Murchison Falls NP

Our first game drive in Uganda took us to Murchison Falls NP - we had a brief 3 second glimpse of Lions so no photos but plenty of Buffalo, Elephant and various Antelopes.
Young Rothschilds Giraffe
Oribi
Grey-headed Kingfisher
Spotted Thick Knee
Senegal Thick Knee
African Wattled Lapwing
Saddle Billed Storks

Grey Crowned Crane
Buffalo
Elephant
Hippopotamus

African Fish Eagle
Abyssinian Ground Hornbill

Goliath Heron

Shoebill Search Video Clip

http://youtu.be/j62J4ZalO2c

GORILLAS & SHOEBILLS - HAS TO BE UGANDA - PART 1 MABAMBA SWAMP

Well we are just back from a fabulous 20 days in the pearl of Africa, Uganda. Here goes the first of a long line of posts but with nearly 2000 images taken between us its hard to know what to cut out - I have put the images down in the order they were taken so you can follow our route.  The trip was organised very differently from any of our previous travels in as much as we went with two friends Neil Drinkall and Craig Nimick and we used a tour company to make all arrangements.  The Company was http://www.birduganda.com/ and our guide was Emmy Gongo aka Emmymomela and we would highly recommend them.  So here goes with the first photo taken which ironically shows one of the over-riding images of Uganda -not a bird but the humble banana of which you will see many more.

The ‘Shoebill’ boats at Mabamba Wetlands where we saw 3 of these fantastic birds.

 

Black-capped Heron
Hammerkop

Yellow-billed ducks
Malacite Kigfisher
Getting out of Kampala….

Lake Victoria ferry at dawn

Big twitch coming up..

In a few hours we shall be jetting off on a little twitch so no posts for a while - as a clue to where we are going all I'll say is we hope to return with plenty of monkey shots!!

Taiga Bean Goose

New Year new bird for the Scunthorpe recording area - the goose with the orange bill is a Taiga Bean Goose which is mixed in with about 1100 Pink-footed Geese and is commuting around the fields of West Halton. In with these is also a definitely maybe Greenland White-fronted Goose.

Two shots below - Greenland White-fronted Goose(definitely maybe!)

Welney Wildlife and Wetland Centre

As already stated, Welney is situated in the Ouse Washes and is a magical winter place for upto 9000 swans and ducks from Iceland and Arctic Russia - the sounds of the Whooper Swans and Wigeon is very evocative of winter

Welney's Whoopers

..is on the Ouse Washes and is the wintering home for thousands of Whooper and Bewick Swans - we like to visit every couple of years and on Sunday we found ourselves with the perfect opportunity for a quick visit. 

Kestrel dropped in for a quick vole!

one of thousands of wintering duck - Pochard

White-fronted Geese

A handful of the18 White-fronts at Thealby this morning….

Glaucous Gull at Bagmoor

I forgot to wish everyone a Happy New Year - we were greeted at 2.00am on New Year’s Day by a very annoying Tawny Owl sat on our roof, I suppose he could have been singing the new year in anyway Happy New Year to all visitors to my blog.  It has not taken long for me to get my first cold of 2011 so no outing for me today but Wayne had a trip down to Bagmoor where he took this first winter Glaucous Gull - the lake is still very much frozen with the odd patch of  water holding the gulls and two Peregrine causing havoc.

Raptor fest

A good raptor day culminating in the Red Kite roost of at least 20 birds near Market Weighton on the Yorkshire Wolds - earlier in the day at South Ferriby we had the ever present Rough Legged Buzzard, Common Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel and Peregrine with Hen Harrier and Sparrow Hawk at Bagmoor making a tally of 8 raptor species.

A motley crew of Scunthorpe birders - Graham, Craig, Keith, Neil and Wayne