rest. We wondered what was chasing them, and I presume the kob wondered the same thing, but there didn’t appear to be any threat so I presume it was just the back-end of the line wanting to catch up and not be left behind.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-buffalo-340001/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-339998/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-339999/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-340000/
At this point we were in the Ishasha part of the park, but the public part, and shortly afterwards we came to the entrance to the park proper. Joseph parked under a tree and went to show the office the receipts that showed we had paid to enter the park, and Angela saw a Nubian Woodpecker in the tree we were parked under. I also saw a pair of Red-billed Firefinches on the ground by the car, and a Grey-backed Fiscal Shrike in a shrub nearby.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/entrance-sign-339996/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/nubian-woodpecker-340003/
There are two campsites within this part of the park, and Joseph drove us to the second as he thought we would like it as a nice place to have lunch. He was not mistaken. The campsite was a large grassed clearing in the woodland by the Ishasha river, with a simple brick, concrete and thatch rondavel to provide shelter from the sun and rain. The river was only about ten metres wide at the most and Joseph pointed to the opposite bank and said “That side is the Congo”.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/campsite-2-a-340807/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/ishasha-campsite-2-a-339982/
Apparently the border runs down the middle of this small river. I don’t know why, but I thought it would be fun to somehow get to the other side, only for a few minutes, just to say I’d visited the Congo, even if it was illegal. But the border was guarded, not by the Congolese Army, but by a family of hippos who glared and snorted at us derisively. So we sat on the low perimeter wall of the rondavel and ate our packed lunch from Kyambura, chatting and watching for birds.
After lunch we set off in search of the famous tree-climbing lions. The park has two main tracks, known as the Northern Route and the Southern Route, and we took the Southern Route. The vegetation in this part of the park is mostly grassland punctuated by the occasional tree. The Acacias are tall and open but the fig trees tend to be a bit smaller with thicker trunks and thick branches which are more or less horizontal. More importantly, the figs have a canopy of large leaves which provides lots of shade, and these are the trees the lions like to climb. We drove around many of these figs, but saw no lions. However we did come across a group of vervets in one of the Acacias, which pleased the ladies as they hadn’t the opportunity to get a good view of this species yet. Red-necked Francolins were common along the side of the road, and there were flocks with what looked like well-developed youngsters. We also more Sooty Chats, Pintailed Whydahs, Long Crested Eagles, Speckled Mousebirds, and a Fork-tailed Drongo. Then Joseph pointed out something in the short grass; it had black and grey/brown mottled pattern on its back and wings, with a yellow superciliary eye-stripe and a brilliant yellow on its throat and undersides, the throat bordered in black.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/ishasha-grasslands-340806/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/long-crested-eagle-339986/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/vervet-monkey-340811/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/red-necked-francolin-340808/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/yellow-throated-longclaw-340809/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/yellow-throated-longclaw-340810/
“Lo-clo” said Joseph. I took some photos of it and identified it as a Longclaw, the Yellow-throated Longclaw, to be specific. Like the Tchudi Chat, I was having trouble with the accent again.
On our way out of the park I saw an unusual bird and asked Joseph to stop so I could get some photos. It looked like a new species of plover, but there was something about it that was not quite plover–like, although I couldn’t say what. It turned out to be a Temminck’s Courser, related to the plovers and another tick on my bird species list which was close to 150 at this point.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/temmincks-courser-339983/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/temmincks-courser-339984/
We left the park to check in at our hotel before dark, and we found it to be the largest hotel we had seen yet. The Savannah Resort Lodge has enormous grounds with manicured lawns, a large reception area and restaurant, and lots of rooms. The places we had stayed previously (apart from Kampala) could probably only accommodate a maximum of two dozen or so people, if that. This place looked like it could do a hundred easily. I think there’s only one other option for tourist accommodation around, so it probably gets really busy here in the peak tourist season. The hotel has that old-style grandeur about it that suggests it was built in the 50’s or 60’s. And it has internet access.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/savannah-resort-lodge-340804/
We checked in and I soon logged onto the net, something I hadn’t done been able to do for about a week. The girls went for a swim in the pool (which was housed in another building out in the grounds. At a pre-arranged time we met in the restaurant for dinner, which was uneventful, but after we had discussed the hotel and the rooms we came to the conclusion it badly needed renovating – the grand veneer was chipped and peeling, quite literally. Thankfully, we were only staying here one night. And we also were not the only guests – there were at least six others.
