Big Birding Day 2014 - Fort Portal Team

Listening for Owls and Nightjars at a ridiculous time of night was a nessesity as couldn’t sleep and couldn’t wait for the day to begin. Distant Grey-crowned Crane’s and a Freckled Nightjar kept the adreniline running until it was time to meet the rest of my team in the centre of Fort Portal. Everybody on time and were off. First stop was the Tooro Botanical Gardens where the staked out Verreaux’s Eagle Owl would perform, usually it is perched high above in the mature Ecalypt plantation staring down with its pink lidded eyes. Unfortunately for my team it had gone fly-about but fortunately the Botanical Garden Team saw it later in the morning. Our time here was not wasted though with Little Rush Warbler and Levailiant’s Cuckoo providing the days only sighting.

Uganda’s Big Birding Day - Northern Masked Weaver

Next was a brief stop at a Swamp just behind the “ Mountains of the Moon Hotel” , here a small colony of Northern Masked Weavers had taken up residence. Although not on the Uganda list as yet we are confident that a description recently sent to the East African Rarities Committee will allow acceptance. Also present were lizard Buzzard and a very showy Malachite Kingfisher.

Jumping into our vehicles we made the short journey up the Saka road and parked at the University campus. Situated in rolling grassland above the beautiful Lake Saka this must represent the most picturesque learning centre in Uganda but no time for prose we have birds to see. Hunting African Marsh Harrier and Black-shouldered Kite quartered the grassland, while from the stunted shrubs Sooty Chat and Whinchat could be seen, the latter a winter visitor from Europe. Other migrants included hoards of menacing Alpine Swifts gliding swiftly just above our heads while from a leafy Fig tree over the stream outflowing Saka we found a Wood Warbler flitting about with three or four Willow Warbler’s. By now we had walked about an hour and some members were slacking, onwards I said, not far now!

 The Great-crested Grebe

Eventually, we reached another small Crater Lake, Kigere. This was my main target and as we rested on a bluff overlooking the lake we could see two family parties of Great-crested Grebe. This is one of the few sites in Uganda, indeed in East Africa that this species can be found and it was vital for BBD that we recorded this species, needless to say this was the only sighting from all the Ugandan teams, well done my team. Also present were small numbers of Red-knobbed Coot and Little Grebe but the hoped for Giant Kingfishers refused to be seen, you cannot see everything.

On the way back to the vehicle we were rewarded by a flotilla of overflying Abdims Storks, these inter-African Migrants follow the rains feeding on the newly emerging Grashoppers, while as we ate our lunch back at the car we were entertained by Yellow-throated Longclaw and African Pipit.

By now rain clouds had started to accumulate and we beat a hasty retreat, sitting out the rain for an hour. When it stopped  it was back into the field and continue with our target. We returned to the Botanical Gardens and in the final hour of daylight found more Willow Warblers and with them an immature Red-backed Shrike, these birds presumably dropped by the rain as they migrated. The latter a new species for the gardens.
Our final species recorded was a Brown-backed Scrub-Robin which was singing its heart out, glad that the rains had stopped. While we continued looking for extra species  non more deemed to join our list and eventually in the gathering gloom we retired to count up our scores. Our team recorded 142 but with our other teams from Fort Portal which were using different habitats we had amassed a very respectable total of over 220. Quite remarkable when you consider that we recorded hardly any wildfowl or Wading birds and testimony to how rich Uganda is. Well done to all the teams who competed in this annual event and many congratulations to the winning team from QENP.

By Roger Q Skeen,
Team leader Fort Portal Team, BBD 2014 

Vulture Count around Kampala

By Charlotte Beauvoisin

Counting vultures in and around Kampala’s abattoirs is one of the more unusual days out I have had courtesy of NatureUganda. It is also one of my favourite - if you can bear the smell!

This year I was delighted to take my friend Hope. I enjoyed listening to her Rukiga village names for the birds that we spotted. Our team opted for route three led by tour guide Ronald Sekiziyivu.

Three groups surveyed Kampala’s abattoirs, fish factories and the Kampala city council dumping site in Kitezi. Visits to these glamorous hangouts were challenging! Nonetheless, between us, we recorded 127 Hooded Vultures, 2,456 Marabou Storks, 295 Pied Crows, 108 Black Kites, and 2 Palm-nut Vultures. The numbers were down on previous years; the heavy rain certainly did not help.

We could hear the sound of Pied Crow behind us as we counted the Marabou among Makerere University’s buildings and on trees. We admired the pretty Speckled Pigeons scavenging amongst the rubbish along the road inside the University. 

