EXCITING FIRST FOR OUR GUIDE IN UGANDA

There are some words that thrill a birder’s heart: “endemic” or “rare” or “newly discovered.”  Another littel phrase that can make your day, your week, even your birding career: “first time.”  We at Partnership for International Birding already knew that our man in East Africa is a birder without peer.  Johnny Kamugisha is the ace of Uganda bird guides.  Now he gets to add the phrase “first ever” to his accomplishments.

Here’s a picture he took of a Gray Pratincole (Glareola cinerea).  It is a common-enough bird in Africa, but only along the Atlantic Coast.  That’s WEST Africa.  Johnny took these shots at the Kazinga Channel in Uganda.  This is the first time this bird has been recorded in Uganda. That’s EAST Africa.  It remains unknown in neighboring countries like Kenya and Tanzania.  There is a single previous record in nearby Burundi.

So that’s just one more very good reason to add a Kamugisha trip across Uganda to your global birding plans.  There are hundred more including numerous endemics.  Look at these pictures also taken at Kazinga just last year.  Look at the variety:

The crowded pictures at the bottom were all taken within a short time. Spoonbill, various storks, gulls, terns, stilt, etc.  A tiny fraction of the birdlife variety you will find in Uganda.  So click here to check out our tour schedule for future birding trips led by “First Ever” Johnny Kamugisha.

More Murray…You Shudda Been There

Eagles in aerial combat above Nisqually River at Nisqually NWR.  One eagle had a duck in its talons.  Two other eagles envied that.

Mew Gull (Left) and three Western Gulls.

Rhino Auklet in flight.

Part of the Varied Thrush flock we found along the road in Ft. Stevens Park near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

Red-necked Grebe.  There were many in Hood Canal, none near shore.

Pileated who flew around the treetops at Tolmie State Park, WA.

Red-throated Loon.

Olympic Peninsula: Winter Birding

Brant on the beach at Dosewallips State Park, north of the river bridge.

AND THEN THERE WERE ALL THOSE OTHER BIRDS

This bird is known as “Common Gull” in British bird guides for Europe.