Uganda birding Jun 2010

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• List of birds

A business trip to Uganda gave me an ideal opportunity to add 2 days of birding. With over 1100 species recorded, Uganda probably has one of the highest bird species counts per surface area. And it provided an opportunity to go see Africa's most sought-after species - the Shoebill. Unfortunately, partly because it was a short-notice trip, and partly due to leave issues, Nicola couldn't come along.

I arrived in Kampala on the evening of Sunday the 27th and sat in weekend traffic returning from the Entebbe beaches for almost two hours before reaching Banda Inns, a very neat, clean, quiet and affordable B&B about 20 minutes from Kampala CBD. On the Monday I was picked up for work, did a full 8 hour day and returned, very excited about the next day.

My guide, Joseph Mugerwa, picked me up at 6am and we drove through light rain curtains to Mabamba wetlands, one of 11 RAMSAR sites in Uganda. It was still raining when we arrived but the tropical climate made up for it and soon four of us (me, Joseph, a local guide and a rower) were in a small dhow, slowly cruising through the papyrus swamp. Black-headed weavers were common and although a lifer, it was not as interesting as the drenched Blue-headed coucal calling in plain view. As we went deeper, looking for Shoebill, we added lots of African jacanas and Squacco herons, Black kites and an African marsh harrier and when our local guide decided we were not having any luck and turned around, we spotted a pair of Long-toed lapwings.

We returned to the main channel and saw two other dhows very intent on something in the distance. We pulled up, and there it was! My first Shoebill! There are currently nine pairs of Shoebills in these papyrus swamps. They live of mudfish (at least, here in Uganda), are often grouped with storks, and are extremely skittish. This one was about 50m away and although a fantastic sighting through the binoculars, a rather poor photo opportunity for a 6x zoom aim-and-shoot. So we left the two dhows and about 5 minutes later, spotted another one, this time about 40m away. The two other dhows arrived shortly and then the bird got scared and flew off. We tried to estimate where it landed and rowed over, now closer to the main body of Lake Victoria and then spotted it again. The other two dhows also arrived but we took care not to approach closer than about 35 metres and we had really fantastic sightings of this unique species.

Having seen the Shoebill, I was keen on other birds and we rowed to a dense stand of papyrus where Papyrus gonolek are regularly seen. We had no luck and were turning around when the rower spotted something red and there it was, skulking deep in the papyrus! The other two dhows evidently got tired of the Shoebill and was soon next to us, also watching the gonolek. One of their guides had a voice recording and when she played it, the gonolek responded spectacularly and suddenly there were two of them, coming into open view close enough for photos. Another magnificent sighting. Having seen what we came for we headed back and added Swamp flycatcher, White-winged tern, Malachite kingfisher, Purple heron and Winding cisticola among a few other common birds. Back on shore I went to the "bathroom" (some really smelly long drops) and spotted a group of twelve Great blue turacos. Rushing back to get Joseph, we were able to approach close enough for photos and then also saw two Yellow-throated longclaws nearby. We drove to another spot on the lake shore where a few bushy trees about 10m off-shore provided great nesting sites for Northern brown-throated and Orange weavers.

We headed back to Kampala where Joseph bought us lunch at a truly African roadside "restaurant". Generally I'm keen to try new and local things but I must admit I was a little apprehensive. Having ordered for me in Luganda (most common Ugandan language), Joseph explained the dish as fish with peanuts steamed in banana leaves. Along with loads of carbohydrates in the form of rice, chapati, matoke (mashed and steamed unripe bananas), bean stew, sweet potato and cassava porridge. When it arrived I tasted the fishy stew and immediately knew I would never finish it. Nibbling on the rice, chapati and sweet potato I satisfied my hunger and then apologised for my bad manners leaving so much food untouched. Joseph dropped me off at Banda Inns and I spent the afternoon reading and catching up on e-mails.

On the 30th Joseph picked me up at 7am to drive through to Entebbe. We counted the inevitable Marabou storks and Black kites on the drive. While waiting for the botanical gardens to open, we stopped at a spot where the road runs right next to the lake and added Hamerkop, Openbill, Little egret, Ovambo sparrowhawk, Crowned and Black-and-white casqued hornbills and Red-chested cuckoo. We parked just inside the gardens and while Joseph went to find another local guide I added African yellow white-eye, Northern black flycatcher, Woodland and Grey-headed kingfishers, Klaas's cuckoo and Grey-backed Camaroptera. When the guide arrived we took a stroll through the gardens, down to the lake, along the shore and back up again. We saw Black-headed batis, Blue-headed coucal, Grey-backed fiscal, Black-headed gonolek, African harrier hawk, Spurwinged lapwing, Eastern grey plantain-eater, Broadbilled roller, Marico, Red- and Scarlet-chested sunbirds, Palmnut vulture and of course, lots of African fish eagles. Based on calls, we also added Klaas's and Diderick cuckoos, Yellow-fronted and Yellow-rumped tinkerbirds, White-browed robin-chat and Black-throated wattle-eye.

