Uganda Pre-Tour Day 2

This was a day I had longed for and one that is always the highlight of any tour to Uganda – Shoebill day. We began with a 6.30am breakfast before setting out on the bumpy drive to Mabamba Swamp, but we made numerous short stops along the way when we spotted anything interesting beside the road. We began with Lizard Buzzard, followed by Long-crested Eagle, African Harrier-Hawk, Woodland Kingfisher, Olive Bee-eater, Striped Kingfisher, Sooty Chat and Superb Starling. Nice! 

Olive Bee-eaters

Sooty Chat

Striped Kingfisher

Arriving at a little after 9am we saw our first Broad-billed Roller, Lesser Striped Swallow and Village Weavers before setting out in a small boat to search for Shoebill. At first you go along a narrow channel with papyrus either side and we saw several Malachite Kingfishers, Swamp Flycatcher, Winding Cisticola and Fan-tailed Widowbird. African Jacanas were numerous and as we left the narrow channel into more open water we followed the shore closely seeing Reed Cormorant, lots of Purple Herons, Grey-headed Gulls, flocks of White-winged Terns, Pied Kingfishers, Brown-throated Weaver, and many Squacco Herons. 

Malachite Kingfisher

Swamp Flycatcher

White-winged Tern

We passed a few other boats with tourists who had briefly seen a flighty Shoebill and that kind of dismayed us a little so for the next hour searched in vain, entering narrow channels where we grounded in roughly the area that our quarry had been seen. It was frustrating looking for this bird as you can’t see very far across the swamp but our scanning produced African Marsh Harrier,African Fish Eagle and Yellow-billed Kites. So we decided to try elsewhere and luckily enough, rounding a corner there stood the beast! A prehistoric grey stork with a weirdly hefty bill and Shoebill firmly rammed itself onto all of our life lists. We edged closer and had great views for maybe 2 minutes tops before it suddenly took flight and went away. Bugger! We saw it in flight again before it flew a fair distance away and dropped into an inaccessible area of papyrus swamp. And that was it. 

Shoebill

I must admit I sound a trifle churlish when I say I was a little underwhelmed for a few minutes until realisation sank in and we had had good views although my photos aren’t crisply sharp. Anyway, we carried on seeing Long-toed Lapwing, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, and plenty of previously mentioned species before returning to the car at midday.

Long-toed Lapwing

We drove to nearby Nkima Lodge, set amidst some pretty impressive forest and had lunch. Either side of this we saw Black-and-white Casqued Hornbills, Great Blue Turaco, very impressive Ross’s Turaco, scoped a Red-headed Lovebird for ages and had Angola Swallow. Red-chested Cuckoo, Western Nicator, White-breasted Negrita and Black-and-white Shrike-Flycatcher were all heard but were unresponsive in the early afternoon heat, but we knew we had better chances of these species during the main tour. So we left here and drove back to our lodge, making a couple of decent roadside stops. The first one gave us Bronze and Black-and-white Mannikins, Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu, Yellow White-eye, Golden-backed, Slender-billed and Thick-billed Weavers. A Klaas’s Cuckoo called in the distance and how about this for frustrating, as a Weyns’s Weaver flew past at Warp Factor 9 and away into the distance. 

White-throated Bee-eaters

The next stop was really good as Paul spotted some White-throated Bee-eaters perched beside the road, so we hopped out and took a few photos. As we were watching these, a pair of Long-crested Eagles were seen, followed by a close overhead African Harrier-Hawk, African Openbill, Vieillot’s Black Weaver, Golden-backed Weaver, Brown-throated Wattle-eye, Broad-billed Roller, White-headed Saw-wing and a cracking Double-toothed Barbet. Phew! Leaving here we made good time to the lodge where another Double-toothed Barbet seemed to be sharing a telegraph pole with a pair of Meyer’s Parrots. What a day!