Get ready to watch the birds

Uganda Has a Great Variety of Birds, and Big Birding day next Saturday, is a good chance to seek them out.

There is good news for tourists: we have free access to all the National parks and conservation areas under Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) on November 29th, 2014. That day is the long awaited Big Birding day, which Uganda is taking seriously for the second year running. With over 1,050 bird species in Uganda, such a day was long overdue.

“This exercise is expected to improve interests in the bird watching. You can watch birdsanywhere. It can be in Kampala City, in your backyard or in a forest. Every region of the country will have a team involved in the bird watching for 24 hours,” said Steven Masaba of UWA. Given the UWA officer, birdwatchers have options of many destinations that are excellent bird habitats, but with a bonus of other attractions to make the trip worthwhile. That day 500 Guides will be all eyes and ears recording the species that they encounter in the swamps, mountains, forests and lake shores.

“Participants will explore the countryside to see birds in flight, listen to their songs, and see them court,” said Uganda Tourist Board (UTB) spoke’s person Edwin Muzahura. “to hone our bird watching skills, the occasion will be blessed by birders, Tim Appleton and Bill Thompson form the US and UK respectively.”

Bill Thompson is Editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest and author of Backyard Birds. He has seen and heard 1,000 different bird species. “These are no mean achievements. Bird Watcher’s Digest is the oldest and most popular bi-monthly magazine devoted to birds and bird-watching enthusiast around the world,” Muzahura pointed out. These birds have millions of social media followers from across the world and it is hoped that their participating in Uganda’s Big Birding Day will highlight the country’s various attractions to the rest of the world. “Thompson and Appleton will be able to sell destination Uganda, among their social media followers,” Muzahura said.

Uganda Tour Guide Association President, Herbert Byaruhanga revealed that an average Bird watcher stays longer and spends more while in the country. “They between $2.000 (Sh5m) and $7,000 (sh17.5m) on accommodation, a bird guide transport, buying mementoes and having fun.” Byaruhanga notes that Uganda should be able to identify a nitche in birding given the variety of avian species as a comparative advantage over other regional destinations.

PLANNING A BIRDING TRIP

Families, friends and workmates cold pool resources to fuel a van or public means of transport to commute throughout the day at affordable rates. The fares vary and depend on the distance and ones negotiating skills. The national parks have budget accommodations ranging from sh30,000 to sh50,000 per night. Meals cost sh10,000 and above. Up market facilities are also available at anything between $75 and $300 (Sh 187,000 and sh750,000) per night. Alternatively one could cut costs by travelling with a tent or hiring one.

Kidepo Valley national Park boasts an extensive list of about 475 bird species.  This makes it second to Queen Elizabeth National Park. A few species of note are the Ostrich, Kori bustard and Karamaja apalis. Kidepo is notable for its birds of prey. Of the 56 species recorded, 14 including Verreaux’s eagle, Egyptian vulture and Pygm falcon – are endemic to Karamoja region. Presently, there is no comprehensive survey of birds found there. On this day visitors stand a good chance of adding to the known numbers.

YOU CAN SEE ANIMALS TOO

While scouting for birds in Kidepo, expect to see exciting Fauna such as lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and jackals. Also regulary seen species are elephants, Burchell’s zebra, Rothschild’s giraffe, Cape buffalo and several antelope’s types.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is understandable Uganda’s most popular tourist destination. It is endowed with over 600 species of birds in its diverse eco-system set against the backdrop of the Mt. Rwenzori. It is a photographer’s dream  come true with enormous craters punctuating the rolling green hills, Kazinga channel with its banks lined with hippos, buffalo and elephants.

In the Ishasha plains are the famous tree climbing lions and herds of the Uganda Kob.

Mburo National Park, located close to the kampala – Mbarara highway, is home to 350 bird species.  These live with Zebra’s impalas, elands, buffalos and hyenas, among others. Together with 13 other lakes in the area, Lake Mburo forms part of a 50km wetland system linked by a swamp. The park is well suited to host hundreds of birds in its wooded savanna interspersed with rocky ridges, gorges and patches of papyrus swamp.

Murchison Falls National Park has 451 species of birds and 76 different mammals. The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile, which plunges 45 meters over the remnant rift valley wall, creating Murchison falls. The falls are the centerpiece of the park and the final event in an 80km stretch of rapids. This stretch of river provides one of Uganda’s most remarkable wildlife spectacles. Notable visitors to this park in the past have included Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway and several British Royals.

There are other ideal places to go bird-watching such as at Mabira Forest, Makerere University, Lutembe beach, Uganda Wildlife Education Center, Gaba Beach and Kasenge forest in Mukono. Your backyard can also be a good start.

Uganda to start Baloon Safaris

UWA introduced a new thing in Ugandan Tourism. Seguya the UWA executive director posted this on his Facebook timeline.

