UGANDA, THE PEARL OF AFRICA (11/22/02)

As faithful readers have noticed, Stauffer and I manage to make a number of bird trips to various parts of the world. This year was no exception, our latest international trip being to Uganda in late July and early August.

Uganda is known to many as the country once headed by the notorious Idi Amin. After our arrival at Entebbe (the airport where Israeli soldiers rescued victims of a hijacking in 1976), we drove in a seven-passenger Land Rover to Lake Mburo National Park, gawking occasionally at the shattered tanks and other remnants of war alongside the road. Before I get into the wildlife part of our tour, let me describe a little bit of Uganda. The British who formerly colonized it left a legacy of English, so that we were able to talk to anyone we met along the way. English is the language used in the schools, where education is mandated for everyone through high school. Although Uganda doesn’t have the volume of tourists that Kenya and Tanzania do, its well-known destinations such as Murchison Falls, Lake Victoria and Queen Elizabeth National Park have very modern lodges and luxurious tented camps.

Uganda, roughly the same size as the British Isles, is located in East Africa, with Kenya to the east, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south, the Congo and Sudan to the west and north, respectively. Uganda is a very poor country, 99.9% black, with almost no urban centers. Most people live in mud huts, walk barefoot everywhere and carry heavy loads of water, food, laundry, etc., on their heads, and babies in a sling on their backs. The women’s clothing is very colorful and the fabrics quite beautiful. Although aids is pandemic and the life expectancy of the country is under forty, all the people, including the school children dressed in uniforms, appeared happy and friendly.

Bananas are the chief agricultural product and much of their food is limited to matooke, the staple of most meals, and mubisi, a banana drink. Tea plantations are ubiquitous, as are goats and chickens.

Although it’s difficult to compare countries in terms of birding potential since they often differ greatly in habitat and are widely separated geographically, in terms of sheer birding brilliance, Uganda is hard to beat! A good way to state how productive the birding in Uganda really is, is to say that Uganda is to Africa as Ecuador is to South America. Now that’s quite a statement, since Ecuador has 1600 species out of a total of 3300 in South America and Uganda has 1000+ species out of a total of 2200 in Africa. For their size these two countries are unsurpassable in their respective continents.

Among it species are 22 of the 32 Albertine Rift endemics, all extremely difficult or impossible to see elsewhere, and of which we tallied 18. Our trip total of 559 species in 17 days reflects the immense birding potential of this pearl of Africa. While the focus of the tour was certainly the rich assemblage of the endemics and stunning papyrus specialties, we were also entertained by an amazing diversity of mammals, including fantastic views of chimpanzees, many species of monkeys, giant forest hogs, Rothschild’s giraffe (a very dark species) and four of the “Big Five” that occur in Uganda (lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo) and for two of our group who chose to make a very steep climb, mountain gorillas.

Except for wide-ranging species, almost every bird we saw was either a new species for us or one in a whole new order. From our first birds — five piapiacs, relatives of crows, strutting their stuff on the airport lawns — through many species of bee-eaters, apalises, batises, woodpeckers, owls, eagles and soaring raptors, our days were with filled with birds of both forests (very difficult to see) and open fields, including an astonishing array of large and colorful storks.

On our way from Lake Mburo to our next destination, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (such an intriguing name, don’t you agree?), we came across approximately 150 gray crowned cranes — Uganda’s national bird — feeding in pastures. Some evenings we took short night walks and drives, hoping for leopard and other mammals, elusive nightjars, and frequently encountering several species of galagos, a genus of small, active, nocturnal African primates with long hind legs that allow them to take great leaps, a genus totally new for us. We also went on two boat cruises, which put us “up close and personal” with birds and mammals.

Regardless of all the cryptic or colorful birds, I was impatient for our chance to find both the shoebill, an extraordinary-looking atypical stork-like bird, and a pennant-winged nightjar. We saw the latter first, an 11-inch nightjar with long white wing streamers, while on a night drive. It’s always a relief to find one of your target birds, but still, we had the shoebill on our minds.

Finally the day arrived, our twelfth day of the trip and our best chance, when we took a Nile River trip to an island known to harbor this completely amazing, very uncommon, inhabitant of extensive papyrus swamps. Before we even had a chance to search, there was a shoebill right at the edge of the swamp directly across from our point of departure! We stared, ooing and aahing, at this four-foot tall giant with a slightly erect crest and a bill that looked as though it had been stolen from a duck, too absorbed and unprepared to get out our cameras, until he picked himself up and flew slowly out of sight.

Fortunately, once on the island, we found two more shoebills that stayed motionless among the papyrus, giving us long and lasting memories. As for me, from that day on, the trip was as good as over. From a distance, though, I can savor all of the 550 species we enjoyed on our Uganda safari.