Monthly Archives: October 2022
Butterflies of Kibale National Park
Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — When we got back to the wood road from our Chimpanzee Trek in Kibale National Forest we had a longish wait for our vehicle (our guide was taking the opportunity to wash and clean the Land Cruiser). Fortunately we had at least 14 species of butterflies to entertain us…or at least I was entertained by them. The true birders in the group pretty much sat on the ground and watched for birds. I do not know the butterflies of Maine as well as I should, and I know the butterflies of Uganda and East Africa not at all! I had no hope of identifying these butterflies but I did find an excellent publication on the Butterflies of Kibale National Park, available as a download PDF, this morning while doing a bit of research and I should be able to ID these and most of the others. Consider this a teaser. My intention is to come back to this post with IDs over the next few days as I have time to dig out the names. 🙂 All shots with the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos, and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO was all over the place, from 2500 (with multi-frame noise reduction on) for the shots on the ground to 100 for the shots on the sunny foliage @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Chimpanzee edition: baby!
Even when the chimpanzees came down lower, they were still high enough in the tree and up against the light behind the canopy to make photography difficult. Still, this youngster and mom were interesting to watch as he clambered around on her lap. Sony Rx10iv at 547mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 5000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Hairy-breasted Barbet
Hairy-breasted Barbet (Streaky-throated): Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — There is evidently some variation in the Hairy-breasted Barbet over its range. This is clearly the Streaky-throated variety (Tricholaema hirsuta [flavipunctata Group]). It is yet another Ugandan bird with a disjointed range on the West Coast of Africa and then nothing until Uganda, and pretty much restricted to Uganda. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1EV.
Chimpanzee edition: first of a few!
Chimpanzee: Kibale National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Chimp trekking at Kibale is always a mixed blessing. After a longish hike, up and down and around, off-trail, bushwhacking through rainforest, (both times I have done this I have gotten the feeling that the guides go out of their way, literally, to make it a trek…that they know right where the chimps are at any given time. but are determined to make every hike in an adventure!) we got to the chimps to find a large group of noisy tourists already there before us…which included the inevitable half-dozen pushy photographers with their long lenses and sense of entitlement, and, the chimps high in the trees, just furry back things way up there. There was one old gentleman chimp…probably the dominant male…taking his ease under the trees. He was surrounded, of course, by photographers trying to line up the perfect shot. I hung back, so as not to trod on anyone, and shot over their heads through the gaps in the undergrowth. All in all, anyone could be forgiven for being disappointed. However, we waited, and soon enough those who had come before us moved off, back up the considerable hill toward the road. We were left alone under the chimps. And they began to come down, moving from their high perches to somewhere else up the hill in the same direction the tourists had gone. They were in no hurry, and several paused just above us. We have several real moments with the chimps. That was enough to redeem the experience for me. I count my blessings. Those moments were worth it. Of course we then had the trek out, but there were lots of butterflies waiting for us on the road, to entertain us while we waited to be picked up. Enough for me. This young male gave me one of my moments, and I am thankful. Sony Rx10iv at 277mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ 4 @ 1/320th and 1/400th.
Western Nicator
Western Nicator: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — Birds of East Africa says the Nicators are common, but difficult to see in well grown forest and rainforest at mid-elevations of East Africa. This one indeed played hard to get in the little patch of remnant forest on the Bigodi Birding walk. Like many East African Birds, the Western Nicator has a range further west in Africa along the Atlantic coast, and then a disjunct range mostly in Uganda. (Nicator, by the way, seems to mean victor or conquer in some ancient language, though I could be wrong about that.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
African Hawk-Eagle
African Hawk-Eagle: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — We saw this bird in a distant perch on our way out of the Bigodi Community Birding walk. We worked our way slowly closer (but never very close), but there was still active debate among our three local guides as to what it was. The consensus eventually was African Hawk-Eagle. It is actually an Accipitor, like our Cooper’s Hawk, but larger, and (now that I know that) it definitely has that Accipitor look. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 and 6.3 @ 1/1000th.
Green Crombec
Green Crombec: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — The Crombecs are the unfinished birds. No one gave them a tail. (They do however seem to get along just fine without one.) There are several possible Crombecs in Uganda. We saw three species, but I only got photos of this one. 🙂 (And maybe another…the jury is still out on that one.) They can be hard to photograph as they are more often heard than seen…and they are not very big. Sony Rx10iv at 573mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. With foliage background: ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th. Silhouetted: ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. Plus 1.7EV for backlight.
Brown Throated Wattle-eye
Brown-throated Wattle-eye: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — I posted another image of this bird in August while I was still in Uganda, but it deserves another post! This is the male of the species, which is named for the brown throat on the female bird…and that bright red wattle on both sexes. For a supposedly very common bird, I don’t see many in Uganda. One sighting in 2019 and just the one pair in 2022. Always happy to see one, of course. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Grey-green Bushshrike
Grey-green Bushshrike: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — This is the smallest and oddest looking of the African Bushshrikes…so much so that you would be forgiven for thinking it is not a Bushshrike. 🙂 Also these photos are more about the bird than the photos. The bird was distant, the light was bad…I had to enlarge the images considerably to get usable scale. Still, it is a good bird! It was, until recently, called Bocage’s Bushshrike. (There also seems to be some debate whether it is Bush-shrike or Bushshrike? I am going with eBird here.) The Grey-green Bushshrike is found mostly in Uganda with isolated populations further west in central Africa, and one small population just into Kenya. (This is a bird that Wikipedia has practically no information on??) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos.
Lizard Buzzard
Lizard-Buzzard: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — Again, not great light, but this little Lizard Buzzard sat nicely for us in a window in the foliage. In North America, a buzzard is something quite different, of course, in Europe it is the name given to Buteo Hawks (our Red-tailed Hawk would be Red-tailed Buzzard in Europe). The Lizard Buzzard is totally misnamed, as it is actually an Accipiter (like our Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned Hawks)…and, while lizards are on the menu, it eats way more grasshoppers and terminates by bulk, and small rodents by mass, than it does lizards. Ah well, it is still an interesting little raptor. Sony Rx10iv at 526mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1.7EV for the heavy backlight.