Uganda birding Safari, Tours

8 Days Bird Watching tour in Uganda

12 Days Ugnda Birding Tour and Safari

Uganda Birding reports

 

Uganda Birding Report

 

Birding Report itinerary for one our happy clients 2007
15-17 July
   
We arrived on an early flight at Entebbe airport where we were met by our driver guide Ronnie  of Travel Hemispheres . Our tirp was arranged by Fred. Then started strait we left for the Kaaku Swamp is a shallow wetland several hours west of Entebbe. A dirt road skirts the shore, and our guide  knew a spot to follow a short cattle trail into the swamp to view the birdiest part. We almost immediately flushed a Rufous-bellied Heron — a prime target here. We had small groups of both White-faced and Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, the latter a rarity in Uganda. There had been a vagrant Shoebill here recently, so we stopped a fisherman to ask about it, but it hadn't been seen in a week. Thus, it became the bird stop in an otherwise rushed travel day, and was capped off with a family of Gray Crowned-Cranes (right), Uganda's national bird. We drove past other interesting parts in Uganda strait to Ruhija

18 July: we were up at 5 a.m. and interestingly we were joined by other new person- Charles  who was to work as our bird guide throughout. After a breakfast was brought to our room, left for Ruhiza in the mountains at 6 a.m., arriving about 8:30. Ruhija is at 7500' (2300 m) elevation in Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest national park. The only facilities are a research station with concrete-floored main room attached to a room of bunks, and a ranger base.      There is spectacular montane forest at Bwindi. We headed out on what is called the "short trail" to Mubwindi Swamp. This is actually an exceptionally steep and difficult hike! First we climbed up and up ridges into the forest, and had our first Albertine Rift endemics [Red-faced Woodland Warbler, Montane Masked (or Black-faced) and Collared Apalises, Rwenzori Batis, Regal and Blue-headed Sunbirds]. The humid forest hike at this elevation was exhausting, and by the time we reached the highest ridge, we were quite exhausted. Because we would have to plunge way down into a valley from there, and then climb back up on the return trip, it was apparent that this was going to be a very hard day.
  We continued down into Mubwindi Swamp, eventually reaching the beautiful wooded valley at noon. Our guide  showed me the tree where a pair of African Green Broadbills had nested and fledged young the month before, but all efforts to relocate them this day were unsuccessful. We had much better luck with the rare and local Grauer's Rush-Warbler in the swamp itself, flushing one from the edge almost immediately, and it sat up nicely for good views. We had good luck with other endemics: Yellow-eyed Black Flycatcher, Stripe-breasted Tit, Strange Weaver. Our guard flushed a Handsome Francolin for us by accident. Albert used his tapes to call in birds like Mountain Yellow Warbler and, after much effort, a fine Archer's Robin-Chat (a prized high-altitude endemic) and a Black-billed Turaco (a widespread but very elusive montane species). Most ingeniously, he used a tape of Western Green Tinkerbird (which we never got) to bring in a pair Dwarf Honeyguides! Our guide told me that they parasitize the tinkerbird.
    The hike back up from Mubwindi Swamp was very steep and tiring. For a 50-year-old white guy who sits around a computer all day, it was right at my physical limits of endurance. My right knee almost gave out, and I was totally exhausted when we reached the Ruhiza bunkhouse (our “honeymoon suite” as this trip was our honeymoon) at 5:30 p.m. after the 9 hour roundtrip hike. We had a quite cold at night. On the plus side, our hired cook made a very tasty vegetarian meal of beans, rice, potatoes, cauliflower, and lots of sauces. There was even cold beer.

