9 Nov 2019: Nyungwe – The Umuyove Trail

The Umuyove trail at the Uwinka Outlook centre was as disappointing as yesterday’s Kamiranzovu trail was thrilling and gratifying. At first it seemed as if all the birds had left for other pastures and we were slogging through a forest devoid of birdlife. About the only calls we heard for the first hour of birding was a troop of L’Hoests Monkeys (with their priestly white collars) mocking us from high in the canopy. An intermittent drizzle made life all the more interesting- Africa is not for wimps!

Bar-tailed Trogon, Nyungwe Forest

Things began to look up by mid-morning when an Equatorial Akalat decided to show itself for a brief moment and a Bar-tailed Trogon posed for a photo. Thereafter we worked hard to find Banded Prinia, Rwenzori Hill Babbler and Purple-breasted Sunbird. A male Pink-footed Puffback gleaned leaves in the canopy – a species I had last seen in the Kumbira Forest in Angola. We commenced with some serious spishing and soon enough we were enjoying good views of the Mountain Masked Apalis, African Yellow White-eye and Red-faced Woodland Warbler. Brief glimpses of the skulking Strange Weaver meant that I had to find it three or four times before I was 100% confident of my id and could tick it on my year list. Grauer’s Warbler was heard in the deep forest, but we had to wait for the following day before we could entice an individual to show itself.

A quick siesta at the guesthouse was followed by a birding session at the administrative offices of the park. The flowers in the garden hosted numerous sunbirds – we rapidly ticked Bronzy Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Northern Double-collared Sunbird, Scarlet-chested Sunbird and Collared Sunbird before another Albertine special made its appearance – the large Rwenzori Double-collared Sunbird. While birding the productive forest and tea plantation edges we found Kungwe Apalis, Brown-capped Weaver, Bar-tailed Trogon, Brown-throated Wattle-eye, Baglafecht Weaver and Fawn-breasted Waxbill. This brought my Rwanda bird count to 65 birds, of which 25 were newly added to my African Big Year list which now stood at 1432 birds. The target of 1500 birds was fast approaching, but so also the end of the year… To paraphrase Cecil John Rhodes: “So little time, so many birds to do.” Oops, no. That could be construed as sexist. Let me rephrase - “So little time, so many birds still to see.” (And I would like to see many more birds of the feathered variety as well).