10-13 Nov 2019: Nyungwe in the Rain

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape?

John Milton

The rain has given me time to write a few blogs, but that is the only positive thing to say about it from a birding point of view. It has been raining intermittently for four whole days. My feet are cold and wet, and strange web-like things are growing between my toes. My shoes are smelling like week-old bad breath and my clothing is covered in mud – the result of various falls and unintended slides down mountain sides.

Birding has been extremely difficult, most of the time has been spent hiding from the rain under the canopy of the forest. Birds also hide from the rain, and when a bird is finally tracked down it is nearly impossible to id due to the ghostly mist and bad light. This was really gorillas in the mist country – but I think even Dian Fossey would have been tempted to give it up as a bad job.

A new guide - Christopher, tried his very best, but with limited success. Daniel, a young birder from Sweden, also joined me for three days as we traversed the forest paths looking for three target birds: Red-collared Mountain Babbler, Doherty’s Bushshrike and Stripe-breasted Tit. We were not successful in this endeavour. On the second rainy day, somewhere in the deep forest, two very wet Rwenzori Turacos sailed past and flashed their bloodshot wings at us – a new tick for the year list. The third day a not-so-handsome Handsome Francolin was spotted while having lunch on the veranda of the Uwinka Overlook centre. I did not complain about this easy armchair tick. The third bird for the year list, after four days of extreme birding, was a very obliging Red-throated Alethe that took a long moment to inspect and pity us before disappearing into the forest.

The rain forced us to pack up early on the morning of the 13th after another unsuccessful venture into the forest. Wet clothing and shoes were thrown into the back of the safari vehicle as Hime and myself headed north along the shore of Lake Kivu to the Volcano National Park. That evening I met a local bird guide in Musanze and after a discussion realised that there was very little chance of finding my target birds in that area. And still the rain kept pouring down… The next morning we headed east to Kigali, hopefully to blue skies and new birds for the year list.