Galana's fourth effort. "Never mind the quality feel the width".

[kittykat23uk]

1 hour ago, Galana said:

Yes. But it did not include mammals or reptiles. I left that to you.

Whilst I bow to your contacts knowledge I would still suggest Cape Clawless for those in Lake Vic and Bunyoni based mainly on size, they were big animals, and they are diurnal whereas Spotted-necked are much shyer critters. I only recall seeing them once whereas I can almost guarantee sightings of CC.

 

I've not received a completed bird list Fred, so perhaps you can resend it to me please? Yeah I wasn't expecting you to do the mammals.

 

 

[TonyQ]

Some wonderful new birds and beautiful photos.

We are also learning more about our fellow Safaritalkers 

[Galana]

2 hours ago, TonyQ said:

We are also learning more about our fellow Safaritalkers

So did I!

Edited March 11, 2020 by Galana
Additional text.

[Kitsafari]

Great white?! what happened to the Hare? got eaten up as well? 

 

Lovely additions - love the little beeaters. 

[xelas]

16 minutes ago, Kitsafari said:

Great white?! what happened to the Hare? got eaten up as well? 

Ah, those Safaritalkers, they just love to nickname an innocent fella like me .

[Galana]

55 minutes ago, Kitsafari said:

what happened to the Hare? got eaten up as well?

Nah. Here he is on our next day. Note the time of day!!

[Galana]

So to recap. We have arrived at Mweya Lodge and checked in. We were not allowed to rest for long and take in the views from our tents before being taken out into the wilderness and opening up some long neglected tracks. Emmy carries a very sharp Panga and uses it to good effect in clearing obstructing vegetation from tracks. He is kept busy, very busy. Memories fade but I do recall seeing some birds and being held up by a friendly herd of ellies in order to justify our late return to camp.

Here are the 'clicks' from that evening.

141. Red-necked Spurfowl.

 

Taken on the drive but just to show I can take some better ones the next is from two days later when conditions were better (i.e. It was not bloody dark!!)

 

142. Wattled Lapwing. QENP.

 

Then after a protracted delay with the ellies, the others will no doubt have photos in their report, we headed home but not before I spotted a bird in the bush which happily obliged long enough for me to use it.

 

143. African Cuckoo. Taken at 18.48 on 13th Feb.  Almost needed flash! but is was the clearest shot of this species we had all trip so just as well it came out!

Then, over dinner, it was broken to me that tomorrow we are to rise at 5.30 to leave for Kasenji Flats to look for bloody lions. Now if I had really wanted to go to Kasenji flats don't you think I would have booked a lodge there and thus avoided a 30km drive in the dark at silly o'clock? Correct! It's not as though I care for lions all that much.

Inactive for 22 hours per day, I don't mind them sniffing around my tent at night or even serenading my slumbers with their roars, but by daylight they tend to be inert and boring. I have an understanding with them. I won't bother them and they don't bother me. See also my comments from my report "Zambia, Cats and Dogs!" and please do read Chris McBrides excellent study "Liontide"!

This is a Bird report in Big Year!   Do get on with it!  OK! Just saying!!

 

So we arise and take a biscuit and coffee in the Lodge along with several other car loads of happy, or not so happy, people on a similar fool's errand.

Then just like a Le Mans start we are off. Emmy in the lead.

At 06.55 we pass The Hare while @xelas slumbers on in the back of the car. Sorry. that should read @xelas seeks out owls and nightjars from the rear seat. We do actually see Nightjars and Dikkops on the road and narrowly avoid running over an African Crake. Would a roadkill 'selfie' have counted?

 

At 08.09 it is light enough to try a few birds.

"Up with the Lark" is an English expression.

How true! How very true!!

144. Rufous-naped Lark.

 

Not to be outdone the Cisticolas get in on the act.

145. Zitting Cistocola. It still not fully awake.

 

Now we arrive at two or three other cars staring intently into the long grass. After a while we see what could be a low termite mound or the tip of a lions head. Hard to tell really but Alex saw it move. OK. Maybe it is a lion but it is going nowhere. For this I got dragged out of bed before the streets are properly aired?

So I amuse myself with the local pipits.

146. Grassland Pipit. Taken between 08.04 and 9.20. Ok the last was actually at 11.34 but we had left the sleeping cat long ago by then.

