Uganda 21 July 2015
Last night, we were staying in a nice hotel in Jinja. I think there had been a large sikh community before and my friend Shinda had told me that her relatives used to live here. This morning we arrived for breakfast at our hotel at 6 am to find they were not ready for us. Mum chivvied them them along and eventually we were leaving at almost 7 am. There is no point getting too stressed as things seem to happen at their own pace here.
On our way to Mabira Forest, we passed over the River Nile again, which was dammed here.
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| The Nile River, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
Then we drove back to Mabira Forest Reserve but to a different section where we birded until 11 am. The morning was quite slow but we just dug out each bird.
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
We had to be careful, as there were motorcycle taxis ferrying villagers back and forth along the forest track really fast.
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| Monkey sp, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Yellow-mantled Weaver, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
It was a great morning's birding with lots of Greenbul species (including Slender-billed, Yellow-Whiskered, Honeyguide, Cabanis's and White-throated), Blue-shouldered Robin-chat, Brown and Scaly-breasted Illadopsis and Little Green Sunbird.
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| Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Great Blue Turaco, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Ant trail, Mabira Forest, Jinja, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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We then back to the Flufftail pool to check for Shining Blue Kingfisher with no luck.
Back to the vehicle, we had a quick packed lunch before starting our four hour journey to Mbale Town.
On the way we made a quick roadside stop at some open crop habitat where we picked up Black Bishop and Black-Bellied Firefinch.
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mabira to Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
Shortly afterwards we stopped at a roadside river stop where we saw two Rufous-bellied Heron and White-Rumped Swift which was a catch up bird for me, which are always extra special.
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| Between Mabira and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Between Mabira and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Between Mabira and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| African Open-billed Stork, between Jinga and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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Woodland Kingfisher, between Jinga and Mbale, Uganda
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig between Jinga and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
Next stop was at some paddyfields next to the road. Not much here except. A large flock of White-faced Whistling Duck and African Open-billed Stork.
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| African Open-billed Stork, between Jinga and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig between Jinga and Mbale, Uganda Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
It was a long journey with lots of sleep, blogging and reading to catch up with. At our hotel in Mbale we did some birding around the grounds and I managed to get photos of a showy Black Bishop as well as seeing Grey-capped Warbler.
Trip list - 175 total birds by the end of day 3 and 56 lifers for me.
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About the Writer
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig
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Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She is looking forward to going Mountain Gorilla Trekking in East Africa in the summer and watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter
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