After dinner I went back to my room and spent another few hours on the internet, and did a little reading – Shoebills are found in this part of the park and I hoped to see them the next morning before we went to Bwindi.
New Birds Seen: Pearl-spotted Owlet, Marsh Tchagra, Barn Swallows, Nubian Woodpecker, Temminck’s Courser, Fork-tailed Drongo, Yellow-throated Longclaw.
New Mammals seen: Topi
Note: Twice on this trip I have identified owls, and twice I have mis-identified them. I am hoping my ID of Pearl-spotted Owlet is more accurate than my past attempts.
Hix
As mentioned in previous posts, Queen Elizabeth National Park is the second biggest park in Uganda (only Murchison is bigger), and today we were travelling to the southern part of the park known as the Ishasha sector. Named after a village and river in the area the Ishasha region is known for its tree-climbing lions. Unlike our previous accommodations, we’d be staying at a hotel there for only one night before moving on to our next destination.
It was a clear sunny morning (clear meaning no clouds – I still couldn’t see the Rwenzoris) as we had breakfast and enjoyed the view for one last time. There were some Pied Crows on the fence near the pool, and several White-backed Vultures circling above, but not much else this morning.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/pied-crow-339964/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/whitebacked-vulture-339970/
We had been the only visitors staying at the Lodge for the two nights we were there, and as we were leaving I commented to the staff that I hoped they would get some business soon, and they replied another small group was arriving that evening. I guess the wet season really isn’t the peak time for tourists.
I had read about a couple of crater lakes nearby to Kyambura that had Lesser Flamingos, and I was keen to see them. Unfortunately, they were 20 kms in the opposite direction to which we were going (which would take us over an hour just to get there), and Joseph didn’t think there were any left anyway, having migrated the month before. I was disappointed as this was the second species here I had missed – I had also wanted to see African Skimmers on Kazinga, but there were none of those either.
So we set off for Ishasha. Much of the vegetation was grassland with thickets of thorn-scrub, but some vast grassy plains of many square kilometres with few or no trees. We had driven past waterbuck and kob, but stopped when we saw an elephant. At least, half an elephant – we couldn’t see the bottom half of it because the grass was so high. Not quite as high as an elephants eye, like the song says, but certainly as high as an elephants thigh. And while we were photographing it a reddish brown bird with a black head and tail, red eye and white neck flew onto a grass stem just in front of the car. We got a couple of photos of it and for some reason I thought it was a Marsh Tchagra.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/queen-elizabeth-national-park-grasslands-340805/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/elephant-339987/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/waterbuck-340002/
Tchagras are a small group of bush-shrikes that I’d never heard of before I arrived in Uganda. And apart from briefly glimpsing a Brown-headed Tchagra before it dived into a bush at Bigodi, I hadn’t thought much about them (and the one at Bigodi had been pointed out to me by the guide who knew what it was). So why I thought it was a Tchagra I don’t know. Actually, I didn’t think it at all, the name ‘Marsh Tchagra’ just popped into my head. If someone had asked me to describe a Tchagra five seconds earlier, I wouldn’t have even been able to visualise one. I was aware of all this while photographing the bird, so I said nothing about its identity. Then Joseph, who had been flipping through his field guide, showed me a picture of a bird which was clearly what we were looking – and it was a male Marsh Tchagra.
“Marsh Tchagra” I exclaimed “that was what I thought it was!”
Which was, of course, not quite true, but sounded better than “That was the name that popped into my head!”