After dinner we went out  searchlight  for nightjars and owls. Heard quite a few Rwenzori Nightjars although none came close enough to see, but we did call up an African Wood-Owl for excellent views.
19 July:  woke up before dawn (jet lag, no doubt) and decided to try for the nightjar ourselves. We heard one constantly calling down by the nearby small village and, at dawn, the bird itself flew right over us several times. We didn't have a tape, and whether it came in to my whistled imitation is uncertain.
    After this nice success, we spent the morning slowly birding the roadside forest below Ruhiza, down to about 6800’ elevation (2100 m.). We'd walk for  tapes, and then  would drive the 4-wheel drive  past us, and park farther downhill, allowing us to survey a lot of forest. We got some fine birds with this leapfrogging method, including Doherty's and Luhder's Bush-Shrikes, White-tailed Blue Flycatcher, White-starred Robin, Mountain Illadopsis, Cabinis' Greenbul, and lots of Black-faced and Chestnut-throated Apalises. We also tramped through grasslands and weedy patches in search of seedeaters, and  eventually found a family of Dusky Twinspots with two fledglings. He also found what appeared to be a male Rwenzori Double-collared Sunbird — only the second record for Bwindi park (details in bird list).
    As the road descends the mountain toward Buhoma (the site were there is gorilla tracking), it leaves the park for awhile and traverses cultivated country, which presents a real contrast to the montane forest. It is imperative that the forest remain. One enters that forest again at "The Neck" — a spot where a thin strip of forest along a ridge provides a corridor between the larger blocks of forest up at Ruhiza, and the block of forest that is protected down below at Buhoma (at 5000’ elev. = 1550 m). It was now mid-day and hot, so we didn't find many birds active at "The Neck," a locally-famous spot for bird tours. We did have Cassin's Flycatcher foraging just over the river at the bridge.
   We reached our lodging in Buhoma at 2 p.m. Here there was electricity and hot water (neither up at Ruhiza), and I was very glad that we were doing our Ugandan loop in this direction, staying at the most primitive places and doing the hardest hikes first, and working our way "up" in lodging quality. [It was our honeymoon, after all!] The fruiting tree right outside our bungalow was full of birds (esp. nice were Bronze and Green-headed Sunbirds) and Rita found a scarce and local Magpie Mannikin nest-building in a tree right above the road next to our lodge. We finally got nice long showers, and I was able to catch up on my notes.  Two sisters, Carmen & Mary Rose, one who lived in Uganda doing peace corp work and the other in Mozambique, and other  guests.

20 July: this was our long-planned Gorilla day! It was a lovely sunny morning with curls of the famous mist drifting up around the hills (above). We checked in at 8 a.m. and learned we had been assigned to "M" (=Mubare) group, which yesterday had been in the valley over the ridge behind the check-in point and a couple hours away. Another set of trekkers were heading to the "H" group, about the same distance away but in a different direction. We waited for the three other tourists who had paid for reservations  but one guy decided to go to the “H” group (there was one spot available in that group) and the other two decided not to go (they'd done the hike the day before). So we had the trek to ourselves! Just us and our guide (Joseph), three guards, and we hired a porter (Saul) to carry lunch. In addition, three trackers had gone out early to locate the gorillas and radio in their location.

The Mubare group is led by 30-year-old silverback male Ruhondiza (the names means “the lazy one who sleeps all the time”). There are ten Mountain Gorillas in this group: 4 adult females, 2 subadult males, 2 "teenagers", and a 14 mo. old baby. We would see all of them except 2 of the adult females.
    It was a long two-hour hike up the switchbacks to the top of the ridge, and then another hour cross-country down the back side to where the trackers had located the Gorillas. The trackers had cut a nice path with machetes through thickets to a large tree where the group was sprawled out around it. The silverback was sleeping and refused to look at us; about 45 minutes later he suddenly awoke and stormed off to punish a young male who had done something inappropriate. When order was restored, the silverback got up and led the group straight away into the gloom. During our first 45 minutes, though, there was a three-ring circus of activity. Females and subadult males climbed in trees or munched on stems; the two "teenagers" romped and wrestled — often preceded by chest-thumping mock charges — and the baby entertained by pestering the others, swinging from branches, and coming within five feet of us to look us over. We and our entourage remained quiet throughout, shooting up several rolls of film and video. David  had brought her travel chair so had a comfortable front-row seat. What a treat to enjoy the Gorillas without having the jostle for position with other tourists!
 When our allotted hour with the Gorillas was up, we traipsed back to the ridge for lunch, and then hiked slowly for two hours back down the switchbacks. In all it was hot, steamy work at a steady pace, with no time for birding. I wore some expired contact lenses that meant I avoided constant glasses-fogging, but since we didn't really do any birding I was unaware how poorly I was seeing things in the forest. [Foreshadow: this would make a big difference the next day when I basically couldn't spot anything the whole morning.]
    We were back to our lodging by mid-afternoon,  After lunch and a brief rest, and with rain clouds threatening, we opted to explore the small adjacent village with its few tourist shops while , with  another guide, and I took a late afternoon bird walk along the river. Saul spotted a most unexpected Shining Blue Kingfisher, and I even took a photo while wedged up against a tree at 1/8 sec. shutter-speed. Then the heavens opened up with heavy rain... but our driver  saved the day by driving up to where the trail met the road and driving us back, picking up the downpour as well.   This was both an exhausting and exhilarating day. We celebrated with a bottle of French red wine that my ever-resourceful wife had saved from the airplane.
21 July: This morning we run into another birding group which we joined and  were very focused on birding. Indeed, a White-bellied Robin-Chat was in a scope as we walked up. We  found an Elliott's Woodpecker, which some of their group came over to see, but while we waited for our other guides  their group moved off into the forest. As we learned much later after returning home, the Birdquest leader (Nik Borrow) was unaware of Alfred's double-booking and our leaderless plight. They were unaware we were "stranded" while we had been led to believe they knew what was going on.
 