11.30 looks like lunch time so we park up in a spot overlooking a soda lake and break out the Thermos and packed Breakfast which bears a marked resemblance to a packed lunch except the chicken is premature and still in the shell!

Breakfast over we continue looking for birds.

To be honest we have never stopped and some of the following indicate pre -breakfast times but hey, that would have spoiled my account and one should never let facts get in the way of making a point.

to continue...

147.. Crowned Lapwing. It was actually quite near the 'lion' too.

 

148. African Mourning Dove. Probably mourning the lack of sleep!

 

149. White-browed Coucal.

 

And then redemption followed...

A small bird scuttles across the track before diving into cover.

Ho hum the usual view of a Quail we get from time to time. Sneaky little beggars.

 

And then the Gods smile upon us as it trots uncaring in our direction.

Oh Wow! This is ALMOST worth getting out of bed for.

 

Just  a little bit nearer dear!!

 

Oh lovely.

150. Common Button Quail. I am smiling from ear to ear. It was all worthwhile. Well almost. Let's not get carried away!

Back for a late lunch and a cold beer I think.

But it's a long dusty drive and more birds to see on the way.

 

[xelas]

Oh boy, you are already at QENP and I am stuck at Mabamba swamp with TR. Time to hurry up. I did not know the Quail was such a special treat; now I need to find her a place in TR.

[kittykat23uk]

Letting the side down @xelas! 

[Peter Connan]

Don't hurry up! I haven't got time to read right now..

[Galana]

2 hours ago, xelas said:

I did not know the Quail was such a special treat; now I need to find her a place in TR.

If we had told you it was a treat you would probably have eaten it!

[kittykat23uk]

8 minutes ago, Galana said:

If we had told you it was a treat you would probably have eaten it!

😂😂😂😂

[elefromoz]

@Galana, good job with the Button Quail. Like you I find mostly Quail are a flash across the track, and gone. Phew 150!

[Galana]

Late on Parade today. Could not let the sunshine go to waste so took time out to add a few Manx birds to my Big Year. Ticked and clicked 5 but I will no doubt get better ones and any way it would mess up my  sequential numbering if I put them up now.

Back to Uganda.

The post lunch drive was not empty of new birds for the list and here is more of what we found that first morning.

151. White-backed Vulture. the 2nd is in Ishasha later.

 

152. Gymnogene/African Harrier Hawk. Juv. The only static one I saw.

 

153. Senegal Lapwing. I had dipped on Caspian earlier so made up for that with these close cousins.

 

154. Tawny Eagles.

 

155. Flappet Lark.

 

156. Greater Flamingo. On the Soda Lake where we had breakfast. A bit of an EBC (well a lot really) but all we got.

 

157. Barn Swallows. I had these pointed out as Angolan but they ain't!   Dipped.

 

158. Long-crested Eagle. The observant amongst you will have noticed the number of birds perched on Euphorbia Cactus. This is prevalent in QENP and Woodpeckers peck it and lions and leopard climb it. However steps are now in hand to remove and/control it.

 

159. Heuglin's Robin-Chat (White-browed Robin-Chat.)

 

And after no lunch we assembled at the jetty below the lodge for another highlight. A cruise on the Kazinga channel which will form the bulk of the next batch.

In the meantime whilst waiting for the boat I took a photo of a Hammerkop.

 

160 Hammerkop. Well three really.

 

I will end with a Big Cat to demonstrate the use of Euphorbia as a perch/refuge.

Til next time.

 

 

 

 

[xelas]

There should be a spoiler alert warning, @Galana ! I am trying hard to keep the audience interested in TR .

[shazdwn]

4 hours ago, xelas said:

There should be a spoiler alert warning, @Galana ! I am trying hard to keep the audience interested in TR .

Don’t worry @xelas, your trip report is keeping us hooked 😀

[Galana]

4 hours ago, xelas said:

I am trying hard to keep the audience interested in TR .

And succeeding in spades. Don't worry.

[Soukous]

14 hours ago, xelas said:

I am trying hard to keep the audience interested in TR 

 

Don't worry, I am just using Fred's BY as a teaser for what will follow in your TR. 

[Galana]

2 hours ago, Soukous said:

Don't worry, I am just using Fred's BY as a teaser for what will follow in your TR. 

