I land at Entebbe International Airport at 3 AM in pouring rain. It has been a smooth trip from Belgium (via Istanbul) and I have even managed a few hours sleep en route. I slip through immigration quickly, change some money and …. discover that Turkish Airlines have left my luggage (and about 20 other people’s) in Istanbul. The lost luggage desk people swear by all that’s holy that it will be here tomorrow and after some lengthy paper-work I finally exit to meet Joel, the driver from Lake Victoria View Guest-house who impatiently bundles me in to his car. Normally 10 minutes drive we take a bit longer as Joel is late for a pick-up to the airport. I don’t mind at all, I am happy to be back in Uganda, so we go in to Entebbe, pick up a worried traveller, go back to the airport and finally to the guesthouse. Still raining, and no sign of it stopping when I get up a few hours later for some breakfast and a first look around .

While I enjoy my Passion-fruit Juice and eggs on toast the rain comes to a sudden stop and the clouds lift. I take my coffe to the roof and watch a host of slightly wet birds of all colours and shapes come out of hiding. With the new tele-extension I have for my camera I hope to get good shots of some. Unfortunately something is not quite right with the camera and I can’t always get the focus on the birds perfect. It has to do with the settings and modes and throughout the trip I will struggle with it – finally finding a solution about one hour before sunset on my last day (of course). Still, Ugandan birds being so plentiful and not very shy (at least these ones) I manage something.

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From the roof you can also see the airport and, a bit later, I watch a Kenya Airways (“the Pride of Africa”) jet glide over Lake Victoria and land. In it should be Humphrey and Rupert from England, the first of our group to arrive. I know Humphrey from childhood family holidays, his friend Rupert, a keen ornithologist, I will be meeting for the first time. The plan is for the three of us to do some birdwatching in the Entebbe/Kampala area for a few days before the rest of the gang arrive and we head out to more remote areas.

Soon they arrive, and although I am eager to catch up with Humphrey after more than 40 years (how tall he has grown!) and to show Rupert all the birds in the garden, they have just completed a long-haul flight. They check in to their room and reappear acouple of hours later with field guide and binoculars ready for action. We settle in at the open-air dining room with Avocado-Mango Salad, Sandwiches and a Ugandan Pizza while various Starlings, Sunbirds, Palm-swifts and other birds provide the entertainment.

The weather is fine, the mood is good, so when Hamza from Mamaland Safaris turns up in a green mini-van we invite him for a coffee on the roof and later drive the short way to the lake-side Entebbe Botanical Gardens.

Hamza explains to me that he is not bird expert – Hilary , who was supposed to be our guide was shanghaied by a Spanish hard-core Birder’s Club for their safari. Herman, who was supposed to replace him was hit by a motorbike last week (yes – he’s ok, we will meet him soon) – so for now he (Hamza) will take care of all arrangements and we will take on local bird guides as and where needed. This should work fine – local knowledge is very helpful and it will be nice to meet some of Uganda’s thriving birdwatcher community.

First of these is Rafiki at the Botanical Gardens. This is a lovely place – 100-year old trees with lots of space between them, some bushy tangled bits, resulting in a high diversity of birds and good chances of actually seeing them. Rafiki knows the good spots, recognizes the calls and has sharp eyes. The birds are active and there is lots to see, even some monkeys (Vervets and Black-and-White Colobus). We get in to some identification issues (a greyish flycatcher – could it be a Dusky-blue? a small sunbird – Rafiki thinks it’s Northern Double-collared but that doesn’t quite fit – I later realise it must have been an Orange-tufted; fascinating stuff eh?). A couple of hours and many, many birds later we end up at the lake-side cafe for a cold Stoney (Ugandan Ginger-ale) and Kingfishers and Weaver-birds at sunset.