Our success at Buhoma was quite good. We worked d really hard to see birds up at Ruhiza. Our guides  explained that in July — the peak of the dry season — singing was much reduced and undergrowth and canopy species much less responsive. The nesting season was just over and birds were in the least territorial phase of the annual cycle. I taped several long-tailed cuckoos, for example, both Olive and Dusky, but it took us well over a half-hour of work with one Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoo to get a good view of any of them. Levi knew spots for Short-tailed (Neumann's) Warbler — the primary specialty here — and we taped in two of them, but I just couldn't spot the beasts. Rita had nice views (she also saw Fuelleborn's Boubou that I missed). It was all very frustrating.
We  saw a Short-tailed Warbler walk along a low horizontal branch, stop, throw its head up and sing! I had no idea why Don couldn’t get on it with my directions.

  In the late afternoon, we drove  to the cultivated fields outside the little town of Buhoma itself to look for Compact Weaver. We found a recently used nest but not the bird itself. We did add a few new species not seen elsewhere, including Jacobin (Pied) Cuckoo.
22 July: we were packed and ready to leave at 7:30 a.m. . Given the distance that we had to travel today, we didn't have the time to go back into the forest after the endemics we had missed yesterday (e.g., Kivu Ground-Thrush, Red-throated Alethe, Grauer's Warbler). But we did have an hour to give one more shot for the Compact Weaver in the fields opposite some  homesteads  office in Buhoma, and this time I did see one non-breeding-plumaged Compact Weaver. We  opted to bird the roadside near the village, where we had Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat. Fortunately for me, these proved to be reasonably common during the drive through the foothills today as they dashed across the track from bush to tangle. The road was absolutely good, and we did  reach Lake Mburo National Park until 4 p.m. (stopping only for lunch in Mbarara enroute).

Before entering the park itself, we tried various short-grass and burned areas for Brown-chested Plovers that are scarce migrants here. We had dipped out, and were ready to leave, when
we came upon a local resident driving some long-horned Ankole cattle. Our guide knew the man, and knew he was tuned into nature, and stopped to ask if he knew where those plovers were. Seemed like a real long-shot to us — here's this local guy walking barefoot with his cows, and we're going to ask about a specific difficult bird. But the guy knew the bird, and he knew that the small flock had moved from its usual haunts to a newly-burned patch of grass not visible for the road. So we drove back to the spot, walked inland until we found the burn, and found 7 Brown-chested Plovers!
    We arrived at Lake Mburo's "luxury tented camp" near dusk. The tents, built on platforms in thorn-scrub woods, were nice enough, but "luxury" is a misnomer. The outhouse was well back of the tent and again just a hole in the cement floor. There was no water, nor any electricity. Instead, the staff brings jerry-cans of hot water that you pour into plastic bowls for washing, and they bring kerosene lanterns. [There was an outdoor shower stall but one couldn't use that very well in the dark.] But I found it pleasant to listen to the night sounds, and one nightjar was close enough and steady enough that I got up, put on shoes only, and crept out to see it... a calling Black-shouldered Nightjar.
23 July: we spent most of the day in Lake Mburo National Park. Lake Mburo itself is a huge lake rimmed with patches of dense papyrus (Pied Kingfisher on one papyrus patch is at right). The surrounding habitat is of rolling hills with thick thorn-scrub. We saw many ungulates during morning and afternoon game drives — the only place in Uganda with Impalas and Zebra, plus lots of buffalo, waterbuck, Kongoni, and a skittish herd of Eland. We were permitted, with an armed guard, to walk to the lakeshore at one point and bird the papyrus edges. It was a treat to get outside the car and walk. Even more exiting was the Spotted Hyena that came loping out of the brush oblivious to our presence until we were practically face-to-face. We were short of luck in our goat to see the rare and local Red-faced Barbet (this is possibly the best spot in the world for it). We made do with some more widespread species that were lifers for us (e.g., Trilling Cisticola, Purple-banded Sunbird) and, at lake's edge, another Rufous-bellied Heron. Much of the late morning was spent looking for different species while the driver had had some trouble with the fuel lines in the vehicle  he got that problem fixed in the park's mechanic shop.