There was an unconfirmed sighting of a Palm Nut Vulture near the golf course. We all craned our necks trying to see it; we even pulled over and all jumped out of the matatu (commuter taxi), but alas, we did not spot it again.

Vulture Count at the Kampala Abattoir

 Next stop: meat-packers along Old Port Bell Road. A Hooded Vulture flew overhead as we approached. We spotted more perched in the Palm Trees and streetlights along the main road; I could not wait to jump out the matatu and start counting them.

Even on the pavement opposite meat-packers, we watched a Black Kite and a Pied Crow fighting over a scrap of meat that they must have pulled off a carcass a few hundred metres away.

Ronald wanted to be thorough, so we did not start counting until we had driven past the abattoir and parked next to the railway line.

“You are free to see other birds,” announced Ronald, as he pointed out a Cisticola and a Grey-backed Fiscal in the bushes next to it.

Team of birders taking part in the Vulture Count at the Kampala Abattoir

By this time it was raining. The committed birders did not give up - even with the rain coming down on us and the smell of carcasses from the abattoir.

Vultures, vultures everywhere! It was quite difficult to exactly count their number. We looked up at the electricity pylon and counted to 10, 11 and 12. We had to check our figures more than once, to agree on the number. Getting an accurate figure of the Marabou was surprisingly difficult. Even though they are so big and easy to spot, some would fly off just as thought you had the right total. (Did I count those already?)

Next September, keep the first Saturday free and join NatureUganda on this fascinating day out and help contribute to the research and protection of these important species. More importantly, tell your friends about the threat to vultures’ survival.

The International Vulture Awareness Day aims to educate the general public on this ecologically vital group of birds. Vultures are the most crucial avian scavengers in the world. Eating carcasses of dead animals helps maintain the health of our environment, so we all depend on them. Tragically, many vultures are poisoned, not always intentionally, but by farmers that lay poison down for other animals. The vultures’ position at the apex of the food chain - eating other animal carcasses - makes them acutely vulnerable to poisoning.

NatureUganda’s Vulture monitoring programmes include the road raptor counts, the carcass counts conducted in four national Parks (Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley) and the annual Kampala Vulture Counts.

For more on birding and conservation stories, visit Diary of a Muzungu | Uganda travel blog. You might want to read Charlotte's previous Vulture Count at Kampala's abattoirs in a Disgusting Day Out. I am happy to write the occasional story for NU

Raptor Migration along the Albertine Rift

It has long been known that raptors, Storks and most large birds need thermals to gain elevation, and it has long been recognised that Rift Valleys and Mountain chains provide an excellent chance of seeing these interesting birds. Combine this with correct timing, for example when these raptors are returning from their breeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere and travelling south to their wintering areas then your chances will increase.

Having just moved from Kampala to Fort Portal, I was keen to sample the bird-watching and clean

environment in the Ruwenzori foothills. One of my first forays was North of Fort Portal in the vicinity of Lake Saka. Here I observed my first Ugandan Great-crested Grebes together with a sprinkling of returning migrants like European Bee-eater Common Cuckoo and Icterine Warbler, while overhead I was pleased to see a couple of Steppe Buzzard, three Honey Buzzard and four European Hobby. This might be good for passage raptors!

Saturday 4^th October 2014 was dreary and wet with rain falling for over six hours, but Sunday 5^th was crystal clear with no cloud cover on the Ruwenzori chain. My wife and I decided to get up early, drive to the lake and walk on from there towards the escarpment overlooking the Lake Albert rift valley. Towards mid-morning we saw our first raptors, three Steppe Buzzards over-flying us travelling south. Then as the morning progressed more raptors began appearing with “kettles” of Steppe Buzzard and Lesser-spotted Eagle’s appearing overhead as they climbed up the rift. At about 10am I saw a circling Honey Buzzard and while watching it a small falcon appeared, initially appearing all grey below with an obvious orange/red ventral area. It had to be a male Red-footed Falcon and we watched it for a couple of minutes soaring with the Honey Buzzard before gaining height and both birds drifting south. This is only the third record of Red-footed Falcon for Uganda and just one of many raptors seen this morning before the clouds started appearing and migration curtailing and the inevitable Fort Portal rains re-appeared.

RAPTOR TOTALS this morning:

Steppe Buzzard, 45.

Lesser-spotted Eagle, 9.

Honey Buzzard, 4.

Black Kite, 5.

Long-crested Eagle, 3.

Wahlberg’s Eagle, 2.