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Next day we leave Entebbe, our destination – Mabira Forest Reserve. To get their we have to pass Kampala. Hamza asks if I mind making a short detour via Mamaland’s office: he didn’t get there last night and the box of Belgian Chocolates I brought for Tony (owner of the company and a friend) is still in the car. Can’t be helped, I suppose, so in to Kampala we go (after a longish trip to the airport for my luggage which, as promised, has arrived). After delivering the chocolates to Anna, Tony’s wife (Tony is away with the Spanish birdwatchers) we get stuck in a horrendous traffic-jam in the downtown area. Rupert, who has a bit of cough, suffers the worst as Hamza drives up and down various side streets and finally finds a way out of the clouds of exhaust fumes. Finally on the Jinja road out of city we are then hit by a torrential downpour. Traffic slows down – you can hardly see the next car in front – and several lorries slide off the road. Herman (I told you we would meet him soon) calls from Mabira to ask what’s taking us so long – we are only about 15 Km away but it’s sunny and dry there!

Somehow we get there in the end. The Rain Forest Lodge is a treat after such a tough morning. I had expected something a bit fancy, maybe a bit on the tacky side. But this is real style. The rooms are huge, more like small apartments, finished beautifuly with local wood. Hidden away in the forest, you can sit on your terrace and watch birds in the trees. Or at least listen to them; as we enjoy another superb lunch we struggle to see any birds in the far away canopy. I have down-loaded bird-calls on to my phone; I’m beginning to remember some calls and now I get a response to playback of Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird. I am very pleased with that, but still no bird to be seen – just some Red-tailed Monkeys come to see if we might throw them some leftovers from lunch (we don’t – not supposed to and we ate it all anyway).

In the afternoon we meet up with Herman who is the local expert, and go for a walk (or a slight limp in Herman’s case, but he is well on the mend he assures me) in the forest around the lodge. He’s the real deal and starts sorting out all the calls for us – 3 different Tinker-birds, a baffling variety of Greenbuls and , not very far away, the soft hoot of a Hairy-breasted Barbet! Now I like Tinker-birds but Barbets (their larger cousins) are my BBs (Best Birds). Totally. I take them so seriously that until now it never even occured to me that this one (the H-bB) has a funny name. It’s also a particularly difficult one to find. We zero in on the tree it’s calling from and Herman points it out to us – somewhere up there in the canopy. Very difficult to see but eventually we all get reasonable glimpses of it hopping from one concealed position to another. Can’t say I saw the hairy breast, but good views of its spotty belly and yellow fringed wing feathers. That’s forest birding for you.

We carry on until dusk; along the road to the lodge the open space allows good views of Flycatchers, Thrushes, White-eyes and Greenbuls. We hear a Greater Sparrowhawk calling nearby but just can’t get an angle to see the tree the sounds are coming from – a pity, this large bird of prey is high on my wishlist. The birding has been challenging but I think my fellow travelers have had fun; I am delighted with the HbB and the almost Sparrowhawk.

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In the night rain comes again, a soft patter punctuated by the strange shrieks of the Tree Hyrax. Somewhere far off there is some music or is it gunfire? I didn’t sleep very well in spite of the luxorious room, nor did Rupert (feeling the effects of Kampala’s air pollution). However we are off early to a different patch of forest. We meet Herman in the parking lot of the Mabira Eco-tourism Project. The forest here is quite different – much denser, not as tall, probably what’s known as secondary forest. It’s quite chilly and wet after last night’s rain but shafts of sunlight are penetrating the dark interior as we set off with Herman in the lead and the friendly puppy from the parking lot told to stay there.

We can hear a lot of birds in the dense vegatation on all sides. Herman easily identifies the sounds, reeling off a long list of rare forest birds. Seeing them is another matter altogether. Except for Common Bulbuls and the ubiquitous Weyn’s Weaver all we seem to see are rustling leaves and a flick of a wing here and there. The big breakthrough comes while Herman is trying to entice a Robin-chat out of hiding with playback of it’s song. Rupert, who has wandered off a bit , spots a large bird of prey sitting in a tree. It’s a bit obscured but we can all see it, tearing at some unseen prey wedged in a fork. Crowned Eagle, Herman pronounces. It is indeed, I can see the short crest, long tail and even a glimpse of the reddish flanks. Probably having monkey for breakfast, top predator of the African forest.

