bobmcgee

A Distrurbance in the Force …

There ensued two days of road travel. So much of Ugandan life plays out beside the roads that this provides remarkable insight. The locals I’m sure are as fond of having cameras waved in their faces as I would be – the result is a contest between any sensitivity one has and the temptation to capture the rich and exotic otherness of Africa. The unease created probably explains why I don’t go in for street photography in Oz either.

Our destination on day one was Kampala and the perfectly international Metropole Hotel. No distrurbances tolerated here.

A Nile Special, some freshly roasted ground-nuts lightly flavoured with garlic and a wide choice of cuisine, very gracious service. I recommend it highly.

The following morning we caught up with our favorite bird guide Prossy Nanyombi. She had shown us the Shoebill and Papyrus Gonolek the previous year and left us with a lasting impression of a somewhat stern but capable professionalism. We’d contacted Prossy first when we were planning the trip and she’d put us in contact with Avian Safaris, one of several companies that she does some work for. We were soon on the road, Tony at the wheel.

Kampala is simply krazy. And in the rain even more so. Its population is somewhere in the vicinity 2 million. The road rules are as much a puzzle to me as Australian Rules Football would be to a Boda Boda rider although the results are very similar …

Kampala has been declared the most fun, friendly, and affordable capital in East Africa. If you are going to spend any time there you should probably learn why not to wear yellow or light blue (especially at election time). Yes there are elections, it’s just not how they choose their presidents. These and other important facts can be found <HERE>.

The traffic is, and there’s nothing you can do about that. Meditate. And eventually it goes away, left behind, waiting for your return!

The city gives way to towns and then villages …

Towards sun down and under a threatening sky we arrived at Pian Upe. It’s a game reserve rather than a National Park. It’s in the north-east of Uganda not far from the Kenya Border. It’s beautiful and it’s nothing like Budongo.

Moving on …

All good things come to an end.

As our stay at Budongo reaches its conclusion. It’s time to thank the Field Station Director Geoffrey Muhanguzi for his hospitality and, as always, his wisdom. Also to say thank you to Moreen Uwimbabazi for allowing us to assist in her bird banding project and congratulate her and her team Patrick Arua and Godfrey Andrua on their progress.

The Royal Mile, so called because it was indeed a favorite spot of Ugandan Kings, is one of Africa’s best forest birding spots. It is possible for a visiting birder to buy a permit and stroll under the majestic trees. I believe the fee has to be paid in Kampala. The best way forward is to contact Raymond in advance, he lives near the gate and knows the place backwards. The numbers I have for him are 0777 319 865 or 0752 930 065. You can rely on him to give clear instruction.

He is the man who can find you your Chocolate backed Kingfisher.

But that only takes you as far as this sign …

and paradise is on the other side of it. Tourism is specifically forbidden by the project’s charter, to pass Go you must be sponsored by your university or another entity.

It was during my last day or so at Budongo that I became increasingly aware of some red and itchy spots on my left arm.

Chimpanzee …

The farflung margins of the ancient world were occupied by all sorts of amazing creatures, chimpanzees included, half real half legend.

Crouching Apes in Chains. Church of San Quirce, Burgos (Spain). 12th century. Photo: Fco. De Asís García García.

From about 1640 onwards the animals themselves took more tangible form as they slowly found their way into European menageries.

Darwin Published The Descent of Man in 1871. In it he identifies the great apes as our nearest relatives, Africa as the location where our common ancestors lived and he espoused the view that we differ merely in degree rather than in kind. Darwin’s personal experience of apes seems to have been limited to meetings with an Orangutan at London Zoo in 1838. You can read about his encounters <HERE> it’s an interesting story.

That was just about as good as it gets until 1960. By then Chimpanzees were in Zoos, circuses and laboratories. The following year there would be one in space (Ham, January 31, 1961) but no one had studied them in their natural habitat. It is possible that no one had even photographed them in the wild at that point.

That year three different young scientists took themselves to the forests of Africa and set about observing the behaviour of chimpanzees. Jane Goodall who went to work in the Gombe Stream National Park in what is now Tanzania became the most famous. Less familiar pioneers were Adriaan Kortlandt working in what was the Belgian Congo now DRC and Vernon Reynolds in the Budongo Forest, Uganda.

Reynolds and his wife Frankie spent a year at Budongo. The only trails there would have been for logging purposes, the chimpanzees would have fled screaming as the humans approached. It would have been hard work. Nonetheless the exercise culminated in the book Budongo: a forest and its chimpanzees and Vernon went on to a successful academic life eventually becoming Professor of Biological Anthropology and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Uganda meanwhile fell on hard times. Two major civil wars brought governance to a halt in the 1970’s and 80’s. In 1988 Prof. Reynolds read a report in the New Vision, the main Ugandan newspaper, that chimpanzee infants were being captured in Budongo Forest and smuggled out to wealthy pet-owners in Dubai and elsewhere. In 1990 Reynolds returned to Budongo and with a local researcher, Chris Bakuneeta, set up a base to see if there were still chimpanzees to be found.

There were. The base evolved into the Budongo Conservation Field Station and its work centres on understanding what it takes to make sure chimpanzees will always live in this beautiful place.

Mungo …

My reading of the moment is Travels in the Interior of Africa by Mungo Park, published in 1799. He was traveling in the Gambia and seems not to have been a great fan of the forest …

The country itself being an immense level, and very generally covered with wood, presents a tiresome and gloomy uniformity to the eye; but although Nature has denied the inhabitants the beauties of romantic landscapes she has bestowed on them, with a liberal hand, the more important blessings of fertility and abundance.

Perhaps now that travel is so much easier the landscapes have become more romantic.

