Mabamba Swamp

This morning we were up early for a cruise on Mabamba Swamp.  This is a large area of papyrus and other reeds on the edge of Lake Victoria near Entebbe.  It is about an hour from home and a relatively easy drive through villages.  Mabamba is the first (and/or last) place overseas birders usually visit when they come to Kampala.  All the tour groups stop here and the main reason is the ease of seeing a Shoebill - almost guaranteed and they are used to boats and people so tend to stay put for photos.  It is also home to over 300 other species of birds so a good list is assured even if you dip on the Shoebill.  We first visited the site with guide David on 23 October but I had somehow managed to put some strange settings into my camera and my photos were rubbish.  This Shoebill was extremely obliging however.

Shoebill - an extremely noisy photo (iso 3200!) I'm ashamed to publish here.

This time we set off with Shukuru - David's grandson as David is a bit lame and reluctant to sit in the boat for 2-3 hours.  I made sure my camera was set properly and asked Shukuru to try to find us Papyrus Gonolek and White-backed Duck, two species I hadn’t seen but which had been recently reported from the swamp.  We found the ducks very quickly - three of them with a few Yellow-billed Ducks.  At the same location we had a Collared Pratincole, Little Stints, Common Ringed Plovers and 2 Lesser Jacanas.  

David seeing us safely aboard

Three White-backed Ducks with four Yellow-billed Ducks

Yellow-billed Duck

Common Ringed Plover

White-backed Duck

Long-toed Lapwing

Saddle-billed Stork

We then spent the next two hours cruising the papyrus beds for the Gonolek.  This is a large colorful shrike that is noisy but skulking.  It is restricted to dense papyrus swamps in nw Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.  We ended up hearing at least two but none came out of the reeds for a look at us.  So of course we will have to go back.  Lots of other birds while we sat quietly - African Reed Warbler, Grey -capped Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Slender-billed Weavers, Black Crake, Blue-breasted Bee-eaters, Swamp Flycatcher, Sand Martins and assorted herons, egrets, cormorants and darters.

Western Osprey

Blue-breasted Bee-eater

From the left - Squacco Heron, Great Egret, Pied Kingfisher, Reed Cormorant, Intermediate Egret (x 2)

African Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Another group of birders.

African Darter

Reed Cormorant

White-winged Terns

A couple of days at home now and on Thursday we head on an eastern safari for 5 nights - first to Jinja (which Ugandans incorrectly say is the source of the Nile) then to Mount Elgon on the Kenyan border.  After that we won’t have long until work starts again with the return of the teaching staff on the 16th January.