The day's highlight was a boat ride on Lake Mburo, which we shared with a team of American researchers working on African Fish Eagle. They were surveying the lakeshore for trees that they could climb to draw blood from young in nests; this for a study of pesticide contamination of these fish eagles to compare with Bald Eagles in North America. Our goal was African Finfoot — and Rita spotted one under low-hanging branches early in the trip.
 In late afternoon we drove west to the city of Mbarara.
24 July: we left Mbarara early, and reached the Kazinga Channel at the edge of Queen Elizabeth II National Park (QEII park hereafter) by 9:30 a.m. This wide, slow-moving channel connects Lake George and Lake Edward. It is thickly fringed with papyrus, and at the bridge we got right next to the habitat. With the use of my minidisc recorder, we were able to call up Papyrus Gonoleks for great views; also Lesser Swamp-Warbler. Then we headed west along the "Channel Track," through dry scrub-thorn habitat in QEII park, to Mweya Lodge. This is a very fancy lodge with charming rooms, an outdoor restaurant attended by flocks of weavers, and, as it is at the tip of a peninsula, a panoramic vista of the surrounding waterways and wild country. A pair of lion were seen across the way; many herds of buffalo, hippo, and waterbuck in view.

 We had good and nice suite  with a great view, a nice touch. Each room seemed to have a very approachable warthog out front, grazing on the lawn. And then we came upon a band of Banded Mongooses that were grooming lounging warthogs! We'd never heard of anything like this before. I laid down on the grass to take photos — and the mongoose tribe came over to groom me (i.e., search for insects, ticks, and mites)! Rita got one-of-a-kind video footage. We joined the Dutch-Belgian birding group for our Kazinga Channel boat ride (2-4 p.m.). Not many new birds but great for photography. We were able to relax and do a little honeymooning in the late afternoon.
25 July: we were up early for a long drive out to the eastern reaches of QEII park to look for grassland birds, especially buttonquail. We eventually had good looks at a Little Buttonquail in the dirt track, but word came as we were on that search that the vehicle with the Dutch-Belgian birders had a mother lion and cubs. We delayed charging over to them while we looked at the buttonquail, not realizing that the mother had a fresh kill. By the time we got there, she had dragged the antelope under a bush, and Rita lost a good video op. On our drive back to Mweya Lodge for lunch and check-out, we came upon a party of Giant Forest Hogs — a much-wanted specialty mammal of this park — and were able to obtain gripping photos and video.

  After lunch we left for Fort Portal, a bumpy 3-hour ride away. We checked into the Rwenzori View Guesthouse, an interesting bed-and-breakfast run by a German and a Brit. We had fine home-cooked meals aplenty (they made special "no meat, no onions" dishes for us in addition to everything else they served), and meals were served "family style" around a large dining table.

