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Birding in Makera Forest, Rwanda... |
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Written by Jason Anderson
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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
Finally, through a very knowledgeable moto driver, on Monday 1st February, I managed to find the now-almost (to me at least) mythical forest of Makera, which I had been told about when I was still in the UK by one of the ORTPN guides at Birdfair International: `There is a small patch of gallery forest in Kirihe District'. Since then, I have been wondering how such a forest could exist in the comparatively dry south-east of Rwanda, and this had fuelled my curiosity to find it. An early start and a 70 minute moto ride north from Nyakarambi, we finally arrived at the forest, and I was surprised. Very near the Tanzanian border, it is in a shallow valley in an area of low population, with quite a lot of degraded acacia woodland nearby. However, Makera itself is right on the edge of the papyrus swamps that run along the Akagera River south of the Akagera National Park (GPS probably about 2°11'9.61"S+ 30°50'13.74"E). The forest is small, but, as promised, probably due to the permanent water close beneath the surface, it is thick, dominated by primary growth, verdant broadleaf woodland, swamp palms and those green yukka-like plants in the understorey, as in Buhanga (Does anyone know what they are called?).
I got a good 7 hours' birding in and around the forest. Inside the forest, things were quite quiet. A good population of Blue Monkeys soon turned up, and I found several of the species that are common in woodland tracts here in the east of Rwanda: Yellow-whiskered Greenbul (very common), Yellow-throated Greenbul, Grey Apalis, Paradise Flycatcher, Collared Sunbird, Eastern Black-headed Oriole, Lesser Honeyguide, etc. Nothing too unusual. The local forest `guard' turned up and insisted on accompanying me. However, after a couple of locals with bits of trees waltzed past, I managed, in broken Kinyarwanda combined with mime and sign-language, to explain that perhaps he'd better do more guarding of the forest; I wasn't a threat to the trees. He disappeared. Later in the day, I did find evidence of systematic deforestation. More of that in a separate blog…
As often happens with very thick woodland, the birding was rather more productive around the forest, with Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, White-crested Helmet-Shrike and a pair of lovely Slate-coloured Boubous, who duetted beautifully and posed for very nice photos, which I'll upload to ABID when I get the chance.
The most interesting birds of the day were a pair of unidentified Greenbuls that were busy in the understorey in the thicker, swampier part of the forest, associating with G-b Camaropteras and Paradise Flycatchers. The first impression was of Yellow-streaked Greenbul, but they didn't match up to birds I've observed well in Nyungwe (indeed, the same subspecies would be very unlikely here). My field notes: `white-throat, pale belly, russet tail, browny-grey head, weak pale superilium, small bill same colour as head, white on wings – alula (only slight mark)'. I also noted the contact call, fairly frequent and similar in timbre and pitch to a Song Thrush in the UK. Looking through Stevenson and Fanshawe that evening, I did muse on the possibility of these birds being White-throated Greenbul, but that species has not yet been recorded in Rwanda, so much better views / photos would be necessary to confirm. I wonder if anyone (I suspect only Claudien has visited Makera?) has been there and seen a similar greenbul. Anyway, this definitely warrants a return visit to try to find out more. Next time I'll take my strongest mosquito repellent. On returning to Kibungo I counted 48 mosquito bites on my ankles from day flying (hades?) mosquitoes!!
Jason Anderson
» 2 Comments
1Comment
at Monday, 08 February 2010 13:40
sounds like you did indeed find a magical bit of forest, Jason, great stuff!
2Comment
at Tuesday, 09 February 2010 08:23
oh wow Jason! please let us know about your mystery Greenbul! and yes... mosquito repellant sounds like a damn good idea! LOL
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