I suspect you might be right, although we are going through the pitta's habitat and I have read reports where they have been seen this time of year. The broadbill I think will be well out of reach. However given what I hope to see I'm not too worried. Gives me something to go back for some time.
Around 30-40 maneless plain zebras survive also in Pian Upe Game Reserve in the east. But due to long-term hunting pressure of locals, all animals in that reserve have long escape distance and are not optimal for wildlife watching. (BTW - Pian Upe is the place where Dvur Kralove caught most of its imported African animals, including the Northern White Rhinos)
What Will We See? Uganda is a wildlife-rich country, obviously the reason we are going there. However, watching wildlife is different from going to an art gallery or even a zoo. There are no guarantees as to what you will see or even if you will see anything. On a recent short wildlife cruise on the Daintree River in tropical Queensland I only saw one species of bird, and we missed altogether the saltwater crocodiles that are abundant there. I could tell the guide was embarrassed. On the other hand, being in the field for any length of time will result in surprise sightings of unique and rare wildlife. In Sri Lanka while out one day I turned around and found a shieldtail snake (Uropeltidae) at my feet. This family of small snakes live underground and feed on earthworms so are rarely seen. I certainly do no expect to see another member of that family in my lifetime and had no idea I would see it on that trip. Mammals During my trip to southern Africa, I saw 19 species of mammal. Eleven of these species are possible in Uganda. There are a little over three hundred mammal species recorded in Uganda. Reading trip reports, it seems that around 115 of these are possible. Of these, 42 are conspicuous enough and common enough to be considered probable. Almost half of these are primates with most of the remaining the megafauna that one expects to see in Africa. As for the rest, a bit of luck and skill will be required. I do have Giant Eland and other members of the mammalwatching.com group to thank for encouraging Harriet to build mammal watching skills in her team. Indeed, she wrote to me: “I decided to do something different mostly on the nocturnal life of mammals and primates and indeed we have been seeing a lot”. So, I am encouraged to think that we might see quite a variety of mammal species. Birds I saw 83 species of bird during my trip to southern Africa. 53 of these species are possibilities in Uganda, and as well there would be a similar number possible that I have seen in Europe or Sri Lanka. There are 1062 bird species currently recognised as being found in Uganda, and as we are visiting almost all habitats and are there when northern migrants are present, most of these are possible. Reading trip reports it seems we will almost certainly see something over 600 species. With such numbers we will mostly be satisfied with watching and recording everything we see. If we were to prioritise, it would be members of the more than 20 families found in Uganda that are only or mostly found in Africa. Families such as the flufftails, hylias, shoebill and the secretary bird. One such family I am keen to see more of is the touraco family. In southern Africa I only saw the rather plain grey go-away bird. On this trip up to ten species of touraco are possible, and I look forward to seeing magnificent birds such as the great blue touraco in the wild. Sadly, one species we almost certainly will not see is Uganda’s only endemic, the Fox’s weaver, as it is extremely hard to find and confined to obscure wetlands. Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish In southern Africa, the only herps I saw were the Nile crocodile and the Nile water monitor, and I would expect to see both again as they are very common around rivers. We will also see the West African crocodile, and I will be keeping an eye out for either of the two land monitors found in Uganda. I am not a herper so I don’t expect much else. Red-headed rock amagas are common and easily seen and there are a few other species possible, so I expect we will see them. Indigo says she wants to see chameleons, as I do. Uganda has a number of species so hopefully with the assistance of guides we will see two or three species. Otherwise, anything else will very much be the result of luck, but no doubt a few geckos, skinks and frogs will appear. From reports I’ve read the most likely snake to be seen is the puff adder. I am also hoping we can see a lungfish when we look for the shoebills. Invertebrates Watching a dung beetle roll it’s ball up a mound, an army ant column on the march, and a giant centipede “swim” across a sandy track were all great memories from my time in Botswana. Again, I am no entomologist, and most of the inverts I record are either big, colourful or weird or somehow land on me. Even so, I’m sure we will see a number but the difficulty will be in getting them identified. One group I am confident I will be able to record a number of are butterflies. I have a guidebook to the common species, and I know that as more travellers express interest in them the guides are becoming more knowledgeable about them. Taxonomy With the rapid advances in genetics, taxonomies can change fast. Guide books are out of date the day they are sent to the printers so I use Wikipedia and iNaturalist to double check while travelling. I don’t record sub-species but do record location and in most cases that is enough to determine sub-species if that becomes important. When it comes to splits, I do tend to go with the split if there is disagreement as I do have a Life List to feed! Six roller species are possible during our safari (Lilac-breasted roller, Chobe NP Botswana)
Given recent taxonomic discoveries in East African Agama species, please do take photos of any brightly coloured males. I'm not sure if the ranges of all the recently split/re-elevated taxa are fully resolved in Uganda yet.
