UGANDA 2025: MABAMBA BAY

 July 19, 2025

Our first activity in Uganda was a trip to Mabamba Bay (perhaps more accurately called by some Mabamba Swamp), but first we enjoyed a very nice breakfast in the lodge. We had a beautiful view out the windows. The lodge is located on 40 acres of indigenous forest adjacent to the Mabamba Wetlands, so it is a prime location for birding enthusiasts.

I don't think Bob finished breakfast before he was outside with the other birders and their cameras, and Ella was not far behind him. The were photographing two black and white hornbills.

Here is a closer shot. Bob had put together a camera and lens for Ella to use on this trip from some of his extra equipment, hoping she would join him in his bird photography habit and to give her something to do. She seemed to enjoy it. She is in the blue shirt on the far left, and Bob is two people in from her in blue shirt and dark pants. 

There is a lot of interesting wildlife at Nkima Forest Lodge, some less pleasant than others. Ella spotted this creepy triangle-shaped spider. If Google Images has it right, this is a spiny-backed orb weaver spider, and it isn't dangerous (just huge). 

There are also lots of monkeys on the grounds, but I'll talk about them in a later post.

We left at about 8:20 for a boat ride on the bay/swamp. Our cute granddaughter told us she would love to see a shoebill. How she knew about shoebills is anyone's guess.

We pushed off with Wilson as our guide and another man at the helm.

The banks were covered in papyrus sedge, the plant used to create scrolls for writing on and where the word "paper" comes from.

There were also lots of water lilies . . . 

. . . which made me think of Monet's Water Lilies, although he certainly didn't see his lilies in Mabamba Swamp.

Happy passengers:

We were seeing lots of birds, like this egret, and very few other boats.

Then Wilson spotted what we most wanted to see: a shoebill stork. It was not very close to us, but close enough that we could zoom in and get some good photos.

Originally considered part of the stork family--and hence its name--it is now aligned with pelicans. They are huge birds--up to 5 feet tall and with a wingspan as much as 8 feet 6 inches. Its distinguishing feature is its disproportionately large (and rather comical) pink and gray bill. They are one of the weirdest-looking birds I have ever seen.

Wilson told us this particular shoebill is one of the oldest ones in the swamp. He recognized it by a tag we could not see that was placed on it when it was treated for an injury.  In the 15-20 minutes we watched and photographed it, we didn't see it move. Maybe it was a decoy!

Other birds that I got photos of with my cell phone include the following:

White-faced whistling duck

Reed cormorant

Hadada ibis

Bob's photos, taken with his humongous lens, are much better than my cell phone photos.  To see the gamut of what we saw in the swamp, see his post here.