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/marsh-tchagra-339997/
We stopped for some other birds along the way too – Helmeted Guineafowl, another Long Crested Eagle (which appears to be a very common raptor in Western Uganda) and some White-throated Bee-eaters. And then, as we drove past, a bird flew out of the grass and into a tree clutching something dark brown or black in its feet. It looked like a small owl with rat, but this was around 9:45am in bright sunlight. We stopped the car and backed up to the tree and found the bird sitting on a branch, but its feet were obscured so we couldn’t see what it was holding. It looked straight at me and I could see it was definitely an owl of some kind, but it wasn’t until later that I identified it as a Pearl-spotted Owlet, a species which is partially diurnal.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/helmeted-guineafowl-339988/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/long-crested-eagle-339985/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/pearl-spotted-owlet-339993/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/pearl-spotted-owlet-339994/
Many (if not all) of the large National Parks have entry fees to enter the parks and go on game drives etc., but many have public roads running through them, and the road we were on was one of them. Occasionally we would pass someone on a bicycle, either cycling to a village to sell their goods, or cycling home again with something they had bought. These are not bicycles built for speed or racing obviously, but it amazed me we would see people on the road in the middle of nowhere, seemingly dozens of kilometres from any town or village, with the biker laden down with a giant hand of bananas or a large bag bulging with foodstuffs. In a few days time we would even see people with five giant hands of bananas balanced on the bike, and the cyclists walking alongside pushing the bike because there is no room for him to sit on it.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/cyclists-340004/
In the middle of the National Park is the very large Maramagambo Forest, an area which we had not had the opportunity to visit, unfortunately. But while driving along the southwestern edge of the forest we saw the silhouette of a large monitor run across the road several hundred metres in front of us. We stopped alongside where it had crossed the road and found it had climbed a tree by the side of the road. It had climbed about six feet up, and its tail was just touching the ground. Because of all the vegetation (leaves and twigs) in front of it, I had to zoom into its eye to get any kind of half-decent picture. And then we decided to get out of the car to see if we could get better pictures.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/maramagambo-forest-339991/
Orangeperson was by the door, but as soon as she exited the lizard dropped to the ground and scurried off into the bush; it was gone by the time I had left the car. But I could hear it dragging itself through the grass. Although there were bushes lining the edge of the road, a few metres in there appeared to be a pathway through the bushes running parallel to the road. So I got onto this path and tracked the monitor back along the path for a short distance until I came upon it in a little clearing, perfectly posed in the sun. But it saw me the same instant I saw it, and before I could point my camera it had scurried off into a thicket where I couldn’t follow. But I had seen enough to confirm it was a Nile Monitor (there are a couple of other uncommon monitors found in Uganda), so I pushed through the bush and popped back onto the road a hundred metres or so from the car. Walking back I saw a female Blue-headed Tree Agama sitting on a log, and some Red-tailed Monkeys in the tree.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/nile-monitor-339992/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/red-tailed-monkey-339995/
Further down the road we saw another black silhouette cross the road but from its shape and the way it trotted we could tell it was a mammal, short legged and with a bushy tail. In my head I tried to identify which species this shape might belong to. Was it a Genet? Nah, not in the middle of the day. A Ratel maybe? Nope again, tail too long, body shape all wrong. Perhaps one of the many species of Squirrel? No, too large and it didn’t have that squirrel-type bounding gait or frantic bolt. These thoughts all flashed through my mind (and were rejected) in the two or three seconds the animal crossed the road. But Joseph knew what it was.
“Mongoose.”
Of course it was! Uganda has seven species of mongoose and one cusimanse, so an accurate ID on this black shape was impossible. A little exciting just the same! Unlike the monitor there was absolutely no sign of it when we arrived at the point where it crossed the road.
Some miles further along we came to had left the forest and were passing a small swampy area when I saw behind the swamp a couple of brown antelope with a herd of buffalo – Topi! We stopped for a quick look, and then I noticed a number of birds in the swamp. There was a Black-headed Heron, a couple of Black Crakes, a pair of Jacana, a Sacred Ibis, and a number of birds I thought at first were Hadada Ibis, but turned out to be Open-billed Storks. Shortly afterwards we came upon more Topi, a couple of hundred of them, strung out in a line about a kilometre long, along with a couple of hundred kob. All the animals were looking at the tail-end of the topi line, which were all running towards the rest. We wondered what was chasing them, and I presume the kob wondered the same thing, but there didn’t appear to be any threat so I presume it was just the back-end of the line wanting to catch up and not be left behind.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-buffalo-340001/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-339998/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-339999/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/topi-340000/
At this point we were in the Ishasha part of the park, but the public part, and shortly afterwards we came to the entrance to the park proper. Joseph parked under a tree and went to show the office the receipts that showed we had paid to enter the park, and Angela saw a Nubian Woodpecker in the tree we were parked under. I also saw a pair of Red-billed Firefinches on the ground by the car, and a Grey-backed Fiscal Shrike in a shrub nearby.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/entrance-sign-339996/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/nubian-woodpecker-340003/
There are two campsites within this part of the park, and Joseph drove us to the second as he thought we would like it as a nice place to have lunch. He was not mistaken. The campsite was a large grassed clearing in the woodland by the Ishasha river, with a simple brick, concrete and thatch rondavel to provide shelter from the sun and rain. The river was only about ten metres wide at the most and Joseph pointed to the opposite bank and said “That side is the Congo”.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/campsite-2-a-340807/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/ishasha-campsite-2-a-339982/
Apparently the border runs down the middle of this small river. I don’t know why, but I thought it would be fun to somehow get to the other side, only for a few minutes, just to say I’d visited the Congo, even if it was illegal. But the border was guarded, not by the Congolese Army, but by a family of hippos who glared and snorted at us derisively. So we sat on the low perimeter wall of the rondavel and ate our packed lunch from Kyambura, chatting and watching for birds.