I get the impression one could fly into Entebbe, spend a couple of days birding the Botanic Gardens and leave with a very satisfying bird list. Almost like, why bother with the rest of the country!
Checked in, through immigration and relaxing over refreshments before the flight. We are flying to Dubai where we have a layover before our flight on to Entebbe. Total transit time is 24 hours. Graeme toasting the trip.
We have just arrived in Dubai where we have a five hour layover until our flight onto Entebbe. Indigo, who is flying in from France, will be arriving in about two hours. She has an important roll, as she have been delegated to record the agama lizards we see and record them on iNaturalist. As @Swampy mentioned the distribution of the various species is uncertain and by doing this bit of citizen science she may be able to help future investigators. As the photo below shows, there is not much wildlife to be seen. I did consider having a stopover in Dubai as there are a few good wildlife spots nearby, and it is a good place to see crab-plover, an unusual wader in it's own family. However at the time I had to make these decisions, COVID rules could have seen us stranded here. These have all disappeared now, though.
That's one hell of an airport. You may find they put you on a bus to get to your plane - if so, you may see some birdlife around the aprons.
Arrival The plane touched down a good 20 minutes early, which surprised as we were held on the tarmac at Dubai for a while. Getting through immigration and customs went quite smoothly, although I was surprised by a sign at the health checkpoint asking for proof of COVID vaccination as well as yellow fever. I hadn't noticed that requirement and neither Graeme or I had printed copies. With no internet access we told the young person on the barrier that we both have had four shots (true) and that we were having difficulty accessing the internet to show him the certificate. We were waved through. Getting local sim cards was the most time consuming process. The first wildlife seen were nesting black-headed weavers in a tree directly outside the airport building. What afternoon that was left after we got to the hotel was spent in the garden and a small number of species were seen then. I.ve started reporting sightings on Zoochat Big Year 2023 and you can find them here. Black-headed weaver at nest.
Day 1 - Entebbe Everybody, starting with fellow travelers on the plane, has be very friendly. About the only exception was the immigration officer who glared at us for an extended time, obviously suspicious of our motives. Graeme made friends with the Executive Secretary of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences on the flight over. Flying into Entebbe reminded me of an Australian town, with buildings distributed across the landscape. Once on the ground it reminded me of Bali a little or perhaps of many places in the tropics with that sense of decay. There were also a fair number of abandoned buildings while many occupied buildings were surrounded by walls with razer wire on top, implying not everything was right. It did have that small town feel, and was not particularly busy. We spent most of the morning in the garden of our accommodation, adding another four bird species. About 11am we headed down to the Botanic Gardens. I'd read warnings about hiring a guide but Alex was very insistent so we did take him with us. It turns out he had 30 years of experience and was actually a great help in finding birds. We also got our first mammals, which were a group of vervet monkeys. beside the road. We got back to the guest house for a late lunch after 2 and then Harriot from Harrier Tours came to visit us at about 3pm for introductions. We then returned to the Botanic Gardens with Sam, our bird guide for the safari. It soon became obvious he is in a different class to Alex which agues well for the safari. Over dinner we decided to institute Bird of the Day and Mammal of the Day. So yesterdays Bird of the Day was the white-browed robin-chat, which was the first bird species Indigo found on her own. Bird of the Day today was the African grey parrot and Mammal of the Day was the vervet monkey. (Even though colobus monkeys were available - I was outvoted). Accommodation: We are staying in the Airport Link Guesthouse. We were originally to stay at another guest house however it is still closed due to the effects of COVID on the travel industry. As it is only a couple of other guests here, but I estimate it would accommodate about 20 guests normally. The accommodation is basic but very clean. It has a well-laid out garden with quite a few birds. Vervet monkeys, winners of Mammal of the Day. Actually the group in Entebbe Botanic Gardens have a high degree of hybridization with tantalus monkeys.