So perhaps it is I that should slow down for a while to make the report last?   I don't do bathrooms!

[Galana]

Well having been up since Silly o'clock to seek shadows in the grass we are now on the dock at Mweya ready to board the good ship "Hippo". So I take a seat near, but not too near, the front. The gunwhales taper so you need clearance in order to depress your long lens to see the shorebirds.

The lower deck is preferred to keep close to the subject and sitting on the port side is best..

A short introductory speech from our lady guide and we are off. This cruise is along the channel connecting Lake George with Lake Edward and we head off in what is technically 'downstream' towards Lake Edward. I won't cramp @xelas's style by reciting how the lakes here got their 'Royal ' names but there are also Lakes Victoria and Albert in the system and we are in Queen Elizabeth National Park but that is a comparatively recent re-naming.

In addition to the multitude of Avifauna the channel is also a good place to watch hippo, buffalo and elephant and many other animals.

But this is a Birding thread so...

161. Yellow-billed Oxpecker. Or in this case Hippopeckers.

 

162. Yellow-billed Stork which is just what you would expect a Stork with a yellow bill to be called. However it had previously been classed as an Ibis which may account for it's unhappy countenance.

 

163. Great White Egret.

 

164. Sacred Ibis.

 

165. Black-winged Stilt and Buffalo's bum!

 

166. Common Sandpiper.

 

167. Squacco Heron.

 

168. Black Crake doing its best to run away.

 

And on the bank we find...

169. African Pygmy Kingfisher. Sorry about the quality but a moving boat is not an ideal platform from which to photograph a small bird some distance away.

 

Much easier...

170. African Fish Eagle. The true voice of Africa. Also note in the first picture further use of the Euphorbia Candelabra.  The spread of Cactus in QENP is often stated as the reason why Jackals howl all night long.

[PeterHG]

1 hour ago, Galana said:

The spread of Cactus in QENP is often stated as the reason why Jackals howl all night long.

 Fantastic shot of the Fish Eagles on the cactus!

[Galana]

GOOD CRUISE. BAD NEWS.

We continue the cruise where I left off in the earlier post still heading "downstream" towards Lake Edward.

I  have not posted photos of hippo, buffalo etc., as this is Birds Big Year and I can leave mammals and reptiles to @xelas and @kittykat23uk in due course.

Towards the turn round point at a small fishing village is a hot spot for many birds and here are what I managed to photograph.

 

171. Gull-billed Terns. Note the small Plovers in the background.

 

172. Might as well grab them too.

Kittlitz Plovers. EBC but you never know....

However I found a better one later.

172. Kittlitz Plover. Next day.

 

173. Grey-headed Gulls.

 

174. Greater Cormorant.

 

175. Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Many of these migrate down from Scandinavia and are "Baltic Gulls." Larus fuscus fuscus.

 

But look closely. Some may be different like the guy bottomt right foreground.

176. Heuglin's Gull.  Larus heuglinii.

 

And among the Gull-billed Terns were several (lots) of smaller ones.

177. White-winged Terns.

 

At the end of our cruise, when I had totally failed to potograph GW Pelicans we were then hauled off on another evening drive by the irrepressable Emmy despite the failing light..

We found more ellies of course which was very nice as some were in a playful mood.

In the bird world we found :-

Dusting in the evening glow.

Happily later in the trip we got better views another day so I did not have to resort to another ECB.

178. Crested Francolin.

Last but not least that evening in even poorer light...

 

179. White-headed SawWing. No doubt going to roost as should I.

 

At the start of this batch I mentioned receipt of some Bad News. Nobody has died or got ill. I was simply advised at dinner that we had another silly o'clock start next morning to return to Kasenji plains to seek a lion (some of which were a darn site closer to Mweya as I lay abed that night listening to them!!)

But that is another day and #180 can wait the dawn.

 

[xelas]

Hippos and ellies and buffalos will come, in due time and on TR. Thanks for pointing out the Herring Gull. And I am still trying to ID this last fella ...

[Galana]

3 hours ago, xelas said:

And I am still trying to ID this last fella ..

No excuses. We stopped several times to try and get  a good shot. Perhaps you were eating or napping?

[xelas]

Ahh, finally ... Whinctory !

Edited March 15, 2020 by xelas