Uganda 2020 - Primates, Big 5 and 30 minutes with Obama

March 25, 2020

Murchison Falls is a spectacular place!

March 25, 2020

Thanks for sharing these. It brings back memories..

March 26, 2020

Thank you for sharing---I love Uganda---it is a beautiful country! We also stayed at Baker Lodge --- I found Murchison Falls Park to be especially beautiful! THank you and I look forward to more...

March 26, 2020

The northern part of Murchison Falls is quite a scenic park with savanna dotted with borassus palms and acacia trees. And you have the riverine woodland at the Nile or at Lake Albert.

And of course with the usuals suspects of East African wildlife

Waterbuck:

Spotted Hyena

Buffalo

Elephants

We did not see lions during our two game drives and as I remember lions have not be seen by other guests in the Baker's Lodge during our stay. The only cat we saw was a Leopard with his kill in the tree. But even this was only a partial view from the back.

The above picture is already zoomed in and cropped. The below picture shows the real situation much better.The leopard is in tree on the right.

Off-road driving is strictly forbidden and enforced in the park. Compared to other parks, I found the network of trails not as dense as in other East African parks.

However, there was still some other wildlife.

Patas Monkey

Olive Baboon

A fast moving squirrel

Black Cobra on our way back to the lodge

Edited March 26, 2020 by ELIL

March 26, 2020

And a few birds from the game drives

Yellow-billed Kite

Abdim's Stork

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

Speckle-fronted Weaver

Red-necked Falcon

Abessinien Ground Hornbill

Helmeted Guineafowl

Grey-backed Fiscal

March 27, 2020

In addition to the game drives in the park, we did water activities as well. One cruise upstream to the falls, and another one downstream to the Delta. The good thing was that our boat picked us up directly at the lodge, no unnecessary transfers and waiting time. The cruises delivered many birds, but particularly during the upstream cruise, we did see a lot of wildlife as well. We enjoyed both trips very well, quite a relaxing experience.

Upstream to the falls:

Pied Kingfishers were everywhere and plenty

But the highlight for us was the Giant Kingfisher, the first time ever we saw one.

Grey-headed Kingfisher

There was also a huge colony of red-throated bee-eaters

And hippos everywhere

Yellow-billed Stork

Great Egret

Little Egret

Squacco Heron

Elephants were visible in many places

Everything guarded by the majestic Fish Eagle

even the more intimate moments

African Darter is quite common as well

And there is a big colony of African Skimmers

Nile Crocodile at the Nile

Buffalos enjoyed the mud in the sun

Parade of White-faced whistling Ducks

And finally we reached the falls

And there we found a Rock Pratincole on a rock

Edited March 27, 2020 by ELIL

March 27, 2020

On our second cruise downstream to the delta, we saw many birds again. Most of them were the same as during the upstream trip, but some new ones joined.

Early morning on the river Nile

African Darter

Black Crake

Great Cormorant

African Green Pigeon

Goliath Heron

Nile Crocodile

When we approached the reed at the delta, we tried our luck for the Shoebill. And we were lucky.

The sighting was not as good as in the Lugogo swamp, the Shoebill was a little bit hidden in the high papyrus and did not move much. But a Shoebill is always a highlight. Considering our rained away trip on our first day, we do not complain at all.

Blue-cheeked bee-eater

Blue-headed Coucal

And some fishermen on Lake Albert

Edited March 27, 2020 by ELIL

March 27, 2020

Boat cruise is always a treat! You have had many fantastic sightings. Rock Pranticole is my favourite.

March 27, 2020

1 hour ago, xelas said:

Boat cruise is always a treat! You have had many fantastic sightings. Rock Pranticole is my favourite.

I am particularly happy that we saw the Rock Pratincole. I have read before that you find them mainly at the top of the falls. But we were too lazy for the walk uphill. Fortunately enough, it was sitting on the rock in the river.

March 27, 2020

Servus aus Innsbruck! Another great Uganda report! Glad you found the Shoebill after what must have been an extremely disappointing first day - and then another one, how cool! Also a fan of the Pratincole, and love the Skimmers, they are firm favourites of mine. Looking forward to more!

March 27, 2020

Congratulations from me too. A lovely collection of wildlife. Nice leopard with kill and Patas are one of my favourite (permitted) monkeys. They always look so wise.

Some good birds too and you deserved another Shoebill after your earlier disappointment. Rock Pratincoles are often on the rock where the boat stops at the foot of the falls.