Day 2 We left Entebbe at 7 to get to Mabamba Swamp before 9am. Our objective was shoebills, and as the day warms up they tend to fly up into the thermals to keep cool we had to be there early. The drive down was quite rough over poorly maintained roads, and close to Entebbe where there was a fair bit of traffic there was a permanent red haze from the dust on the unmade sections. Despite this we observed 32 species of bird as we drove along. Arriving at Mabamba Swamp, we were lucky enough to encounter a pair of red-faced lovebirds in trees next to the car park. We were soon off in one of the boats in search of the shoebill. Mabamba Swamp is magical. We had close views of multiple species, for instance being only a metre or so away from jacanas, which were seen in their hundreds. All up we again saw 32 species of bird, mostly new for the trip. Before long we saw our shoebill, standing completely still right on the waters edge. We were able to get to about 10 metres away. There were a couple of other boats there too when we arrived and I thought at first it was scared to move. However all of a sudden it thrust it's head down into the water emerging with a lungfish. It then left the water to kill the lungfish and eat it, then moved away. An outstanding experience. On the way back we saw a second, younger, shoebill and got within 20 metres of it. Leaving the swamp around 11 am we had to drive across Kampala to reach Mabira Forest, and it was 4 pm before we arrived there. This is an isolated patch of rainforest and we were to stay the night at the lodge within. Driving up to the lodge we encountered about 12 crested guineafowl with chicks on the road, as well as a pair of tambourine doves. After dinner we did a night walk where we had about a dozen sightings of two species of galago. Bird of the day: shoebill. Mammal of the day: dusky galago. Accommodation: Rainforest Lodge is a lovely small hotel deep in the forest. The rooms are well appointed and there is a swimming pool! The whole complex sits nicely within the forest. I wish we had more than one night there. The shoebill stood motionless while hunting.
What a genuinely awesome experience to watch a shoebill hunt! They're one my personal favorite species that I've been lucky enough to see both at San Diego (sadly now gone) and Tampa (where my ZC avatar was taken), but getting to observe one in the wild sounds exhilarating. Color me red with envy! Out of curiosity, what was the other galago species you saw? I know we're just getting started, but it has been a wonderful report so far.
Envious of Crested Guineafowl, and of Galagos, neither of which I have seen; but I did get Lesser Jacana and Striped Crake in Mabamba!
Day 3 Today is the day I saw bird number 1 in the wild! By that I mean the ostrich, which has headed every taxonomic list of birds I can ever remember seeing. We are visiting the Pian-Upe Wildlife Reserve in the drier east of the country. It was late in the afternoon and I had not realized we had entered the reserve when somebody yelled out "antelope" on spotting a large group of waterbuck. Then on the other side of the car kongoni (hartebeest) were spotted. In amongst them was a male ostrich. What followed was fantastic. In the course of the next hour or so we spotted hundreds of antelope belonging to seven species, two ostriches, a dozen or more other bird species, and a warthog. Included was a secretary bird. This is a species I have long wanted to see. In Uganda it is only found on the eastern side and is quite rare even there, To see one in the first hour of entering their range was remarkable. It was about 80 metres out into the bush, and circled around so it was about 30 metres up the road from us. It then flew across the road in front of the road. The day was otherwise quite straight forward. After breakfast we did a bird walk at Mabira Forest. We then headed off towards Pian. The trip took a lot longer than the estimated four hours as we stopped often for birds, and there were lots of roadworks going on. Mammal of the day: roan antelope. Bird of the day: secretary bird. No photo today. I have not had a chance to access my DSLR photos so far this trip. I have been posting Iphone photos but the ones today were particularly bad. Hopefully I will have a little time tomorrow, and I can show a couple of better shots from my other camera.
Envious! Secretary bird is one of my two top African targets (the other is Rockjumper; either species).
