MADAMBA SWAMP

 

Shoebill

safari - n

1. an overland journey or hunting expedition, especially in Africa
2. any recreational journey or expedition

3. the people, animals, etc, that go on the expedition

Origin?  C19th: from Swahili: journey, from Arabic safarīya, from safara to travel

Today our safari began: leaving Entebbe via boats enroute to Madamba Swamp. Here we traded down to smaller vessels which were steered, pushed, poled, pulled, heaved through smaller and smaller waterways and, indeed, where there was little water as we searched for our first target species: the Shoebill.

Very happy to say that we were ultimately successful in our venture! Thanks to the incredible efforts of our boatman, who, on our behalf, would not give up.

poor shots of Spot throated Otters - seen from our boat before departing Entebbe

Grey Heron

Pied Kingfisher

Black Crake

African Jacana

Little Egret

Dragonfly sp?

Malachite Kingfisher

The exit from the waters was also dramatic. An equatorial storm descending. A brief excited view of a rare swamp antelope named the Sitatunga. [The boatman were yelling Sitatunga as the antelope bounded above the eye line out of the swamp but most were blissfully unaware that Sitatunga was an animal and thought they were yelling about the darkening clouds....]

a bothering of boats

Drew Matthews celebrating birding success

Storm is a coming....

We reached the shore. Toileted. Piled in our Toyotas and the heavens opened! We needed to do our first four wheeling to round a fallen tree that had blocked the road. Easy!

In between times we crossed the equator.

Next stop? A one night stay at a lodge near Lake M'Buro National Park. 

MADAMBA SWAMP:

Mabamba is an extensive marsh stretching through a long narrow bay, fringed with papyrus Cyperus papyrus towards the main body of Lake Victoria. Miscanthus and Cyperus species dominate, but there is a narrow open water channel and a small patch of water-lilies Nymphaea. There are also areas of sedge Cladium, and sometimes drifting papyrus swamp islands. The Bay forms part of Waiya Bay, south-west of Nakiwogo Bay; these are all to the west of Entebbe International Airport. This IBA is one of the best marshy areas along the northern shores of Lake Victoria.

There has been no detailed inventory of the bay and its associated swamps, but one has now begun. However, a recent study of waterbirds of Lake Victoria revealed the presence of several species of conservation interest. This is the closest place to Kampala where Balaeniceps rex are regularly seen. The surrounding communities have reported breeding, and the young are sometimes collected by local people to be raised and eventually sold. This has not been very successful because of the specialized feeding habits of the birds, and as they grow they become expensive to feed. Balaeniceps rex feeds primarily on lungfish Protopterus aethiopicus, which is also prized by the local community. Balaeniceps rex is regularly recorded in pairs and threes in the marsh at Nakiwogo, c.2 km north-east of Mabamba Bay.

Ken Cross

All pictures Ken Cross