Uganda Kob in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Summer 2006 ATLANTIC CURRENTS
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BIRDING IN UGANDA
“If your dream was to encounter birds in your lifetime, its then your turn to bless yourself with a pair of binoculars around your neck as you prepare to explore Uganda with Hamlet Birding Tour & Safaris Ltd” –Hamlet Mugabe- by Jackie Sarmer
Going to Uganda in February with three friends for mission work and a birding tour and safari was a trip of a lifetime! After six days in Lukaya, we left with Hamlet on a ten-day safari that focused on birding. Uganda is arguably the best country in Africa for birds, with over 1,300 species recorded in an area the size of Oregon, including species typical of the East Africa savannah, the West Africa rain forest and the semi-desert of the north. Water and swap-related birds are extremely well represented.
Uganda’s best, and most frustrating birding habitat is the forest. The rain forests of western Uganda are rich in West African species, most of which cannot be seen elsewhere in east Africa. Families containing a high proportion of forest species are unlikely to be seen elsewhere in east Africa are the hornbills, turacos, kingfisher, barbets, bulbuls, weavers, robins, sunbirds, and warblers.
Grey-crowned Cranes-Symbol
of Uganda
Shoebill
Birdwatcher and photographer
See you all at the September meeting! Remember, Kevin Karlson, wildlife photographer will be there.
Copyright 2008 Hamlet Birding Tours All rights reserved
In using the Helm field guides,” Birds of east Africa” we discovered birds whose names included: a superlative, like the superb sunbird, the beautiful sunbird, the splendid starling, the superb starling and a giant kingfisher. Categorization appeared different for the raptors; we saw fish eagles, snake eagles, hawk eagles, marsh harriers and harrier hawks. Then there were birds with some very interesting names, like the water tick knee, helmeted guinea fowl, barefaced go away bird, black bellied bustard, and the chirping or croaking or piping or rattling or singing or trilling of whistling or wing snapping cisticola.
Some of the highlights of our bird touring were: marabou storks building a nest in a traffic circle in Kampala; sighting of a papyrus associated shoebill; a group of over thirty grey crowned cranes, fish eagles lined up along rivers at regular intervals; the trees draped with beautiful weaver nests; migrating abdim storks riding the thermals and updrafts; the long legged storks and other waterfowl mixed in with cape buffalo, hippopotamus, and crocodiles along the Nile river; the beautiful colors of the bee eaters and the sunbirds; a Hammer kop nest; the African fin foot and her babies; and the list could go on and on……
Have I peaked your interest in going to Uganda? I certainly hope so, as you would be in for such an amazing experience. If you are interested in the nature of hamlet’s tours, you can access the information on info@hamletbirdingtours.com or hamletonglobal@yahoo.com
So now that summer is here and you are sitting around, totally relaxed and doing nothing at all, start thinking about what you could contribute to your newsletter. If you cannot write an article, as you read through these pages, notice the columns that could use a few contributions. How about that Birdy book you just read? A short review would be very welcome. Also, on those night when you are just aimlessly surfing the internet, try finding some thing of interest to share with the rest of us (notice examples from the internet column). Or, maybe you might think ok something else for a new column. So, be kind to your editor – please submit something! See deadline times for the issue on page 7.
