Saturday 15 December 2018

Uganda - 2018 part 2

Uganda is a relatively small country and our three main sites are to the north of Lake Albert (Budongo and Nile Safari in Murchison) and to the south of the Lake (Sunbird Hill adjacent to Kibale), as you can see from the map all in the far west of the country.


Malcolm first ringed at Nile Safari in 1996. Great to catch a White-browed Robin-Chat that was ringed 7 years ago.
 

The Robin-chat above was perhaps our most significant retrap of the c30 recaptures during the trip.


Species ringed during the trip November 2018

 
LITTLE GREENBUL 34
WHITE THROATED GREENBUL 9
SPECTACLED WEAVER 3
YELLOW-STREAKED GREENBUL 2
RED-BILLED FIREFINCH 6
WILLOW WARBLER 10
GREEN TWINSPOT 5
BUFF-BELLIED WARBLER 2
SPECKLED MOUSEBIRD 2
RED-TAILED ANT-THRUSH 1
WHITE-BROWED ROBIN-CHAT 2
BROWN-CHESTED ALETHE 4
FIRE-CRESTED ALETHE 6
PYGMY KINGFISHER 13
DARK-CAPPED BULBUL 15
BLACK-HEADED GONOLEK 2
AFRICAN THRUSH 5
RED-TAILED BRISTLEBILL 2
PUVEL'S ILLADOPSIS 2
BROWN-EARED WOODPECKER 1
BROWN-CROWNED TCHAGRA 2
KLASS'S CUCKOO 2
BUFF-SPOTTED WOODPECKER 1
SNOWY-HEADED ROBIN-CHAT 3
NARINA'S TROGON 1
WESTERN NICATOR 1
VEILLOT'S BLACK WEAVER 6
WHITE-BROWED COUCAL 3
SCARLET-CHESTED SUNBIRD 5
GREEN-HEADED SUNBIRD 9
BRIMSTONE CANARY 1
RED-BELLIED FLYCATCHER 5
FOREST ROBIN 4
RED-THROATED BEE-EATER 19
GABON NIGHTJAR 1
BROWN ILLADOPSIS 2
GREEN HYLIA 4
BROWN TWINSPOT 3
REED WARBLER 6
AFRICAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER 1
GREEN-WINGED PYTILLA 1
GREY-THROATED FLYCATCHER 1
CARDINAL QUELEA 2
BROWN-THROATED WATTLE-EYE 2
YELLOW-RUMPED TINKERBIRD 2
RED-WINGED GREY WARBLER 1
LITTLE WEAVER 1
RATTLING CISTICOLA 2
OLIVE SUNBIRD 4
BRONZE SUNBIRD 5
WHITE-CHINNED PRINIA 7
GREEN CROMBEC 4
BLACK-BILLED WOOD-DOVE 1
SHIKRA 1
YELLOW-BILLED BARBET 1
TAMBOURINE DOVE 3
AFRICAN FIREFINCH 1
BLACK-CHEEKED WAXBILL 1
COPPER SUNBIRD 1
AFRICAN BLUE FLYCATCHER 1
BLACK-NECKED WEAVER 4
SLENDER-BILLED GREENBUL 1
RED-HEADED BLUEBILL 2
TORO OLIVE GREENBUL 1
GREY-HEADED NEGRETA 7
BLUE-SHOULDERED ROBIN-CHAT 1
COMPACT WEAVER 1
YELLOW WHITE-EYE 1
BROWN-BACKED SCRUB ROBIN 1
COMMON WAXBILL 1
BRONZE MANNIKIN 1
BLUE-SPOTTED WOOD-DOVE 1
BARN SWALLOW 3
STEPPE BUZZARD 1
GREY KESTREL 2
DARK CHANTING GOSHAWK 1
LONG-CRESTED EAGLE 1
LIZARD BUZZARD 2
WESTERN BANDED SNAKE-EAGLE 1
Total new birds ringed 363


Reed Warblers, Willow Warblers and Barn Swallows were the Palearctic migrant species caught.
Always interesting to see birds in moult - especially a species whose wing moult we don't see at home.


Reed Warbler in wing moult.


Barn Swallow in wing and body moult.

The smaller ring sizes we use in Africa, the Porzana range supplemented with rings sourced elsewhere


 A good start at Sunbird Hill involved 90 birds including 5 species of  Greenbul !
 We had some retraps and a few new species for me, here a Toro Olive Greenbul.


Greenbul identification  in the hand, tricky for visiting birders !


Sunbird Hill is adjacent to Kibale Forest NP. This is Chimpanzee and Elephant forest, with the Gorillas a little way further into the mountains. We were based here for our final four days. Plenty of variety in the forest here...very different species from the lower drier grassland and scrub of  Murchison.


Bronze Sunbird - the largest Sunbird in the area and they loved feeding on the flowers around the camp.