It’s not clear as to which national Park thing new tourism product is going to take place. I discussed this with some of the tour operators and tour guide to see what could the best national park for this. Some suggested that Kidepo ValleyNational Park is the ideal place for this because of her vast number of wildlife while others included Murchison falls on the list because it’s the biggest national park in Uganda.

While others welcomed the idea others where totally against it this. They said that it was an extravagant way of speeding money. One said that it would have been better if all to improve on the infrastructure in Ugandan National parks.

With this new Innovation Baloon safaris have been introduces to Queen ElizabethNational park as the First National park to have this in Uganda. Everybody is encouraged to take this up and go on to adventure it with us.

By Bruce Amp

Lake Chahafi: A crater Lake hidden in Kisoro

You wake up to sweet jazz music cascading into your room from an orchestra of various birds merrily playing out their daily morning tunes. You step out into the rising sunlight and your eyes crash into a delicious sight: Mountain Muhavura erect in his invariable aim for the skies, the crowd of cloud around his peak indicating that he has successfully hit the celestials.

You turn your eyes from Muhavura toward the opposite direction, and the placid waters of a picturesque lake sprawling off between the high hills invites you to check out what is in progress at thatmorning hour. At the lake’s shore you get to behold a crowd of crested cranes singing and dancing as though on a morning exercise routine.

It is the kind of experience you should hope to encounter waking up on the shores of Lake Chahafi, one of the several crater lakes down in SouthWestern Uganda’s Kisoro District.

Like other smaller crater lakes in Kisoro, Lake Chahafi remains largely unknown to the tourist world, pushed into the background by the more famous Bunyonyi and Mutanda lakes. But as a visitor you will actually find solid reasons why small Lake Chahafi perhaps deserves to be ranked along with the larger Bunyonyi and Mutanda on the list of lakes one has to prioritise when planning an excursion to Kigezi region.

Bird-watcher’s paradise

Lake Chahafi (together with its vicinity) is ranked by Kigezi tour operators as one of the places with the largest population as well as diversity of birds in south western Uganda. This is quite a statement, given that this region sits with the Kazinga region atop the rankings of Ugandan regions on the subject of bird endowment.

Nelson Mugisha, a tour operator in the region, avers that indeed Chahafi has both a bigger population and a wider diversity of species than most other tourist destinations in Kigezi.
Mugisha’s claim is supported by information from the African Bird Club, where Lake Chahafi is indicated as one of the lakes where a number of rare East African bird species have been sighted.

Talking of that gives Chahafi its competitive edge in this respect, Mugisha says: “The lake descends into a sprawling swamp of lush papyrus vegetation, of a kind you can hardly find on other lakes in Kigezi. It is this swamp that attracts the birds in bigger numbers and in more diversity than is to be found in other areas, because the birds always find it easier to feed and nest in the vegetation.”

Among the bird species to be easily seen at Lake Chahafi and rarely anywhere else are the Lesser Jacana, the African Jacana, the BrackCrake, the Blue-headed Coucal, the Common Moorhen, swamp flycatchers, swamp warblers, among others. Yours truly had a chance to behold two rare species: the Common Moorhen and the Malekite Kingfisher.

Beautiful scenery

Michael Murangira, a local tour guide in Kisoro, points out that Kigezi was nicknamed “The Switzerland of Uganda” owing to its rugged mountainous terrain and Mediterranean climate. Murangira names the Lake Chahafi area as one of the most scenic in the entire Kigezi area. “Lake Chahafi actually has a twin to its east, called Lake Kayumbu,” Murangira says. “In between these two lakes is a towering thread of a hill, and standing atop this one you will catch breathtaking scenery sprawling several kilometres on all sides below.”

Standing on the several high hills in the Chahafi area, one is spellbound as he rolls his eyes as far off as Mountain Muhavura on the horizon. In between the horizons lay incredible spreads of forest vegetation, hillside gardens, oddly-shaped ridges and gorges, name it.

Strategic base to tour Kigezi
Lake Chahafi has a resort right on its shores, and Murangira says apart from staying here when touring the Chahafi area, Lake Chahafi Resort is also ideal for one wishing to go tracking Gorilla or mountain-hiking. He explains that Lake Chahafi is about just 20km from Mountain Muhavura, Mgahinga and Sabinyo –and less than 20km from the Mgahinga gorilla sanctuary.

There’s a colonial history to it 
For those with interest in the past, there is also some interesting history to be encountered at Lake Chahafi. A rich colonial history about the struggle for control of the region at the time of the First World War. For the shores of Lake Chahafi is where in 1914, the joint forces of the British and Belgians set up a base to ward off the approaches of the Germans in the struggle for control of Kigezi.

And going backwards beneath 1914, the Lake Chahafi area is also where the Bafumbira tribal leader Katuregye based in his attempts to repulse the approaching British imperialists. This Katurebe and his subjects were inspired by the native Nyabingi religious movement which claimed that the spirits of the land would help the natives defeat the colonialists, and there are interesting tales about the dramatic campaign that subdued Katuregye.