Thu, Jul 5 - Birding the Royal Mile

It was heavily overcast when  we assembled for breakfast at 6 AM.  We took off at 6:45 and drove for 1.5 hours through villages, past schools with students in colorful uniforms pouring in  - different colors every half mile it seems, and onward into a sugar cane area.  The cane fields go on forever, and tightly packed trucks of workers were pulling in and unloading for the day’s cutting.

Kids in school uniforms going to school by the cane fields

We entered a natural area and picked up a guide, went through a gate, and parked.  Ahead of us was the Royal Mile, a wide dirt road, quite straight for 2.5 km lined with huge buttressed trees.  The jungle underbrush which creates an impenetrable wall of vegetation was cleared to about 20 feet on either side creating a broad boulevard.  This was part of the King Omykama of Bunyoro’s lands and is now a park and a famous birding spot, partly because one can see the birds of the dense rainforest in a somewhat open area.  Unfortunately, as it was overcast and threatened rain, the birds were very quiet and the ones we did see were small silhouettes against the grey sky and difficult for Bob and me, at least, to see.  We did see Colobus,  Red-tailed, and Blue monkeys, however, and there are supposed to be 700 chimps in residence.

The Royal Mile

It started to rain at 12:30 and we all piled into one van and the box lunches were passed out.  They consisted, this time, of a piece of fried chicken, a tomato/cheese sandwich with precious little filling, and a bag of fruit including a very messy but incredibly sweet chunk of pineapple.   

It cleared a bit after lunch and we picked up a few bird species, but it began raining again and we finally left at 4:30, and started back to our hotel.  We stopped to walk through a farmer’s field consisting of corn, cassava (or manioc or tapioca), sweet potatoes and “Irish” (white potatoes), and got some nice sightings of red and black Bishops.  

Metal-working Shop and Roasted Corn Vendor

Bed Frame Shop

We arrived at the hotel at 6:05 and had until seven to get to dinner.   We met in the Reception for some Nile beers and the others did the List while Sandra and I caught up on our email with the weak wifi there is here.