Uganda for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 13 - 1st August 2024

How could this be our last full day already and we knew that we had a long drive ahead of us as we made our way from Murchison Falls to Kampala and then Entebbe.  Spotted Palm-Chats and Silverbirds joined us for breakfast and then we set out to traverse the park to a different gate than the one we came in on including bits of Budongo once again.

Good morning Waterbuck!

Abyssinian Ground Hornbills were striding through the grassland as we made our way to the main road and you could smell yesterday’s rain still as it continued to feed the dry land.  You could almost hear the grass growing.

Saddle-billed Stork

Great Blue Turacos and Black & White Casqued Hornbills crossed between forest patches while we weaved around the almost continuous troops of lounging, slumping, sitting and almost every other name for general lethargic Olive Baboons.  We must have passed hundreds.  Eyes and ears were peeled for new stuff too and a small group of Chestnut Crowned Sparrow-Weavers were the first to be added followed by a circling African Goshawk and perched African Cuckoo-Hawk with its little punky crest. Harrier-Hawks (including one showing its bendy legs), Lizard Buzzards, Dark Chanting Goshawks, Grey Kestrels and Shikras were seen along the road and a couple of stops allowed us to pick up heavy billed Grey-headed Bush-Shrikes, Black-billed Barbets, Western Black-headed Batis and Red-winged Prinias.

Harrier-Hawk - ooh look at my bendy legs - Angie Merrick

Chestnut Crowned Sparrow-Weaver - Angie Merrick

African Goshawk

There were Cisticolas with Red-faced, Whistling, Winding, Zitting, Stout and one new one – Singing. A failed look for Red-winged Grey Warbler did give us singing Plumbeous Flycatcher, White-eyes, Northern Puffback and Grey-backed Camaroptera.

Stout Cisticola

We pushed on stopping at the main gates for a rest stop and some showy Lesser Striped Swallows before continuing onwards.  Regular wayside birds were encountered but there were some notables with White-faced Whistling Ducks, Grey Crowned Cranes, African Hoopoe and amongst the commoner raptors, Common Kestrels.

 Lesser Striped Swallows

 Lesser Striped Swallow

White-faced Whistling Ducks

A wetland stop for Marsh Widowbird immediately struck success with several displaying males – another Red-winged Blackbird lookalike. Northern Red and Black-winged Bishops added more splashes of colour and we started to find more Splendid Starlings amongst the Ruppell’s.

Black-winged Bishop - Angie Merrick

Marsh Widowbird - Angie Merrick

Our lunchtime stop was at the Ziwa White Rhinoceros reserve where they have spent the last twenty or so years trying to create a secured, wild viable population so that they can released back into their former range across the national parks of Uganda from which they (along with Black) were extirpated during the latter half of the 20^th century.

We were taken out on foot to track down a group and ended up with one of the adult females, her calf and two adopted sons.  They were close by but we did not feel threatened and our guide had just told us to be still and quiet.  These are fully wild born Rhinos and hopefully with 41 in the programme so far, they will soon reach a stage that they can start to move them out.

They are magnificent beasts and were quite content to lounge around and occasionally shift round into another position but despite the lack of threats here they positioned themselves so that all directions were covered with eyes and swivelling ears.  We had been witness to the bodily functions of a wide variety of animals on this trip but the protracted explosive expelling of wind from a Rhino with its back end facing us may have left one or two of us scarred for life…

White Rhinoceros - Mum - Angie Merrick

Our tracker was an excellent birder and found us a pair of Brown-backed Woodpeckers and White Shouldered Black Tits (with angry white eyes). Grey-headed and Orange-breasted Bush-Shrikes were seen along with Northern Puffback and Broad-billed Rollers.

Our time was short but a sheltered lunch saw us watched by Vervet Monkeys and African Pied Wagtails while a Cuckoo-Hawk circled and African Black Headed Oriole sang.  Grey Headed and Woodland Kingfishers were perched up, Broad-billed Rollers hawked and Ruppell’s, Splendid and Lesser Blue-eared Glossies moved across the clearings where Bushbuck, Warthogs and Ugandan Kob fed in the shade.

African Pied Wagtail

Grey Headed Kingfisher

Bushbuck

Woodland Kingfishers

The final Warthogs - da der daaa - de de de de derrrr

A much needed coffee and then ready for the off but not before a juvenile Red-chested Cuckoo decided to materialise by the truck and pose on an appropriate branch.

Red-chested Cuckoo 

The rest of the journey was a bit of a blur and as we hit Kampala at the worst possible time and crawled through challenging traffic but it did give us the chance to take in Ugandan city life!  Eventually we popped out at the main motorway junction that would take us through to Entebbe but the road was closed and the army/police were sending everything the other way.  It was also now raining and lightening was flashing but even now there were still birds with Cattle Egrets and Pied Crows going off to roost and Marabous and Grey-crowned Cranes were stationed on the hoardings as cars and trucks hooted, hawkers hawked, Police whistles peeped, bikes wiggled and people shouted.

Eventually we popped out onto an empty road and zoomed towards Entebbe.  Once back at the Papyrus Hotel we ordered our dinner and bid farewell to Rob who was leaving that same evening to head back to the US. It had been a long and tiring day but like everyone before, it had delivered some wonderful moments.