 African Blue Flycatcher


This Narina Trogon caused a stir, not only a great species to see, but caused Malcolm to run when he saw the bird in a net !


This juvenile Blue-shouldered Robin-Chat was a surprise too. They breed in the nearby Kibale NP but this juvenile providing breeding evidence for breeding at Sunbird Hill.


This Brown-backed Scrub Robin a highlight too.


Yellow White-eye, common in the mixed flocks.

Guides from the locality and Kibale NP always showed fascination and a hunger to learn.


Julia Lloyd is developing Sunbird Hill as a base camp for further studies. A couple of the locals have limited ringing experience, most are excellent local guides, both for birds and Chimpanzee tracking.



Malcolm is planning further ringing training visits with the objective of Sunbird Hill becoming a regular ringing site with local trained staff becoming part of the East Africa Ringing Scheme.

Julia is  developing accommodation and facilities to encourage visiting by other birding and ringing parties.


The communal area


The site has recently taken part in the Uganda Big Day - the Sunbird Hill team recording 152 species, the highest and winning total for a non National Park based team

See these links for  more about  Sunbird Hill     
                            and    Diary of a Muzungu


A couple of fine biting beaks, Yellow-billed Barbet - the largest of the Barbets and Tinkerbirds we caught.


Compact Weaver, of the c100 species captured the only species Malcolm hadn't ringed.



The  trip focused on the 4 ringing sites and we did have some opportunity for raptors.


This an adult Long-crested Eagle caught on an afternoon break whilst at Sunbird Hill


Many thanks to all on the trip, Graeme Dunlop provided the ringing totals above, photos from Graeme, Natasha, Roly, Malcolm or myself. Malcolm and Ambrose provided the local expertise and the driving.
Another stunning visit to Africa, many animals and birds seen, great hospitality from our hosts and  fun with all the enthusiastic guides, local trainees and staff from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Nature Uganda and staff from Sunbird Hill Kibale Forest Edge.


Dawn at Nile Safari...... with the next team we visit South Africa with Malcolm in February

Friday 7 December 2018

Uganda - 2018

Wendy, Dawn and I made a very successful ringing trip to Uganda 6 years ago and experienced a once in a life time visit to see the Mountain Gorillas.
See several posts about the trip in February 2012

Shoebill - photo Graeme Dunlop

I have just returned from another ringing based visit with Malcolm Wilson of African Affinity.
Team members also included Graeme Dunlop, Natasha Stonestreet  from the Cuckmere Haven RG, along with their birding guest Roly Hayes, and our local guide and trainee ringer Ambrose. One objective of this trip was  to introduce ringing and some training of local staff, and we also birded along the Nile to help assess wildlife guides.

A visit during "our northern winter" gives us the opportunities to see our summer migrants on their wintering grounds. Below a Barn Swallow in moult, a stage we don't see in the UK.


Reed Warblers too - more photos in a following post. - as there will be on most subjects that follow.


On these trips we have the opportunity to use different catching methods. In Africa we use bal chatri traps to catch raptors, here a Western Banded Snake-Eagle being photographed as part of wing moult and ageing study.


On arrival we stayed as is customary at Kathy's magic garden in Kampala, a chance to acclimatise and a first introduction to African bird families. Here a Black-headed Gonolek one of the vocal garden birds.


A male Olive-bellied Sunbird, one of  14 Sunbird species that visit the garden


Coucals are related to Cuckoos and they are nice large birds for ringers new to Africa. You are more likely to handle larger birds in Africa than at home in general site ringing. These are White-browed Coucals.


We moved on from Kathy's after two days to one of our major study sites - Budongo Forest.
As well as continuing to monitor species here we had three days of introduction and in some cases developing existing training with staff of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Nature Uganda and a few students eg Judith Mirembe who is doing her PhD studying aspects of Shoebill biology.

The Budongo team .....


At Kaniyo Pabidi we had the chance to study Puvel's Illiadopsis at it's only known site in Uganda


This is a west / central African species and is one several species whose distribution enter east Africa only in this region of Uganda.

Interested discussion and learning with these two species, the lower bird is a Red-tailed Ant-thrush, the upper bird Rufous Flycatcher-Thrush.


Very similar plumages in these individuals and much discussion in separation of the species in hand, including the value of measuring the tarsus width.

Moving north...
The mighty Murchison Falls...and Rock Pratincoles.





On our afternoon travels we did take the opportunity to ring some Red-throated Bee-eaters at one of several roadside colonies


Here Lilian from Nature Uganda processing a Red-throated Bee-eater.


Our next site was again a return visit for me to Nile Safari Lodge. Here we were joined with guides and staff mainly from Wild Frontiers, to watch us ring over the three days and for Malcolm to assess their guiding from boats on the Nile.



A taste of birds here - again more to follow....


Brown-throated Wattleye, named after the plumage of the female as the plumage of the males in these related species are too similar.

I plan to post more photos and further discussion soon.