After this our luck seems to change and we start to actually see the birds – Forest Robin, Bristlebills and Greenbuls, Negrofinches (or Negrittas for the politically correct). The star bird here is a tiny flycatcher called Jameson’s Wattle-eye. I expected it to be fairly easy to see – as other Wattle-eyes I have met have been. No such luck. We track the distinctive high-pitched calls of several of them – but these birds have a true talent for concealment. They move so quickly through the thick foliage that getting one’s binoculars on them is almost impossible. Only Rupert manages a decent view of one, I have to settle for micro-second glimpses. Another challenging session of forest birding (which Greenbul?) but rewarding too. A stunning male Narina Trogon gives us a nice show – bonus for all the hard work.

Back to the lovely lodge for a super lunch and it’s time for the dreaded drive back to Entebbe. This time however, we take the bypass + expressway and so it is almost a pleasant experience. We are back at Lake Victoria View in time for Beers and Stoney’s on the roof at sunset with Hadada Ibises and an African Hobby ( a Falcon).

We are up early again the next day. It’s wet and cold and I am worried there may be more rain coming. So I instruct everyone to bring all rain gear possible – and of course it soon clears up (it always works!).

We are off to look for the elusive giant Shoebill Stork and other wetland residents at Mbamba Swamp. Hamza hires a boat/canoe for us at the nearby ferry and we have a nice ride along the lake shore, discussing the identity of some Terns. Soon we enter the swamp and meet up with another boat parked alongside a mass of Water Hyacinth and other floating plants at the side of the channel. We meet Joseph our bird guide and ship over into the official birding canoe. “Are you ready to look for the Shoebill?” he asks – of course we are! He points to starboard (or port or whichever) and there it is – it’s been standing there patiently all the time, about 25 metres away! Not so elusive after all. Of course – why else would Joseph have chosen this spot to meet us? We dutifully admire and take photos of it and when the first boatload of visitors emerges from the swamp we set off for some more challenging birdwatching elswhere .

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We spend the next couple of hours drifting through Papyrus beds, patches of Water-Lilies and banks of reeds. Lots of nice birds (most of them easy to see ), including some rare ones – Marsh Tchagra, Lesser Jacana and Black Heron. I draw a blank on Papyrus Gonolek and Pygmy Goose – special target species for today – but couldn’t care less it is so nice out here on the water. We run in to our first Cisticolas – small brownish warblers; I usually more or less ignore them – there are so many species (page after page of them in the field guide) all looking almost the same. But they have a strange effect on Rupert. I already noticed at Mabira that the Greenbuls (another rather uniform and difficult group) interested him. But the Cisticolas are catnip for him (as Barbets are for me). Never mind Fish-eagles, Coucals, Pelicans and Ibises – these drab little fellows are what make him tick!

We head in to the landing – a busy little spot where eco-tourism, fishing and canoe transport all go hand in hand. Here we are to be handed over to another bird guide for a bit of a walk. While we wait for him to arrive (he is still out on a boat) we explore a bit on our own and pick up a couple of interesting warblers (was that a White-chinned Prinia?) and a swarm of stinging ants. After removing as many ants as we can from our clothes we meet Ismail, the new guide who takes us on a ramble through the mixed bush nearby.

There are birds everywhere – lots of Cisticolas for Rupert – and overhead large numbers of birds of prey are migrating. They are mostly common Buzzards with some Lesser-spotted Eagles mixed in – exactly the mix you would see in Israel about a month earlier. Of course I always knew these birds migrated to Africa but actually seeing them flying the same way, thousands of miles further on…

We wander around picking up Scrob-robins, Waxbills and Wood-doves, Pipits and Larks and, of course, Cisticolas. Finally we head back to the landing to eat our packed lunch and take the boat back to Entebbe .

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We have come to the end of our “Birding pre-tour” (as I named it in the program). We sit up on the roof at the guesthouse to relax (Humphrey), look through Cisticolas in the field-guide (Rupert) and watch the sky for Ethiopian Airlines (“The new Spirit of Africa”) flight 334 from Addis Ababa (me) – the rest of our party will be arriving any moment.

NEXT TIME: the wonders of Murchison Falls National Park, too many “briefings”and a suitcase goes walkabout. Coming soon