After lunch we set off in search of the famous tree-climbing lions. The park has two main tracks, known as the Northern Route and the Southern Route, and we took the Southern Route. The vegetation in this part of the park is mostly grassland punctuated by the occasional tree. The Acacias are tall and open but the fig trees tend to be a bit smaller with thicker trunks and thick branches which are more or less horizontal. More importantly, the figs have a canopy of large leaves which provides lots of shade, and these are the trees the lions like to climb. We drove around many of these figs, but saw no lions. However we did come across a group of vervets in one of the Acacias, which pleased the ladies as they hadn’t the opportunity to get a good view of this species yet. Red-necked Francolins were common along the side of the road, and there were flocks with what looked like well-developed youngsters. We also more Sooty Chats, Pintailed Whydahs, Long Crested Eagles, Speckled Mousebirds, and a Fork-tailed Drongo. Then Joseph pointed out something in the short grass; it had black and grey/brown mottled pattern on its back and wings, with a yellow superciliary eye-stripe and a brilliant yellow on its throat and undersides, the throat bordered in black.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/ishasha-grasslands-340806/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/long-crested-eagle-339986/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/vervet-monkey-340811/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/red-necked-francolin-340808/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/yellow-throated-longclaw-340809/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/yellow-throated-longclaw-340810/
“Lo-clo” said Joseph. I took some photos of it and identified it as a Longclaw, the Yellow-throated Longclaw, to be specific. Like the Tchudi Chat, I was having trouble with the accent again.
On our way out of the park I saw an unusual bird and asked Joseph to stop so I could get some photos. It looked like a new species of plover, but there was something about it that was not quite plover–like, although I couldn’t say what. It turned out to be a Temminck’s Courser, related to the plovers and another tick on my bird species list which was close to 150 at this point.
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/temmincks-courser-339983/
http://www.zoochat.com/1682/temmincks-courser-339984/
We left the park to check in at our hotel before dark, and we found it to be the largest hotel we had seen yet. The Savannah Resort Lodge has enormous grounds with manicured lawns, a large reception area and restaurant, and lots of rooms. The places we had stayed previously (apart from Kampala) could probably only accommodate a maximum of two dozen or so people, if that. This place looked like it could do a hundred easily. I think there’s only one other option for tourist accommodation around, so it probably gets really busy here in the peak tourist season. The hotel has that old-style grandeur about it that suggests it was built in the 50’s or 60’s. And it has internet access.
http://www.zoochat.com/1681/savannah-resort-lodge-340804/
We checked in and I soon logged onto the net, something I hadn’t done been able to do for about a week. The girls went for a swim in the pool (which was housed in another building out in the grounds. At a pre-arranged time we met in the restaurant for dinner, which was uneventful, but after we had discussed the hotel and the rooms we came to the conclusion it badly needed renovating – the grand veneer was chipped and peeling, quite literally. Thankfully, we were only staying here one night. And we also were not the only guests – there were at least six others.
After dinner I went back to my room and spent another few hours on the internet, and did a little reading – Shoebills are found in this part of the park and I hoped to see them the next morning before we went to Bwindi.
New Birds Seen: Pearl-spotted Owlet, Marsh Tchagra, Barn Swallows, Nubian Woodpecker, Temminck’s Courser, Fork-tailed Drongo, Yellow-throated Longclaw.
New Mammals seen: Topi
Note: Twice on this trip I have identified owls, and twice I have mis-identified them. I am hoping my ID of Pearl-spotted Owlet is more accurate than my past attempts.
Hix
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Note: Twice on this trip I have identified owls, and twice I have mis-identified them. I am hoping my ID of Pearl-spotted Owlet is more accurate than my past attempts.
Hix
Having held a Pearl-spotted Owlet once or twice, and thus having seen one at extremely close range, looking at your photos in the gallery leads me to be quite confident in your identification for this particular species!
Even if I had not seen this species so clearly, your identification would be sound on the basis that the only other pygmy owl found in the area is the African Barred Owlet (Glaucidium capense) which looks somewhat different in the body.