Palm-nut Vulture, 2.

And singles of; Grey Kestrel, Red-footed Falcon, Black-shouldered Kite, Booted Eagle, African Hobby, Lizard Buzzard, Lanner Falcon and African Fish Eagle

Roger Q Skeen.

NatureUganda, Fort Portal.

Bird Population Monitoring (BPM) & Waterfowl counts in South-Western Uganda, July 2014

A total of eight BPM’s, two Waterfowl counts and a breeding survey of a Pink-backed Pelican colony were

completed during July 24th-26th. The brief highlights and lowlights as follows:

Mpanga Cultivation; This site, a mixture of farm bush with scattered trees on the edge of Mpanga forest has been counted for several years and regularly gives good totals of species. This trend continued with 58 species recorded. Highlights included 5 Chestnut-winged Starling, Cassin’s Honeybird, Yellow-spotted Barbet 6 Weyn’s Weaver and a Golden-breasted Bunting.

Lukaya Flats; Situated in the extensive, seasonally flooded grassland to the north east of Lukaya town, the small islands of shrubby habitat helping to increase the species diversity. This BPM is a traditional two Km transect, i.e. two kilometers out then walk back to the start! The main highlights this visit being a flock of 5 Wattled Starling, Lead coloured Flycatcher and good numbers of Black-headed Gonolek. Unfortunately a worrying aspect is the increased amount of barbed wire fencing which has sprung up since the last visit.

Kayanja; Another long standing BPM which is a mixture of grass and low shrubby bush islands, a problem here is charcoal burning which is removing some of the islands, although it does appear that in places they are now only cutting branches and leaving the main trunk to re-grow. Bird highlights here are good numbers of Sooty Chat and Rufous-naped Lark while 3 Madagascar Bee-eater and 3 Orange Weaver were a bonus.

Nabugabo Grasslands; as the name suggests this BPM is purely grassland and rarely does the species list reach 20. Good numbers of Grassland and Plain-backed Pipits are always present along with Zitting Cisticola while good birds this visit was a single Saddle-billed Stork and 4 African Quailfinch. Occasionally we have recorded specialties including Great Snipe and Forbes Plover while traditionally the Blue Swallow can be found just to the north of the site.

Kyotera South; some two miles south of Kyotera town is an area of quite dense bush with small patches of grassland, these grassy areas get heavily rutted by cows crossing when wet. A hazardous habitat for walking, which involves your eyes being concentrated downwards rather than looking for birds. Fortunately the bird calls are frequent and a good number of species are logged. Birds seen included Black-chested and Brown Snake Eagles, while heard only were Moustached Warbler and Mourning Dove.

Kyegegwa; another area of grassland with islands of shrubby bush, with a large section of taller Acacia present. Traditionally cattle country this site suffers from the same furrowed ground. While areas close by are being planted up with Eucalyptus and Pines. Mainly grassland bird species are recorded, predominantly weavers and babblers. Of interest this visit was 5 African Stonechat and Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike.

Marabigambo Grassland; Situated on the edge of the Marabigambo Forest these seasonally flooded grasslands often have high numbers of Fan-tailed Widowbird and Grassland Pipit. This visit the flooded area held 2 Rufous-bellied Heron and African Jacana, while the drier grass had some very accommodating Black-chinned Quailfinch. Although we often hear forest species, we do not count them to keep the counts predominantly grassland species.

Airstrip Ponds; This transect is combined with the waterfowl count. Counting the seven ponds first and then

returning back through the scrub and grass area back to the start. This count has suffered recently due to the arrival of some 20,000 refugees from Tanzania. These people have nowhere left to go and are surviving in a makeshift camp on the edge of the old airstrip. First noted during the January count the numbers of people have increased to saturation point and it was thought that the birdlife would diminish, but fortunately this has not been the case and bird numbers and species remain relatively stable. Highlights include a Brown-chested Lapwing with Senegal and Crowned Lapwings, 6 Wattled Starling and good numbers of Banded Martin.

Airstrip Ponds Waterfowl Count; After the January count I was expecting the numbers to be low, but they were quite productive and did not appear to have very much disturbance. These seven ponds were created during the General Amin era when he wanted an airstrip created. The seven artificial ponds have varying degrees of water present, with accompanying vegetation, mainly typha and water lilies. Two of the ponds are usually quite dry but water levels have remained high and all seven had water. Interesting birds noted include 3 Lesser Jacana, 2 Rufous-bellied Heron and a Little Bittern, also present where three pairs of White-backed Duck with one of the pairs having three ducklings in tow, the first breeding record since 1941.

