Uganda for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 3: 22nd July 2024

A day around Rwakobo Rock Lodge and the amazing reserve around Lake Mburo occupied our day to the fullest extent. Breakfast was spent listening to Square Tailed Nightjars churring and Zebras ‘he-hawing’ while the Olive Baboons woke up noisily and it seemed like many got out of the wrong side of the tree given the general ruckus.  A familiar Lesvos sound made me chuckle as distant Grey Crowned Cranes bugled in the day but where they should be and not in a small aviary behind the Pela hotel. Ruppell’s Starlings got going along with the Emerald Spotted Wood and Ringed-necked Doves while pied Tropical Boubous were the first new songster.

We took slow drive down to the reserve gates, stopping along the way.  Crested Francolins, Crowned and African Wattled Lapwings were right alongside and an African Pipit scurried along the road in front while a bare Acacia drew in Yellow-breasted Apalis, yellow Northern White-eyes, Black-faced Waxbills and Blue-naped Mousebirds which seem to have even longer tails than their Speckled cousins.

Red-eyed Dove - mid song

Speckled Mousebird

Crested Francolins

Crowned Lapwings

African Wattled Lapwings - look at those spurs!

Brown-backed Scrub-robins were singing from exposed perches, waving their tails, and Red-billed Firefinches and Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu flicked ahead of us.  A male Deiderik Cuckoo even sat up for us which was a good comparison with the Klaas’s of yesterday.  The air smelt of fresh rain and still scorched land following recent fires but the grass was coming through well and many of the trees were still green.  To be honest it probably made birding a tad easier although it was a hazy and grey day.

Deiderik Cuckoo

Hamerkop nest

Down at the gates were we greeted by African Pied Wagtails, Black-lored Babblers and a cacophony of Weavers with Village, Lesser Masked and Red-headed all nesting in the one Acacia while Holub’s Golden was also noted.  Pale-throated Leafloves were foraging (I think they are now split from Yellow-throated) and our first Spot Flanked Barbets (a small species) were dinking away before being tracked down.  This was the commonest species that we saw here.

 Blue-naped Mousebirds - like funny Waxwings

 Dark-lored Babbler

African Pied Wagtail

African Pied Crow

Northern and the similar Red-faced Crombec were both found and always look odd with their tiny tails.  A Pearl Spotted Owlet was heard but could not be found but drew in a host of smaller species and we all had to have our wits about us to sift through the gems in front of us.  There were Tropical Boubous, Brubrus and Chin-Spot Batis, glowing Orange Breasted Bush-shrikes, Trilling and tiny ginger capped Tabora (Long-tailed) Cisticolas, two Golden Breasted Buntings and White Winged Black Tits.  A Greater Honeyguide dropped in and was followed by Yellow-throated Longclaws, a Northern Puffback, Black-headed Gonoleks, Pale Flycatchers and several Sunbirds with Copper, Mariqua, Purple Banded and Red-chested. 

Tropical Boubou - Angie Merrick

Tabora Cisticola - Angie Merrick

Chin-Spot Batis

White Winged Black Tit

Yellow-throated Longclaw

The variety of species seen was simply bewildering – like being in a rain forest for the first time but with just a few Acacias, Euphorbia and some scrub around you.  It was challenging to keep up at times. It was a full on twenty minutes or so.

Black-collared and Crested Barbets were singing (if any Barbet voice can be classed as such) and a Bearded Woodpecker crossed the track – our only species of the day.  Red-necked Spur-fowl strutted ahead of us and we regularly saw them as well as the Crested Francolins and spotty Helmeted Guineafowl.  Yellow-billed Oxpeckers were poking around the orifices of the Cape Buffalo (oh yes, there were mammals too…) and Striped and Woodland Kingfishers were regularly encountered scouring the ground of a snack.  However one of the top prizes for the day went to the African Pygmy Kingfisher that sat just in front of the truck for a couple of minutes before a hunting sally.   

