June 15 – July 6 2017-Uganda
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AVIAN SAFARIS 22 DAY UGANDA BIRDING AND NATURE TOUR ITINERARY Date: June 15 To July 6, 2017 Tour Leader: Crammy Wanyama Trip Report and all photos by Crammy Wanyama Intro: This was a customized tour for two, which covered the traditional Uganda birding circuit, which normally includes the central, northwest, west and southwestern parts of the country. The tour started and ended at Entebbe, covered a variety of habitats from cultivation, thickets, woodland savannah, lowland and montane forests. The weather was mostly favoring although we had a few rainy afternoons. A few species were still breeding which earned us excellent views of a number of them. The mammal experience was great and panoramic views of the dramatically changing scenery will forever linger. We recorded 551 bird species for which the guide and either one or both participants saw 507, 29 heard and 15 seen by guide only. 57 mammals seen, 2 heard and 1 seen by guide. Reptiles and a number of butterflies were also identified. Great Blue Turaco Avian Safaris: Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aviansafaris.com AVIAN SAFARIS Day 1 – June 15, 2017: Arrival For Tour. The flight arrived on time and headed to the well situated and tended to Protea Hotel Entebbe. Mark and Suzanne got Hadada Ibis at Entebbe International Airport, scoring themselves their first Ugandan bird. Picked up on the way to the hotel were some usual suspects by Uganda standards; Cattle Egret, More Hadada Ibis, and a couple of Marabou Storks. We had a quick general briefing about the tour after checking in at the hotel and decided to drive to Entebbe town for some bank transactions to get some Uganda shillings for any possible purchases on the countryside. We collected a couple of nesting small Slender-billed Weavers, Pied Kingfisher, Little Swift, Dark-capped Bulbul, Pied Crow, flying-off Rupells Starlings, Angola Swallow and African Openbill. Good birds to start with on a non-birding day. Day 2 – June 16, 2017: Birding to Mabamba for Shoebill and Entebbe Botanical Gardens A quick morning breakfast was followed by an hour and half drive to Mabamba to look for the most iconic bird of the trip. The famous Mabamba wetland is approximately 2424 hectares and supports a population of less than 25 Shoebill Individuals. Well tended to by the locals who have also been engaged into bird watching with focus on saving the Shoebill. Our drive added Red-eyed Doves by the power lines and driving past the massive lake victoria; Little Egret, Long-tailed Cormorant, Hamerkop, a Stunning Palm-nut Vulture, a few African Green Pigeons on top of dead trees, some busy Eastern Plantain-eaters, nice toques blue Woodland Kingfisher, two Lizard Buzzards, a very first gliding Ovampo Sparrow- hawk which we never had descent views of, resident and migratory Broad-billed Rollers (The migratory individuals breed in Madagascar), Red-billed Firefinch, Northern Grey-headed Sparrows, Double-toothed Barbet, Vieillot’s Weaver, African Pied Wagtail, Crowned and Black-and-white Casqued Hornbill, Superb Sunbird, and good looks at Splendid Starlings. At Mabamba we took a motorboat, big enough to carry a motorcycle, we met our site guide and headed into the very well set marshes. We were welcomed by a very lovely displaying Blue-headed Coucal, perched out nicely on the tips of burnt papyrus, picked up Swamp Flycatcher, a couple of very loud Winding Cisticolas, a nesting pair of Long-toed lapwings whose broad we were able to see. African Jacana, Malachite Kingfisher, Yellow-billed Ducks, Grey-hooded Gull In flight, a Avian Safaris: Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aviansafaris.com AVIAN SAFARIS flock of White-winged Tern, a poor look at flying off Lesser Jacana, Great Egret, Squacco and Purple Heron, African Marsh Harrier, a hovering Black-shouldered kite spotted by Suzanne, a singing Yellow-throated Longclaw, Fan-tailed Widowbird and of course our bird, the Shoebill. We unfortunately never had satisfying views at our first Shoebill encounter; he got mobbed away by a pair of very bitter Long-toed Lapwings. He flew off the other side of the channel were we followed him and had very acceptable views which included, standing still, walking, unsuccessful fishing and defensive against more mobbing Long-toed Lapwings. This Shoebill walked in our presence, giving us even much better views After unbeatable views, we decide to try our luck for African Pygmy Goose, we were rewarded with four individuals, a very nice Rufous-bellied Heron, Blue-breasted Bea-eaters, Northern Brown-throated Weaver, a pair of Red-chested Sunbird, a dozen White-faced Whistling-Ducks, Black-crake, Lesser Stripped, Mosque and the Rare Montane Blue Swallow, Second, third & fourth Shoebills and White-rumped Swift. We hard