Uganda - morning, Sunday March 7th - Lake Mburo NP, Boat Trip

Our second morning in Uganda dawned beautifully (early):



We watched the sun rise as we had breakfast:



and then headed to Lake Mburo for our scheduled boat trip. They like to ram in the activities, us British Birders have a reputation for being obsessive listers... we decided to roll with it to start off with. Our guide was carrying a pair of binoculars and an AK47. This turned out to be another (predicted) theme of the holiday. Confidence doesn't carry an AK47 but he's not allowed to leave the vehicle in any National Parks and must behave well at all times. If you want to leave the vehicle you must be armed with a machine gun...

We headed out on to the lake, steering around the larger residents:



Our first bird of the morning and a great start, a White-backed Night Heron:



Followed quickly by a Squacco Heron:



and a Pied Kingfisher, who appeared to have a meal bigger than it could swallow:



A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron:



All of these birds were on the right-hand side in the trees, as we headed towards the Papyrus, with the lake water still wreathed in mist:



Our primary target (I can't speak for the guides here, just Helen and I) was the Papyrus Gonolek:



Having achieved our goal I asked if we'd be able to locate African Finfoot too. We headed back past the launch area and across to other side of the lake, passing a small beach, which had a small but diverse selection of birds, including a Wood Sandpiper:



Water Thick-Knees:





Hadada Ibis:



I hadn't appreciated before the subtleties of their plumage and colouration, splendid birds. Another new species then, the Three-banded Plover:



You quickly run out of superlatives to describe the new species you encounter:



A Common Snipe (more familiar territory):



And then, bingo! A female African Finfoot:



We tracked her through the undergrowth of the shoreline until she stopped to preen, allowing me to take a (poor quality) photograph from the moving boat. Shortly thereafter our heavily-armed guide spotted a male:



Another theme then, as well as being heavily armed the guides are superb, almost (but not completely) without exception. They typically have spent their whole lives in the habitat with the birds in question. It really does make a huge amount of sense to make use of their services wherever possible.

Concentrating again on the other species around, one of the African Fish Eagles was trying to dry out its plumage after a feeding run on the lake:



Having seen all of the primary target species we headed back to shore to have a mooch around the launch area, spotting Olivaceous Warbler:



Fork-tailed Drongo:



and a pre-migration Willow Warbler:



It was time to get back on the bus and begin a game drive back out of the park. We encountered a lot on the way back out including Zebra:

An inquisitive Ruppell's Long-tailed Starling:



Dwarf Mongoose:



Emerald-Spotted Wood-Dove:



A Brown Snake Eagle flew low overhead:



At various points along the road we stopped to view Broad-billed Rollers:





And Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters:

As well as more raptors, including this sub-adult Bateleur Eagle:

And a perched Augur Buzzard:

There was no let-up in the pace, as heading out of Lake Mburo National Park we made for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest...

Uganda - afternoon, Sunday March 6th - Lake Mburo NP

The drive from Mabamba Swamp to Lake Mburo National Park was a few hours on mostly decent roads. Once we pulled off in the park it was dirt roads thereafter. The first portion we passed through is common land, which means the herders can graze their cattle:

These very large horned cattle made up over 90% of all the cattle we saw in Uganda. I guess they must be both hardy and a local breed.

As we approached the entrance to the National Park proper, Harriet pointed out a White-browed Scrub-Robin:

That tail is raised and then fanned as part of their display. Also around the entrance (we got out to stretch our legs), Trilling Cisticolas:

A confiding Striped Kingfisher:

A Warthog, which soon decided it didn't like us wandering around too close, so we backed off:

We got back in the bus, this time with the roof raised for a game drive into the park. Along the road, a bird we only saw fleetingly in Kenya in 2009 but got really good views of on this trip to Uganda, a Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike:





It's hard to describe the sound made by Ruppell's Long-tailed Starlings:

They are beautiful birds, stunning plumage, sounds and behaviour and really quite common too :)

More on the mammal front, a Topi:



Running across the road in front of us, Red-naped Francolin:

Helen took this picture of Morning Glory at one stop:

Another runner across the road, Helmeted Guineafowl:

A small antelope, the Oribi:

Crested Francolin:

Sat up in a tree, a Cattle Egret:

Further into the park, another Black-capped Gonolek, already one of my favourite birds:

Like Ruppell's Long-tailed Starling, they have a fantastic and distinctive voice and sound as well as fabulous plumage and gregarious behaviour.

Bare-faced Go-Away bird:

A 'wader'/'shorebird' in the grassland of the park, an African Wattled Lapwing:

Another water bird, the African Open-bill Stork, this one sat atop a tree:

On our first day we were racking-up new species and indeed photographs. I mostly decided to leave out the more blurry, lest distinctive photographs for brevity of blog and, indeed, time -suffice to say there's a lot more where this lot came from! Uganda was living up to the promise we had anticipated and more. The drive ended at our accommodation, Arcadia Cottages - good quality accommodation, good food, reasonably priced beer and a small herd of Impala hanging around our hut to avoid potential predators :)