Woodland Kingfisher

African Pygmy Kingfisher

African Pygmy Kingfisher

Woodland Kingfisher

A gang of Arrow-marked Babblers crashed through and Little Weavers joined that family list and Red-rumped and a chunky Rufous Chested Swallow actually perched up for close views.   A flock of Wattled Starlings included a couple of males that were starting to acquire their breeding plumage and they were sharing the trees with several loafing Bataleurs which mostly seemed to be made up of brown immatures.

Yellow-billed Oxpeckers & Cape Buffalo - Angie Merrick

Helmeted Guineafowl

Red-necked Spurfowl

Red-necked Spurfowl

Red-necked Spurfowl

Black-collared Barbets - Angie Merrick

Spot Flanked Barbet

Crested Barbet 

Crested Barbet

Rufous Chested Swallow

Little Bee-eater

Wattled Starlings

Bataleur - Angie Merrick

Bataleur

Bataleur

It just went on and on and on, a perpetual feast of new avian delights every time we stopped and all in mild overcast conditions more in keeping with an English summer’s day.

Sooty Chats with their hidden white shoulders, Lilac-breasted Rollers, Common Scimitarbills, Northern Black Flycatchers, Little Bee-eaters and Black Drongos were feeding from the trackside bushes and we found some perched Meyer’s Parrots at last.  A Pearl Spotted Owlet gave itself up and despite calling did not attract any attention from the local passerines.  It just glared at us in that angry way most small owls seem to have perfected.  

Lilac-breasted Roller

Sooty Chat - female

Sooty Chat - male

Meyer's Parrot - Angie Merrick

Common Scimitarbill

Pearl Spotted Owlet - Angie Merrick

Pearl Spotted Owlet

A party of Bare-faced Go-Awaybirds clambered around a tree and may have been a family as one was feeding another.  Bird names keep ‘evolving’ and even up to date guides are almost instantly out of date.  We heard a couple of what was Grey Tit-Flycatcher but it has now become Lead Coloured and dropped the Tit!  We had heard several White-browed Coucals and stumbled on one sunning by the trackside which seemed unconcerned by our presence - a bit like the group of African Green Pigeons that sat above the roof of the truck and stared down at us!

African Green Pigeon

African Grey Hornbill - a female

Bare-faced Go-Awaybirds 

White-browed Coucal

White-browed Coucal

Yellow-billed Kites surveyed the ground below and we picked up our first Black-winged Kite, White-backed Vultures and a huge immature Martial Eagle that lingered long enough to get the bins up.

 Martial Eagle

And of course it was not just birds but our first taster of proper African big mammals.  There were many more Burchell’s Zebras including dinky foals, graceful Impala, Cape Buffalo, imposing stately Waterbuck, roman nosed Topi, towering Rothchild’s Reticulated Giraffes, tusked Warthogs, Dwarf, Banded and Egyptian Mongooses, Vervet Monkeys and Olive Baboons and our first two Hippopotamus sharing a wallow with a Little Grebe of all things!

Burchell’s Zebras 

Waterbuck

Waterbuck

Waterbuck

Impala

Impala

Impala

Rothchild’s Reticulated Giraffe

Rothchild’s Reticulated Giraffe

Rothchild’s Reticulated Giraffe

Warthog

Warthog

Topi

Topi

Dwarf Mongoose

Vervet Monkey

Vervet Monkey - Angie Merrick

Hippos

Little Grebe - Angie Merrick

Lunch beckoned and we bumped back picking up a couple of pretty little Green Winged Pytillias (a Waxbill) and a small group of Brimstone and Yellow-fronted Canaries and Pin-tailed Wydahs which included full plumaged males.