Musambwa Islands Waterfowl Count; these three Islands have been counted for over 15 years and we have a good account of number of birds and species. The January count revealed a reduction of Grey-headed Gull to approximately 60,000 down from the previous 90,000 and well below the peak of 120,000. Also noted in January was a reduction in breeding birds on the main Island. This July the count of Grey-headed Gull has reduced even further to just over 30,000 and more disturbing was the amount of juvenile birds, estimated to be about 1% of birds present. On landing on the main Island a small area behind the fishing community was found to contain the bodies of over twenty dead gulls, they were almost fledged. Whether this is due to a food shortage or something more sinister I could not ascertain. Of interest were the colony of Northern Brown-throated Weaver which were utilising discarded fishing line to weave their nests!

Diimo Pelican Colony; Situated along the road to Diimo fishing village this colony has just recently taken up

residence. Located in tall roadside trees 73 occupied nests were counted with a good percentage having large young. Unfortunately also counted were the 'bodies' of four Pelicans hanging from branches with mono-filament fishing line, a cruel and unnecessary death as surely the fisherman can dispose of their unwanted line by burning or burying? Perhaps a sensitisation project should be evolved?

Roger Q Skeen, NatureUganda

NatureUganda Visits Paradise Island

Don’t forget to wear a hat! That should have been my first thoughts to my companions when we visited Paradise Island. I fortunately did but my colleagues didn't and got a good smattering of guano for their troubles!

Situated seven kilometers off shore from Lutembe or five from the landing site at Ben’s Beach, which is reached by turning off the Entebbe road at Kawuku. The inhabitants of the small fishing village that our boat departed from looked on in amazement as five Muzungu took their places for our trip to Paradise. The journey took forty long minutes; Lake Victoria was quite choppy with overcast skies and occasional drizzle. While our boat had numerous leaks which Kaj our Danish host spent the journey trying to fill with various pieces of flotsam found lying around the bottom of the boat.

Although called Paradise Island, presumably when President Idi Amin was in power and he had constructed a small resort, it was now overgrown with low shrubs and grass with a smattering of white-washed trees. It has a distinct ammonia smell and the last thing it could be described as is paradise, unless of course you are a bird. Each tree was decorated with the nests of Cattle and Little Egrets, Long-tailed Cormorants, Great Cormorants and Sacred Ibis. Although difficult to accurately count it was estimated that this small island of four hectares contained 3,100 nests.

These were proportioned into 1000 each of Long-tailed Cormorant, Cattle and Little Egret, with 80 of Sacred Ibis and 20 of Great Cormorant. The three majority breeders all were having well grown chicks. Also on the island were about 30 Pink-backed Pelican which probably breed at a different time of the year, while other interest was provided by Swamp Flycatcher, Water Thicknee, Orange Weaver and Malachite Kingfisher from over thirty species recorded.

Also present where at least five large Monitor Lizards presumably feeding on the hapless chicks which fall from their nests. These Lizards were remarkably tame and could be approached to within three meters!

Utilising the derelict chalets are a few fishermen who supplement their diet with small numbers of Goats and Pigs while in one corner of the island an area of about an acre has been cleared and planted with Tomatoes. While we were there they were spraying the Tomatoes using the chemical Dimethoate, this chemical is highly toxic but here in Africa, no problem! Google it and get the full facts suffice to say it is pretty lethal

  

Effects on wildlife

The toxicity of dimethoate for aquatic organisms and birds is moderate to high. One study found that it causes temporary rhythm alterations in some bird seed-eating species. Whilst these effects may not be fatal, they may be critical for the birds’ food-finding ability and in making them more vulnerable to predators. Dimethoate has also been found to affect wood mice behaviour and to cause jumping, erratic movement imbalance and death in fish.

Dimethoate is highly toxic to bees on an acute contact basis; particular concern has been expressed over this. The LD50 (oral and topical) for bees is 0.1-0.2 µg/bee. Products containing dimethoate are warned not to apply to crops in open flower nor when flowering weeds are present. 

The above paragraph gives a good idea of the potential hazards; we did notice that the closest tree to the crop spraying had large number of nestling Long-tailed Cormorant on the ground which had not been removed by the resident Monitors! Suffice to say we tried not to breath in too much. The runoff chemicals into Lake Victoria must affect the local aquatic fauna.

After a couple of hours on this small but interesting wildlife paradise we departed on our rickety boat and returned to Bens Beach landing site glad to be on solid ground once more.

Roger Skeen

NatureUganda