I was anxious to get to Bigodi Swamp — an hour's drive away on a very bad road — in hopes of various papyrus specialties, so Ronnie drove us out there in late afternoon. This swamp is now a community-run local reserve near Kibale Forest, and we hired a local guide (Jose) who Knew the basics of local birds. We had fine experiences with a mixed troop of Black-and-white and Red Colobus Monkeys before reaching the boardwalk across the papyrus swamp. It turned out that the boardwalk was heavily used by local residents — making it noisy at times — but it was good access to the swamp. We had both White-winged Warbler and White-spotted Flufftail very close — but could not see either of them. Verrrry frustrating. We finally got nice looks at White-collared Oliveback, though.
26 July: this was our day in Kibale Forest. We arrived by 8 a.m. at headquarters after having seen both White-tailed Ant-Thrush and Crested Guineafowl on the road through the forest enroute. It took about an hour to sort out our permit and obtain our guide, Ronald. He proved to be a very fine local guide; he obviously knew the monkeys extremely well, and was quite good with local bird calls. We chose to do a birding-and-chimpanzees walk — working slowly through the exceptionally fine forest — rather than the usual tourist chase to the chimps first. In part, this was because no one knew where the chimps were at the moment — they had been missed by all the groups searching the day before.
    Within the first hour, Ronald heard chimps not too far away, and we followed him cross-country off-trail until we reached the site. There were a small party here: an alpha male, an older female, several younger females (one of whom had lost a hand to a poacher's snare; left), a young male who hung around the periphery, and several youngsters. We had incredible views of the foraging group. The alpha male was high in a tree eating fruit, and this permitted the older female to sneak down from the branches and have a tryst with the young outsider male. Explicit chimpanzee sex! Upon a quick conclusion, the pair began mutual grooming. A bit later the alpha male wised up to that "inappropriate" setting — he came charging down, chased off the interloper, and took his place to be groomed by the female. She, of course, pretended nothing had happened..... Quite an eventful hour of observation. Ronald told us he'd never had better views with tourists before.
    After our hour with the chimps, we tried various sites with my tape for Green-breasted Pitta — including a spot it had been seen just weeks ago with a British bird group — but no luck. We then had to be back to headquarters by noon for Ronald's next tour.  Rita and I had lunch at headquarters — they had a small cafe there, much to our surprise. We then had the mid-day to kill, as we were not permitted back into the forest without a tour and it was too hot to go to Bigodi Swamp. We used the time to find and photograph a nest-building pair of Red-bellied Paradise-Flycatchers on the grounds, and to watch a fruiting fig tree that was attracting barbets, including a lifer Hairy-breasted Barbet.

In late afternoon we went back to Bigodi Swamp, obtained Jose as our guide again, and tried — unsuccessfully — for White-winged Warbler. Did have a few new species there, plus a large clawless otter crossed the road in front of us enroute. We were back to Ft. Portal by dusk.

27 July: this was a very long day of driving from Fort Portal north to Murchison Falls National Park. Our rather luxurious lodge (Paara Tourist Lodge) was on the north side of the Albert Nile, meaning that we had to catch the ferry across the Nile to reach it. The ferry ran once an hour, and the last ferry was at 6 p.m. The need to catch this ferry kept us moving all day, and precluded all but the briefest of stops for lunch and a couple birding spots. We did make the ferry — but it was a grinding day to get there.
    We crossed a series of papyrus swamps north of Ft. Portal, and stopped briefly in each in hopes of White-winged Warbler. We heard several, and finally I was able to get a snippet of recording of its song on the minidisc (this vocalization was not on the otherwise outstanding "Uganda Forest Birds" tape). At about the 4th swamp, we were able to use this short snatch of tape to lure a White-winged Warbler into view. What a relief for a frustratingly difficult species. We had numerous views of Papyrus Gonoleks while making these efforts.
    The other significant stop today was atop the Butiaba Escarpment. The Escarpment itself is a dramatic vertical drop from the rolling uplands with scattered woods down into a flat plain thick with thorn-scrub, and dominated by Lake Albert to the northeast. Various raptors were riding thermals here, including Wahlberg's Eagle and African Hawk-Eagle. Road construction crews and detours, though, made it impossible to bird mid-day at the cliffs themselves. However, shortly before reaching the cliffs we had stopped and walked a kilometer or so through the broken woods and grass, and had great views of the much-wanted Foxy Cisticola, plus an unexpected African Moustached Warbler, among a nice variety of birds. This was during the heat of the mid-afternoon — it must really be birdy here in the morning.
    Paara Lodge was almost full  of tourists beyond our expectations , and a British birding group of four (John Clark, John Eyre, Brian Foster, Mike Shaw). We were told that the lodge had been having full packs  during the week. Because all risks of the insurgency are over that used to be in the northern part of the country.
28 July: a very long but extremely successful day in Murchison Falls National Park. We were on the road as early as is permitted for a game drive in grasslands north of the Nile, heading out to the delta formed by the junction of the Albert Nile and Victoria Nile. This area was full of wildlife — big herds of buffalo, Uganda Kob, and waterbuck. We found a small party of Abyssinian Ground-Hornbills, lots of Black-winged Red and Northern Red Bishops, and various raptors. We spotted a roosting Spotted Eagle-Owl (now split by some as Grayish Eagle-Owl). There was just too much to see.
    But we had limited time, and diverted to the delta. Here both our vehicle, and that of the British bird group, skirted the papyrus edges in search of Shoebill. And eventually a nice male was located. We had good distant views, and then were able to maneuver to a much closer spot for photos. I shot over a roll of film although the Shoebill didn't do much other than look around, and preen its back a little. Still .... just fabulous. Did a "life family" dance (just five more to go!). Blue-breasted Bee-eaters and other species were also at the swamp's edge.