Pin-tailed Wydah

Pin-tailed Wydah

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu

A Little Spotted Woodpecker was seen during repast while Bateleurs and White Backed Vultures were dwarfed by two immense Lappet Faced Vultures – even more so when perched well over a mile away on a flat topped butte.  An Emerald Spotted Wood Dove even showed well before a short post lunch stroll added Tawny Eagle, immature Black-Chested Snake Eagle, Grey-Backed Camaropteras, better views of Brimstone Canary, Green-Headed Sunbird and two orangey African Hoopoes.  Jules and Angie even found some very cool small Wahlberg's Epauletted Fruit Bat under the eaves of their lodge.

Lappet Faced Vulture - look at that bill!

Two LPVs above White-backs

Lappet Faced Vulture with Bataleurs

Lappet Faced Vulture on the right making the WBVs and Bats look tiny!

Ring-necked Doves - Angie Merrick

Ruppell's Starling

Emerald Spotted Wood-Dove

imm Black-Chested Snake Eagle

White-browed Robin-chat

Little Bee-eater

Dark-capped Bulbuls flapping in a puddle

Spot Flanked Barbet

Wahlberg's Epauletted Fruit Bat 

The late afternoon was to be a boat trip on Lake Mburo and we practically had to drive back through the park with our eyes closed although they were cracked open for Southern Black Flycatchers!  Two shining Green Wood-Hoopoes were probing around a termite mound.

Southern Black Flycatcher - note the bluey hint

Green Wood-Hoopoe

We headed out in the boat with another group of three birders from South Africa and had a fantastic two hours on this huge body of water that was heaving, bubbling and blowing with Hippos.  African Fish Eagles were dotted the whole way round and we did very well with our targets picking up five African Finfoots including a female with two dependant youngster and a juvenile White-Backed Night Heron too as well as more traditional adult Black Crowned one.

African Fish Eagles & Pied Kingfishers

African Fish Eagle

African Fish Eagle

African Fish Eagle

African Finfoot - female

African Finfoot - juv

African Finfoot - juv

African Finfoot - female & one of two juvs

African Finfoot - female

African Finfoot - juv

Pied and Malachite Kingfishers were all around and Black Crakes and Striated Herons were regularly picked up under the overhangs where Nile Crocodiles lurked.  We found a single Little Bittern sitting motionless and a huge Saddle-billed Stork with its preposterous bill wading in the edges where Hamerkop and Jacanas fed and two Water Thick-knees stood motionless.   Two Egyptian Geese were my first ‘proper’ ones rather than the equally quarrelsome ones back home in Blighty and a Common Sandpiper was an early returnee from northern climes.

Malachite Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher - Angie Merrick

Pied Kingfisher

Woodland Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Water Thick-knee - Angie Merrick

Water Thick-knee

Hamerkop

Hamerkop and Nile Croc

Saddle-billed Stork

Saddle-billed Stork

Saddle-billed Stork

White-Backed Night Heron - juvenile

White-Backed Night Heron - juvenile

Black-crowned Night Heron - Angie Merrick

Striated Heron

There were little birds too with a male African Paradise Flycatcher worth his flowing tail, Collared Sunbirds, Spectacled Weavers, Carruther’s Cisticolas and singing Papyrus Gonoleks and White Winged Swamp Warblers and all the while we were watched by the Hippos.  It was yet another captivating experience and it was only our second full day.

Cape Buffalo

Olive Baboons

We bumped back in the fading light with the mammalian wildlife now showing even closer and the Giraffe herd was now over twenty strong while Red-necked Spurfowl and Crested Francolins became incredibly obliging and we even found to Yellow-winged Bats hanging around but the very best was still to come when male Pennant Winged Nightjars glided across in front of us.  We bundled out of the truck and watched four males and a female drift back and forth – the males with the most other- worldly wing shape and adornments imaginable. Square wings with streamers!

We were all lost for words and the last bit of the journey was quiet with smiles only to be added to by listening to Black Shouldered, Freckled and Square Tailed Nightjars singing around the lodges although we did not see any of them.  It was the perfect end to a day so full of new sights and sounds. 

Tropical House Gecko