Janet's African Adventure: Mabamba Swamp

The sound of steadily falling rain as I woke at 5am on Sunday did not augur well for our planned birdwatching expedition to Mabamba Swamp. Uganda is one of those places like San Diego where you don't usually have to factor the weather into your plans. Still, Jeff, Beth and I are intrepid enough that a minor inconvenience like rain was not going to put us off our hunt for the elusive shoebill stork.

Mabamba Swamp lies on the shores of Lake Victoria, just one bay across from Entebbe, however it takes about an hour and a half to drive there from Kampala. We picked up our guide, Richard Hannington, at the roundabout in Kasanje, about twenty minutes' drive from Mabamba Bay. Richard has been guiding birdwatchers for 12 years and is very knowledgeable about the local species; when he's not guiding he drives a boda boda.

Local ferry boats ply their trade across the water to Entebbe and also to the islands in Lake Victoria. By the time we returned, around 10am, the waterways were busy ferrying passengers (and their boda bodas!) back and forth. There's even a car ferry, seen here with a hamerkop perched astern.

As well as Hannington, our boat had an oarsman; when we set out the only sound was the rippling of the water under the prow of the boat. At first the skies were threatening and a little rain fell, but the sun later emerged from the clouds, making for some atmospheric photo opportunities. Papyrus is abundant in the swamp, and waterlilies that bloomed purple and pink as they were warmed by the sun.

Local fishermen catch tilapia with nets and lungfish (also a favorite of the shoebills) with calabashes in the swamp. Technically it's poaching since this is a designated nature reserve.

It didn't take us long to spot not one but two shoebill storks. We were lucky; Hannington estimated that only about half the visitors to the swamp see a shoebill and it's rare to see more than two; the total population at Mabamba is only nine birds, and this is the best place in Africa to see them. The storks are actually in the pelican family and can weigh as much as 7kg and stand five feet tall. They have the distinction of being called the ugliest of birds!

This one reminded me of the dodo, but it's definitely not flightless. Hannington told us this was a female; it flew across the channel to land near the male stork, and then walked away.

One of the other species unique to the swamp is the winding cisticola, which gets its name from the way it spirals as it climbs the reeds. Other sightings (not shown) include yellow billed duck, swamp flycatcher, blue headed coucal (a large brown bird), common waxbill, pied kingfisher, bunting, African marsh harrier, egrets and a sandpiper.

After the shoebill sightings, we paddled to a lagoon close to the lake. African Jacanas ran lightly across the lily pads like stepping stones, flying across any gaps that were too large to straddle, while long tailed cormorants dived for fish.