    We took a different route back through the grasslands, and our local guard spotted a lioness for us, resting under a tree in the mid-day heat. Also a fine pair of Black-headed Plovers, plus both Swallow-tailed and N. Carmine Bee-eaters.
We arrived back at the Lodge just in time for a quick lunch before heading off on our boat ride up the Albert Nile to Murchison Falls itself. We shared this ride with the British group, which made for many eyes spotting birds enroute. Red-throated Bee-eaters were a highlight, as were many close views of hippos. Working our way up from distant views of the thundering falls to close-range was also dramatic The boat dropped us off near the base of the falls where a path climbs the escarpment. The plan was to hike up and be met at the top of the falls by our vehicles.
    But before that hike, all of us and went on a side excursion down into a deep ravine with thick woods where Ronnie had seen Pel's Fish-Owl before. It was a steep descent (and later ascent) to this site, but we were rewarded well when we found  a roosting owl! I got off one backlit photo — and had a nice view — before it flushed.
We trudged up the trail to the top of the falls, enjoying many superb views enroute. At the top we waited until dusk in hopes of Bat Hawk. Some of us got a view of Red-winged Gray Warbler in adjacent woods while waiting for the day to close. Just before dusk a few lonely bats appeared from the famed "Bat Cliff" and suddenly they were chased by a single Bat Hawk. We had fine views of it flying and then resting on a bare snag. Fifteen minutes after the sun set, the cliffs exploded with what seemed to be millions of bats, streaming off up the Nile in endless clouds. A true spectacle of nature.
    But that was not yet the end. There was the long drive in the dark back to the ferry. And during that drive we flushed 15 Pennant-winged Nightjars from the road, 13 of them males that dazzled in the headlight beams. We spotted a few before they flushed, and were able to view with our bins a couple of them sitting on the road. Worn out from the day's excursions, we still had to get across the river. The ferry had stopped running back at 6 p.m., so  had arranged for a private boat to take all of us back across to the Lodge. It took awhile to round up the boat driver, but we did find him, and we did manage to get a lift on the north side back up to Paara Lodge. It was a very full day, indeed.
29 July: this was yet another long day of driving. As explained above, we had to change our route . This meant an all-day drive south to Entebbe, and then east to Jinja on the shore of Lake Victoria. We had a self-imposed plan to avoid driving at night so knew that we had little time to stop. The new route took us through a corner of Budongo Forest where Puvel's Illadopsis occurs at Kaniyo Pabidi, so our choice was to either stop and search for it or to give ourselves a couple stops in unexplored thornscrub east and southeast of Masindi. We chose the latter option, partly because my minidisc recorder had died (and a tape is required to see the skulking illadopsis), partly because Puvel's can be seen in west Africa, and partly because it would be more fun to look in spots that were not already well known.
    We made two 45-minute stops in likely habitat (one was open thornscrub, the other an overgrown orchard) that yielded several unexpected treats: Western Banded Snake-Eagle, Bruce's Green-Pigeon, Brown Babbler, Yellow-billed Shrike, and Zebra Waxbill among the most impressive. Finally reached a fast paved road going south towards Entebbe. Traffic was fast and it was hard to stop and turn around for anything. We stopped once enroute to try to rescue a Leopard Tortoise crossing the road, but a truck crushed it before we could accomplish that. I could scream! (and did). Later, we  spotted two White-crested Turacos, a much-desired species we had missed to that point. It took another 45 minutes to relocate them, but we did. It proved to be an adult feeding a youngster as they foraged tree to tree. A really lovely species.
    This last unplanned delay put us behind schedule, and we reached Entebbe at rush hour. Even though Hassan used shortcuts to avoid the worst of it, it took 1.5 hours to get through the capital city and head east to Jinja. Now it was dark, and our hotel was still 1.5 hours away. The road was good, which meant traffic was very fast. But they don't use headlights until it is impossible to see without them, so it was a very trying drive.