I have not been up to Murchison on the last two trips and your report has got me thinking it is time to go again.

March 28, 2020

12 hours ago, Galana said:

Congratulations from me too. A lovely collection of wildlife. Nice leopard with kill and Patas are one of my favourite (permitted) monkeys. They always look so wise.

Some good birds too and you deserved another Shoebill after your earlier disappointment. Rock Pratincoles are often on the rock where the boat stops at the foot of the falls.

I have not been up to Murchison on the last two trips and your report has got me thinking it is time to go again.

Thanks for your nice comment. I hope the time will come soon when we all can do a more robust planing than only thinking about it.

March 28, 2020

13 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

Servus aus Innsbruck! Another great Uganda report! Glad you found the Shoebill after what must have been an extremely disappointing first day - and then another one, how cool! Also a fan of the Pratincole, and love the Skimmers, they are firm favourites of mine. Looking forward to more!

Hallo Nachbar! And indeed, it turned out really well with the Shoebill.

March 28, 2020

After three nights at Baker's Lodge we left early in the morning for the long trip to Kibale National Park. We decided to make a little detour and stop at the Royal Mile for a walk and some leisurely birding. Near the entrance to the Royal Mile we passed by a big church.

This church was built by Polish refugees who were settled there by the British during WWII. I was a little confused about this story - Polish refugees in Uganda? But after our return home, I found an interesting blog about Uganda where some more background information about these refugees is available. https://impressionsofuganda.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/polish-refugees-in-uganda/

We picked up a local guide and started our walk. The history and background of the Royal Mile is described in the excellent trip report by @inyathi. I just noticed when looking for the link to that report that we had the same local guide mentioned there. Raymond is indeed a great and enthusiastic guide. We felt a little bit sorry not to spend more time with him there, but the visit was more an extended break to stretch our legs for us than extensive birding.

But we did see not only birds.

Blue Monkey

Red-tailed Monkey

Raymond tried hard to show us one of the specials of the Royal Mile, the Chocolate-backed Kingfisher. But although the bird answered the calls sometimes from a very close distance, we did not see it. However, we spotted another special kingfisher.

African Dwarf Kingfisher

Some other birds from the Royal Mile

African Pygmy Kingfisher

Rufous Flycatcher-Thrush

Brown Illadopsis

Blue-spotted Wood-Dove

After two hours walking we continued our drive towards Fort Portal with its huge tea plantations and some roadside birds.

Great Blue Turaco

European Bee-eater

March 28, 2020

You're accumulating a nice collection of kingfishers, not to mention the Bee-eaters.

March 28, 2020

Another excellent collection of photographs and information from your 'side trip' to The Royal Mile. Thanks for the interesting link to the Polish Church which I had seen but never really knew the background.

March 28, 2020

We stayed in the Primate Lodge in Kibale National Park. The lodge is next to the visitor centre for the Chimpanzee tracking. After registration and a short instruction about do's and dont's we did a short drive to our actual starting point. Our group was headed by the ranger Anett, @kittykat23uk was part of our group together with 3 other participants from Israel. kittykat23uk's report described our experience already and some of the faces in the following photos may look familiar. Out of coincidence, there was an excellent documentary on German TV about another group of chimpanzees in Kibale Forest just a few days before we left for Uganda. "Rise of the Warrior Apes" gives great insight into the life and habits of the chimps in Kibale.

We spent the first 15-20 minutes by looking up to the top of the trees and tried to get some good views of the chimps.

But when the alpha male decided to come down, the action started. I was very close to tree he came down and was surprised how fast he went down the tree. And from this close range the alpha male was much bigger and muscular than I expected. And he was really fast on the ground as well. When our guide said "Lets follow him" I turned around to look for Ghada, but could not find her. Since she is not able to run or even to walk fast on such a ground, I wanted to close the gap between her and the rest of the group. The rest of the group run past my position followed by another chimp who apparently wanted to follow the alpha male. But no sight of Ghada. But at least I could hear her and found her soon. As I feared when the run after the chimps started, this terrain was too difficult for her to keep up with the speed. And she was a little bit scared for a moment when more chimps appeared next to her, shouting and running past her to follow the alpha male. I think this whole episode did not last much more than one minute until we were with the group again and enjoyed the rest of the time with the chimps.

This short video shows how our group moved forward at standard speed.