Leaving the magnificent trees (some older than a 100 years) behind, we drove to a nearby village where Joseph had some land and got a few different species: Sooty chat, Red-cheeked cordonbleu, Magpie mannikin, White-throated bee-eater, Northern grey-headed sparrow and Ruppel's long-tailed starling. We stopped at a beach resort for a soda, then drove to a restaurant in Entebbe for lunch. Opting this time for fish fillets, I had a splendid meal before Joseph dropped me again at Banda Inns.

Admittedly, I expected to have a higher species count for the two days and especially hoped to add quite a few non-Southern African species. But the long rainy season being only a month passed, water levels were high and the it wasn't the best birding time in Uganda. Also, we didn't go near the more famous Ugandan birding areas like Murchison falls National Park (voted as the top birding site in the world) and Bwindi or Mabira forests. But the Shoebill and Papyrus gonolek were undoubtedly outstanding sightings and I will certainly return (with Nicola this time!).

Koelenhof 3 caving Jun 2010

A few years ago I did some cave and abseil guiding for Wild Cave Adventures based in Krugersdorp. I was also involved in the abseil supervising during the Amazing Race episode where the contestants had to go through Bat cave - the standard, beginners cave that Wild Cave guides. But together with three other clients, Nicola and I were given the opportunity to go to the Koelenhof caves (K1, K2 and K3) to see some of the exquisite formations that fewer than a thousand people on this planet have seen.

We met up with Neil and the other clients at 7am and drove through to the entrance of the cave. We donned overalls, hard hat, headlamp, spare headlamp and shouldered water, snacks, dry clothes, rope and slings in the brisk winter air before starting our descent. The first drop of about 30m was steep but easy, apart from a very tight hole we had to squeeze through, and we were surprised to find a black-backed jackal cornered in one of the side chambers. Giving it space to come past us, it bolted back to top before we had a chance to photograph it.

We came to our first obstacle where Neil wedged a knotted rope into a slot and we shimmied/skidded down the muddy groove. Then it was down, down, down as we hurried through K1. A nasty looking jump over an 8m drop saw us to the edge of the first underground lake which Neil indicated is usually much smaller than its current levels. Now we climbed up a steep, muddy and extemely slippery slope to reach a rope ladder - the beginning of K2. The rope ladder ascends a squelchy and dirty mud mound to access an awkward squeeze and it took some maneuvering to get through. We were now entering chambers and sections that few people have ever seen and the formations started to take on a brilliant white and clean look. We stopped several times to take pictures but Neil assured us these ones were terrible compared to what awaited us in K3.

Further we went and at noon we reached the second lake, about 110 vertical metres underground. Nervously we peeled to swimming costumes and Rockys, tripple bagging dry shirts and cameras before heading into the water. Our main concern was that we may have to swim underwater but the levels turned out to be just low enough so that you only have to dip your head below the water for a few seconds. Entering the water (which, by the way, is the exact same temperature as the cave, year round, at 18 degrees C), it was a bit chilly at first but barely seconds into the water, it was very comfortable. One by one we swam through the crystal clear water to the other side, got out and put on dry shirts. Now we were in K3. A steep, rocky and loose scramble, followed by a squeezy hole, brought us into a large chamber where, upon first sight, we stood spellbound. Lit by the soft LED lights from our headlamps, the chamber took on an ethereal quality and we were lost for words as we gazed at the brilliant white stalactites, stalacmites, columns, helictites, aragonite crystals, straw formations and curtain formations stained in beautiful patterns by iron oxides. Careful not to touch any formations we spent almost an hour in this chamber taking photographs and staring around us.

None of us wanted to leave but it was an arduous climb back up so we left K3 behind and scrambled down to the lake for another swim. After our swim we dressed up again in the 100% humidity and had some snacks for lunch, before retracing our steps. Where we jumped onto a rock on the way down, we now had a slightly tricky and scary obstacle where we had to get across a 1m gap. But with some team effort (mainly Neil giving us a hand on the other side) the only problem we had was Nicola smacking her knee hard on a rock as she came across. We ascended steadily, crawling, squeezing, squatting, sweating, breathing very heavily and finally reached our last obstacle where we shimmied down the rope on the way down. With a lot of inefective scraping of muddy shoes on muddy rock, we all made it to the top and then it was through the last tight hole before the scramble back into sunligh - it was 15:15 in the afternoon, a cool winter's day on the highveld and we've just seen and experienced something unbelievable!