a mid afternoon break and birded the never disappointing Entebbe botanical gardens when the weather was getting calmer. After quick looks at a couple of very tame Vervet monkeys, Yellow-fronted and Klaas’s cuckoo which Avian Safaris: Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aviansafaris.com AVIAN SAFARIS responded very well to my whistle, lacking views of African Grey Woodpecker, a pair of the majestic Black-and-White Casqued Hornbills. We added to our list African Hobby which seemed to be monitoring the sky for any intruders, a pair of Egyptian Geese some fifteen meters high in the tree, females of Red-chested and Olive-belied Sunbirds, Little Egret, and the Critically Endangered Hooded Vulture. A stroll down the shower of lake victoria paid very well with very brilliant views of African Pygmy Kingfisher, A pair of African Grey Parrots which were feeding on the dead wood in a tree hole, Black-headed, Village, Vieillot’s, the uncommon Golden-backed and the stunning Orange Weaver, Striated Heron, Yellow-billed Kite, Yellow-throated Greenbul, Grey-capped Warbler- they can mean to be skulks sometimes, a pair of very aggressive White-chinned Prinia, Black-headed Gonolek, and two Water Thick- knees. Time to head to our nice hotel, we saw three Mantled Guereza which were busy feeding in the trees, adding up to three mammals for the, a Striped Ground Squirrel was the second. Day 3 – June 17, 2017: Birding to Lake Mburo National Park via Mpanga Forest. After breakfast we checked out of our Entebbe Hotel and headed for Mpanga forest, which was an hour and half from our drive start. The driver got us better photography opportunities of Great Blue Turacos and African Green Pigeons, Northern Puffback, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Speckled Pigeon, Sooty Chat, Baglafecht & Village Weaver, and Stripped Kingfisher. The forest had a quite slow start with lots of butterflies taking on the wings as it was starting to get warm, I had and summoned a Rufous Flycatcher-Thrush, Scaly- breasted Illadopsis and Green Twinspots which did not cooperate, but got rewarded with more better trained Fire-crested Alethe and White-spotted Flufftail. We had excellent views of Shining Blue Kingfisher after I located the nest hall in the mad attached to the roots of a fallen tree, we got in a frenzy of exaltation when one came in with a big fish for the young, he perched on a twig close to his nest while we kept Avian Safaris: Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aviansafaris.com AVIAN SAFARIS Long-crested Eagle in our hide and showered it with camera shots, Narina Trogon, African Emerald Cuckoo, a very shy immature White-throated Greenbul, Western Olive Sunbird, a tough to observe Green Hylia which kept moving in the vines, and a very good moment with a troupe of Red-tailed monkeys. We continued to our lunch stop, which was planned for at the equator stop and after eating, we decided to go for some equator experience, who would not want to be in both hemispheres at the same time! We added Dusky-brown Flycatcher, Grey- backed Fiscal and better views of White-rumped Swift to our list. We drove west towards lake Mburo national park and picked Long-crested Eagle along the power lines, the beautiful Lillac-breasted Rollers, Grey Kestrel, Shikra, Little Sparrow- hawk, Eurasian Kestrel, a family of three Gray-crowned Cranes and unsatisfying view of Ross’s Turaco. We also saw Bare-faced Go-away-birds, Red-necked and Crested Francolin, White-shouldered Black Tit, one well-camouflaged Verreaux’s Eagle-owl, Red-faced Crombec, some mammals which included Impala, Defassa Waterbuck and the eye-catching Ankole Long-horned Cattle as we got close to our accommodation. Day 4 – June 18, 2017: Birding Lake Mburo National Park We had an early breakfast and headed to the Park for the boat ride with African Finfoot, Papyrus Gonolek and White-backed Night-heron as our targets. We were extremely successful with a bonus chick of the African Finfoot whom we observed Avian Safaris: Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aviansafaris.com AVIAN SAFARIS being showed around and fed by the mother; she carried her young at the upper tail covers. We also added Red-headed-headed Lovebirds, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Tabora Cisticola, Green Wood-hoopoe, the uncommon African Wood-hoopoe, Black Cuckoo-shrike, Lesser-masked and Little Weavers, Spot-flanked Barbet, Black-crowned Night-heron, a number of the Majestic looking African Fish Eagles, African Grey Hornbill, Plain-backed Pipit, Bateleur, Spot-flanked, Double-toothed and the Crested Barbet which has recently expanded its range to breeding with in Lake Mburo National Park. We broke off for lunch and a moment of rest that was desired for and resumed the afternoon birding session when even the light was getting better. We