After some time walking around, Anett and been informed where the chimpanzees were resting. A big group was resting on the ground. I think we were quite lucky to find so many on the ground. But this meant that there were already other people there watching the chimps. And with time additional people arrived. But due to the big number of chimpanzees the crowd was quite distributed and we enjoyed the one hour with our close cousins.

During the planing phase of this trip, we were discussing whether to do the chimpanzee tracking or not. But it was an extraordinary experience we do not want to miss. It is easy walking on flat terrain and very satisfying to watch the chimpanzees around you.

And you get a nice certificate.

Edited March 28, 2020 by ELIL

March 28, 2020

Your Chimp photos are amazing!

March 28, 2020

Nice report,

10 hours ago, ELIL said:

The history and background of the Royal Mile is described in the excellent trip report by @inyathi. I just noticed when looking for the link to that report that we had the same local guide mentioned there. Raymond is indeed a great and enthusiastic guide. We felt a little bit sorry not to spend more time with him there, but the visit was more an extended break to stretch our legs for us than extensive birding.

Thanks.

Great to see another visit to the Royal Mile with Raymond. The link you added about the Polish refugees was very interesting, I don't think I'd read it when I was researching the Polish church for my report. I'm glad to see that you had two shoebill sightings after being washed out at Mabamba and that by the look of it, you had a great time with the chimps in Kibale, you certainly got good shots of them.

March 28, 2020

You got "Mahale-close" to those chimps. Ghada earned her certificate after that scary run and so did you.

March 31, 2020

In the afternoon after our chimp encounter we went to the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary for a tour in the Bigodi swamp. It is a community project and I had read about it to be a place for birds and primates. Frankly speaking, the tour was ok, but with no real highlights. The first half was quite nice, but during the second half of the tour both our guide and the sightings lost quality. But it resulted in some other photos.

Dusky-blue flycatcher

Lead-colored Flycatcher

Black-and-white Shrike Fylcatcher, male & female

Tambourine Dove

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird

Yellow-Throated Tinkerbird

African Harrier-Hawk

Brown-throated Wattle-Eye

Great Blue Turaco

White-tailed Rufous Thrush

Long-crested Eagle

Red-tailed Monkey

Red Colobus

March 31, 2020

Excellent photos. Love the two Tinkerbirds and Wattle-eye. Not often seen the 'actual' Brown-throat of the female as clear as your photo.

Jealous of the White-tailed Ant Thrush.

April 4, 2020

The next day, we continued our journey towards Queen Elizabeth National Park. The first part of the drive led us through a beautiful landscape with many crater lakes between the plantations.

Many birds were perching on trees or power lines, some indeed worth to stop like this Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill

But soon the landscape changed and when we had reached the entrance gate to QENP, the lush green colors were gone. It was much drier and dusty now. Our plan was to have lunch at the Mweya lodge before we embark for the boat cruise on the Kazinga channel. We had still time left for a short game drive on the way to the lodge but it was already quite warm and we did not see much.

Buffalos

Lonely elephant

Pied Wheatear

When we arrived at the entrance of the Mweya lodge another "lifer" happened to us. For the very first time on a safari trip our safari vehicle has been inspected underneath with mirrors for suspicious or dangerous parts. Our guide mentioned that they take security quite seriously in the Western part of Uganda, but this kind of inspection happened only at Mweya Lodge during our trip. Since many visitors stop here for lunch prior to an afternoon boat cruise, it definitely makes sense for such measures.

The food at Mweya lodge was quite good and we had a first view from the restaurant about what we will see later during the boat cruise.

Birds around the lodge are apparently used to humans and not shy at all.

Black Flycatcher

Swamp Flycatcher

Black-headed Gonolek

Slender-billed Weaver

Edited April 4, 2020 by ELIL

April 4, 2020

Nice ones. We always stay at Mweya for that view. I think you will have noticed the two tents that I grab on Alex's report. Two birds to correct. Your Sooty Chat is a Black Flycatcher and your Little Weaver is a Slender-billed Weaver but this takes nothing away from your excellent reports..

April 4, 2020

The cruise on the Kazinga channel takes a little bit more than 2 hours. The first part of the tour takes you further into the channel until the boat turns around and the cruise continues into the opposite direction until one almost reaches Lake Edward. And we saw a lot of wildlife during these two hours.

As we did already see from the restaurant, there were many elephants around