Uganda Gallery
Tag: wildlife
Finding the Lions
Lions are a big deal around Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of the reliable places to see them. A couple well known prides maintian territories that are quite accessible to the safari tours, making the park a must for the usual package safari tours.
These typical tours advertise a three or five day tour of Uganda’s wildlife, making a whirlwind tour of western Uganda and the various parks. They may stop at Bwindi NP to view the gorillas, Kibale NP for the chipanzees, and Queen Elizabeth NP for the lions.
Perusing the many online safari advertisements it becomes apparent that top billing in Uganda goes to the gorillas, nearly every tour package highlighting the primates. Gorillas may be the goal of foreign travelers, but for local tourists, most from Uganda or other East African countries, it is the lions they come to see. For those who grew up here it is the lions that hold the fascination and mystique.
Continue reading “Finding the Lions”Even the Starlings are Pretty
While the big game such as elephants, lions, and hippos, get the attention on an African safari, the birds deserve top billing as well.
The birds are amazing. From large, dramatic species like crowned cranes and hamerkops, to the small colorful sunbirds, there is an amazing richness to encounter in the African wilds.
There is only so many times you can take a photo of a lion or hippo. Between those big game encounters there are half a dozen birds to be viewed and photographed. From the delicate pin-tailed whydah to a wheeling flock of white-backed vultures, check out the birds.
Continue reading “Even the Starlings are Pretty”To the End of The Road
There is only so much road to explore and we explored most of it.
Yakutat, like so many Alaskan communities is accessed only by sea or by air. Not to say there are no roads, they just do not go anywhere else, much less connect to the road network that crosses the continent.
In the case of Yakutat the furthest you can get from town is about 26 miles as the crow flies taking the road to Dangerous River and Harlequin Lake. This road is a well maintianed gravel road heavily used to access popular fly fishing rivers and hunting areas, as well as by loggers harvesting the local hemlock and sitka spruce.
Continue reading “To the End of The Road”Alaskan Summer
About the time you read this we should have cast off lines and left the Juneau area. The plan is to spend some time exploring the Glass Peninsula and Seymour Canal, an area we have often skipped past on our way south from Juneau. We have reservations for access to the bear viewing area at Pack Creek. Stay tuned for plenty of photos of grizzly bears fishing.
With any luck we will be back in a week. Hopefully the cats are OK with the house sitters. Hopefully the fish makes it back still frozen. And maybe I will not get eaten by a bear.
Inside Passage from Andrew Cooper on Vimeo
Hakalau Wildlife Refuge Open House
Hakalau is a place I love to visit… Stunningly beautiful native forest high on the side of Mauna Kea. A place where the calls of native birds form a chorus in the treetops. The refuge holds an open house once each year, always great to attend. We have done so three times now, taking advantage of a day when volunteers and guides are on hand to teach you about this special place. Normally held in October, the 2013 open house was a victim of the government shutdown. They were forced to cancel the event, but the staff and volunteers made the effort to reschedule and open for Earth Day this year.
Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge encompasses more than 32,000 acres of forest high on the windward side of Mauna Kea. The koa and ʻōhiʻa forest is a refuge for the native birds that are endemic to the island. Staff and volunteers have spent decades slowly restoring the forest in an effort to preserve a little native habitat so that so many species, avian, insect and plant, may have a small place to survive.
We began with a birding hike. Multiple guides were departing the barn area with groups in tow. Heading down a rough track we followed into the rich koa and ʻōhiʻa forest. Bird calls echo from tree to tree, soon we spot many of the birds that are rare elsewhere, but relatively common here. The wild Hawaiian raspberries have had a good winter, I found a few ripe berries to sample, nice flavor if a bit tart.
Iʻiwi, ʻapapane, and a courting pair of ʻelepaio were caught in our binoculars. We did not see the Hawaiian creeper, but we heard them. I really need to drill myself on the calls sometime, birding in Hawaiʻi is an audible exercise as much as visual. Twice we saw ʻio pass overhead, and a nene was to be seen along the road. A good day birding in the forest. One of the guides, a National Park Service ranger, pointed out one of the native lobelias, a plant called Hāhā, by the Hawaiians.
One of the mints was believed extinct until on plant was found on the Hamakua coast. Later, when biologists went to examine this plant again they found it had been killed by wild pigs rooting about. Fortunately cuttings had been successfully propagated at the nursery and the many descendants are doing well. For now the plant is extinct in the wild, but that may change if it can be reintroduced.
A couple of the volunteers related tales of trouble… Gear stolen, fences cut, a general antipathy for the refuge mission from some segments of the community, particularly pig hunters. I have encountered the same mindset myself on occasion… A feeling that one can take and take from the environment and never give back, that the resource is endless. I have met those who believe any restriction, however minor, is an affront to their entitlement to hunt or take whatever they need. Some locals seem to have forgotten the old lessons of resource management that the ancient Hawaiians knew so well. Today is is not that aliʻi who make the rules, it is wildlife managers that set the kapu. At least modern enforcement is not at the sharp end of an ihe.
While there may be some who do not believe in the refuge goals, support from other segments of the community is strong. The volunteer program racks up thousands of hours each year, a dedicated crew that puts in long days of planting native species and removing the harmful invasives. The success of their work can be seen in the lush forest teeming with bird-life. They have created a special place that is a pleasure to visit, eve if they open the doors only once each year.