[Tweeters] Second Review of Cisticola Tours trip to Tanzania and Uganda

[Gary A Kelsberg]

I’m forwarding Dave Galvin’s (Seattle Audubon Master Birder) review of the three weeks in Tanzania and Uganda that five of us (Dave, Mary Sue, Amy, Sarah and me) returned from last week. I have had several questions about this trip from tweeters readers so I thought more information would be useful.
“ I wish to further endorse Gary Kelsberg’s post regarding our recent trip to East Africa, via Cisticola Tours.  We spent almost three weeks between Tanzania and Uganda, with incredible local guides via Cisticola, and tallied more than 500 species of birds and three dozen mammals, including the usual tourist hits of lions, elephants, zebras, wildebeest, giraffes and warthogs, as well as huge numbers of local birds, from ostrich to many unique raptors to many species of lapwings, kingfishers, storks, ibis, hornbills, rollers, bee-eaters, sunbirds, weavers, and the variously-named bush-shrikes, robin-chats, gonoleks, bulbuls and beyond that make up such a unique East African birdlife this time of year.  We even put our eyes and ears on 14 species of Cisticola, the lark-like genus that reminded me of my own challenges to sort out Epidonax flycatchers!

I highly endorse using CISTICOLA Tours, Ltd., as the best local set of guides who know birds as well as the more sought after large mammals.  Our four guides between our two country trips were excellent in every aspect:  expert birders, great wildlife-knowledgeable guides beyond birds, great knowledge of local culture and geography, and great people-people.  I highly recommend this group for this combination of skills, knowledge and personal service.

Encountering 500 species of birds mostly new to us westerners was for me like drinking out of a fire hose.  Yet our guides were ever-helpful, focusing in on what we needed to see, and never veering from assurance that we all got to see what we needed to see.

Go to East Africa to see birds and wildlife and to support eco-tourism (especially in Uganda, the country with the most species of birds in all of Africa, which needs this economic help desperately).  You can’t go wrong via CISTICOLA Tours, Ltd: www.cisticolatours.com<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cisticolatours.com__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!gbQr1P5Hnhq6GKUdumxVuzlz5PIBxbgjlGSUxmpoV74gNBqB_4041BaufjRSBw7EWUbwOeTT8w9QGe4c85DigWJW$> .

— Dave Galvin”
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