30 July: our trip to Lake Bisina in east-central Uganda took the entire day; it was a four hour drive to the Lake and four hours back, not counting the time to have a very pleasant lunch in Mbale at a hotel at the base of Mt. Elgon. In contrast to terribly rutted roads in western Uganda, the roads here were often newly paved and traffic moved right along. Schoolchildren walking along the curb brighten the drive — each school has its own colorful uniform, so a gaggle of school kids looks like a flock of brightly-colored birds at a distance.
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31 July: our final morning of birding Uganda was spent in Mabira Forest, a nice lowland patch not far from Jinja. It is a reserve where one hires a local guide; we obtained Ibraham, who is the best bird guide there. He certainly knew bird calls well, and during our walk with him in the forest his knowledge got us great looks at two Scaly Francolin, a Toro Olive Greenbul, several Rufous Flycatcher-Thrushes, and a pair of White-spotted Flufftails. All were seen without using tapes (my minidisc recorder was dead anyway), and this was especially thrilling with the flufftails, which Ibraham spotted because he heard them walking through the underbrush. We also tried a spot on the other side of the forest from headquarters, known as "the lake," but it was dry and not much was happening thereabouts. During our first visit there, it started to rain and that continued for about an hour, definitely dampening the morning. We continued to bird under umbrellas, and were rewarded with totally unexpected views of an African Civet walking down the dirt road at mid-morning. Normally this is a very hard-to-see nocturnal beast.
    We had set aside the afternoon for tourist shopping in Kampala, and wetre taken  to a spot with numerous vendors after a lunch of pizza very much like an American pizza hut. The center of Kampala proved to be very cosmopolitan with new high-rises, traffic, and a well-dressed crowd. Like everywhere we visited in Uganda, everyone seemed friendly and helpful. After buying various tourist trinkets and office gifts, we drove out to Entebbe so we had a hotel right next to the airport. We left for Nairobi, our gateway to the rest of the vacation in northern Tanzania, early the next morning.
Overall impressions: Uganda was a fine country to visit, with friendly people, spectacular wildlife, an expansive park system, and it was mostly uncrowded. Prices for almost everything were very cheap compared to the high-priced tourist parks in Kenya and Tanzania. Offsetting those major attractions are some very bad roads with few road signs, and some bureaucratic problems with park guides and guards in Buhoma, and problems in having reservations held at some hotels. We would not recommend driving on one's own during a first visit — finding the way could be tough, and driving at night very dangerous. We really benefited from the professional guide service provided by Hassan, and his work in securing all our transportation and hotels was essential.
    We had only 15 days, and stuffed as much as we could into that time. This made for a lot of long drives and much-too-short visits to many spots.  In all I was very pleased with our choice of routes and places, but we really needed an additional day at Buhoma, another day at QEII park, and another day in the grasslands north of the Nile at Murchison Falls. Plus we skipped Budongo Forest entirely — most groups spend two days here. Thus a three-week (20 or 21 day) trip is really needed to experience Uganda properly. Our 15-day trip was a grand success, but very rushed.
    My other thought is that July is probably not the best time for a one-shot visit. We had chosen July because (a) it fit Rita's schedule as a teacher, and (b) it was the dry season and most tours visit then. But late May and June are not usually too wet, and they would be much better for birding in the Rwenzoris as nesting is then at its peak. By July, numerous birds have fledged young and quit vocalizing. October -January would also be good months, between the "short" rains of late fall and the "long rains" from February through early May. In those northern winter months, many Eurasian migrants are also present, adding substantially to the length of one's list (e.g.,  20 days).
    In terms of traveling about, having a private guide-driver was the best of all worlds for us. We are pleased to recommend Travel Hemispheres company www.travelhemispheres.com  to other interested birders.

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