Let’s get it straight: normally I’m not a bird enthusiast, I never go birdwatching at home, although I’m very fond of the blackbirds and little tits that come to our garden. I just like birds without being overly excited or knowing anything much about them.

But when you are surrounded by the most gorgeous birds of different sizes almost all the time, then I admit that I turn into a bird lover (but I still wouldn’t qualify as an enthusiast).

This happened in Uganda.

And it started already on the very first morning, when we stopped by Lake Victoria in Entebbe before heading west. On the pier, having a quiet morning stroll and looking around, was a marabou stork. Not that it is exactly gorgeous (and I often wonder how come a Swedish chocolate manufacturer chose Marabou as its name and the stork as its logo), but it is an impressive creature nonetheless.

Just some examples of what we saw while on the road:

After my first gorilla tracking (see blog post The unexpected time keeper) I sat down on my very pleasant veranda in Mahogany Springs Lodge. Of course I had noticed the beautiful flowers just in front of my room, but now I saw that these flowers attracted lots of birds. I could just sit comfortably outside my room, enjoy the show and take photos. That’s what I call birding!

A few days later, on a small island in Lake Bunyonyi, lazy me was again lucky to be able to admire spectacular bird life from the comfort of a chair while having a cup of coffee.

Although I know the name of most of the birds here above, there are a few that I’m not sure of, so I prefer not to mention any at all so as not to make a fool of myself 🙂

So which was my favourite bird? Actually none of these! It is a secret I will keep for my next blog post.