Monkeys …

On this visit to the Budongo forest our attentions were focused on the bird banding team which since our last visit had matured into a very efficient operation. We hadn’t set aside any time to specifically follow monkeys or the star attraction, chimpanzees. But this is Budongo, any spare half hour could be put to excellent use.

The key to photographing the monkeys is simply to take your time. Approach quietly, when they start to examine their escape route just settle. After a while they resume feeding or grooming and soon you’re just part of the background.

They may walk right by you.

In that instance I was sitting on the ground and found myself shooting up at mum and her youngster. An older youngster got left behind and came running to catch up …

The next character and I conducted a lengthy study of each other.

The Colobus and Red-tailed Monkeys are a tougher prospect because they spend so much of their time high in the trees.

Dwarfs and Pygmies …

The difference is fairly subtle in the gloom of the forest but with practice …

They are both common at Budongo, about the same size and painted from the same palette. You just need a glimpse of the crown of the head.

Spare moments …

The Budongo Forest covers an area of about 435 km² which reportedly makes it the largest forest in Uganda. It’s a mixed forest and was once important as a source of mahogany. Left to itself the mix would simplify, at climax it would be dominated by Ironwood (Cynometra alexandrii) more valuable timber species would be excluded. Mahogany is much more attractive to foresters. The efforts to encourage a rich mix to persist were successful but Celtis (hackberries or nettle trees) and Ficus (figs) species were more inclined to grow than Mahogany. These have no timber value but do provide food for primates and birds.

The forest looks natural enough but the parts that have been molested are better for birds and primates than a couple of reserved areas that have never been touched. Who’d have thought.

We were kept hard at work but a couple of hours every afternoon were ours to go for a walk down the Royal Mile or around the camp.

Let’s get to work …

Moreen was keen to get as much from our visit as possible. There would be no slacking off.

Her field assistants were just back from Kenya where they had undergone some additional training provided by the Nairobi National Museum. She was keen that they put their new skills to use under supervision to really consolidate what they had learnt.

Much progress had been made. Patrick and Godfrey had been very efficient at the mechanics of catching and handling birds but had struggled a bit with measurements, partly because of poor equipment and partly because of inexperience. Experience had been gained in the last 18 months and we’d brought some first class equipment which would be theirs to keep.

Field Assistant Patrick Arua surrounded by paparazzi

Field Assistant Godfrey Andrua with a Blue-breasted Kingfisher

The routine was simple. Nets were set in the afternoon and closed for the night. Where possible they were set in one continuous line … 228 metres long. Which is way more net than a small team would attempt to handle in Australia, but some of the hazards we face are absent in Uganda – no Butcherbirds, Kookaburras or birds of prey to start eating your catch; the cool shade of the forest interior rather than a dessicating sun and on average larger more robust birds. Not a bird was lost.

The nets would be opened at first light, birds caught, processed and released until about 1pm when the nets would be packed up. After lunch they would be carried to the next day’s catch site.

Gayle and Patrick taking birds from the net

Measuring tail length of a Fire-crested Alethe

The Road to Budongo …

The team heading to Uganda this time consisted of the three Aussie bird banders that had visited in 2017 plus one.

Dr Will Steele and Dr Mark Antos are both professional biologists who find the natural world so fascinating that they go on studying it even after they’ve knocked off work. Along with the McGee we had had the pleasure of doing some training with the fledgling bird banding team at the Budongo Research Station. We would be returning to offer some more encouragement, some more training and some more equipment.

Our new recruit was the lovely Gayle McGee, also experienced in the process of catching and banding birds.

It is most of a day’s drive northward from Entebbe to Budongo. Our first call was in Kampala where we picked up Moreen Uwimbabazi who heads up the project.

Then it was a long but fascinating drive via Masindi to the Royal Mile and Budongo.

Much of life in Uganda goes on in the streets. Foodstuffs and furniture …

some instruction from the Australian Government

and having bought your food and furniture you load it onto a van, or a motorbike or even a bike.

From time to time on the highway street vendors rush every vehicle that stops.

As well as the fresh fruit and drinks you can buy chicken and goat meat on skewers … maybe not a great idea for the unpracticed intestine.

Until eventually …

Uganda …

Lake Victoria is a very large expanse of fresh water about half way up the continent of Africa and somewhat east of the midline.

Uganda sits on top of the lake sharing borders with Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC and South Sudan. The country straddles the equator.

The surface area is roughly similar to my home state of Victoria, Australia or England, Scotland and Wales. It has a population approaching 50 million people and expanding rapidly. The median age of 15 years is the lowest in the world. The birth rate of very nearly 6 children per woman is among the highest in the world.

In the colonial era Uganda was a British protectorate. It gained independence in 1962. Government since then has changed hands by military coup. The effectiveness of government has been reduced by internal armed conflict such as the civil war with the Lords Resistance Army.

The current president is Yoweri Kaguta Musaveni who gained power in 1986 after a six-year guerrilla war. Transparency International has rated the public sector as among the most corrupt in the world, an estimated $286 million US is siphoned off annually. Uganda provides one of the best cases for the suggestion that foreign aid is a process that takes money from poor people in rich countries and gives it rich people in poor countries.

The human rights situation is depressing, child labour is common, the police and armed forces are often accused of torture.

More than 40 languages are spoken, the main groups are Bantu, Nilotic and Sudanic. A couple of Kuliac languages are also spoken. English is the lingua franca in the south, Swahili and English serve the same purpose in the north.

For all the bad news it is a beautiful country. From dry savanna, through fertile agricultural land, dense forest to snow-capped mountains. The people are certainly tough but vibrant and industrious.

The place gets under your skin.