Visiting Semuliki national park in the rainy season

Visiting Semuliki national park in the rainy season: Located in western Uganda Bundibudgyo district, Semuliki national park is one of the most visited parks in the region. The national park was gazetted as a forest reserve in 1932 and later upgraded to a national park in 1993. Semuliki national park hosts 435 bird species, 448 butterfly species, 53 mammals, and 9 primates which have attracted different tourists from different parts of the world.

Semuliki national park all throughout the year is open for tourism activities meaning that tourists can visit whenever they can. The rainy season in Semuliki national park happens from March to May and October to November and tourists are always welcome. This season attracts a few tourists simply because of the bad weather that is characterized by too much rainfall and plenty of sunshine.

The weather is the main challenge faced by tourists who visit Semuliki national park during the rainy season. Plenty of rainfall does affect most of the park activities especially when it rains during the day. The nature walks are always muddy and slippery while the vegetation is tall with unclear views of some of the park animals.

Visiting Semuliki national park in the rainy season

best activities can tourists do in Semuliki during the rainy season

Bird watching in semuliki

Over 435 bird species live in Semuliki national park making it one of the best birding destinations in western Uganda. Bird watching in Semuliki national park is best done in the rainy season for different reasons. One of the reasons why birding is good in the rainy season is that there is plenty of food for birds in the park and the other is that lots of migratory birds are present in the park.

Bird watching in Semuliki in the rainy season will give bird lovers an opportunity to see birds like Shoebill stork, grey crowned crane, white thighed hornbill, piping hornbill, black and white casqued hornbill, black casqued hornbill, little stint, common sandpiper, three-banded plover, little egret, long-crested eagle, palmnut vulture, olive sunbird, white crested hornbill, red-tailed greenbul, joyful greenbul, violet backed starling, African pied hornbill, wood sandpiper, spur winged lawping.

African thrush, grey kestrel, rufous flycatcher thrush, African harrier hawk, mountain buzzard, lizard buzzard, fire crested alethe, green white eye, black-winged stilt, brown snake eagle, chestnut capped flycatcher, wahlberg’s eagle, African sacred ibis, olive bellied sunbird, lesser stripped swallow, African palm swift, cattle egret, yellow-breasted forest robin, barn swallow, grey-backed fiscal, and pin tailed whydah among others.

Other activities to do in Semuliki national park during the rainy season

Nature walks

Tourists can do nature walk activities in Semuliki national park even during the rainy season times. The walking trails tend to be sleepy but tourists still access most of the park areas. Nature walks within Semuliki are a best way of getting close to nature where you see the different attractions of the park.

Tourists who will do nature walks in Semuliki national park will be guided by armed ranger guides. The guides take tourists to different parts of the park where they meet different park mammals, primates, birds, plants, and water sources among others. Nature walks such as red-tailed monkey trail, Mugiri river trail, Kirumia trail, and Sempya trail are used.

Cultural tours

Semuliki national park is surrounded by different cultural groups of people but the most loved are the Batwa pgymies. They are famous for having stayed in the jungle together with animals until they were evicted out by the Uganda Wildlife Authority to create enough space for animals. When they got evicted, they were given land near the park where they currently stay in Boma and Ntandi villages.

During safaris in Semuliki national park in the rainy season, tourists can take a visit to the Batwa villages in their free time. It’s from their home where you get an opportunity to know a little about them and what they do for a living. A local guide takes tourists to the batwa where they are welcomed by traditional dancers. Tourists are taken to different homes to interact with the locals and elders are present to tell stories of long ago.

Hot springs in Semuliki national park

Hot springs are some of the attractions that have made Semuliki national park famous. A few parks have hot springs and Semuliki is one of them. Tourists can visit these hot springs at any time of the year even in the rainy season. A trip to the hot springs is led by an armed ranger guide and their role is to tell you how these hot springs come up. He also tells you different information about the national park.

Butterfly watching

Do you love butterfly watching and you are planning to visit Semuliki national park in the rainy season? Well, the activity is possible throughout the year including the rainy season. Semuliki national park is the best area for butterfly watching for it has a total of 448 butterflies so far recorded.

During butterfly watching in Semuliki national park, tourists will be able to see butterfly species such as bicyclus, euphaedra alacris, euphaedra hollandi, aletis helcita, catuna crithea, cymothoe Cyclades, blue monarch, euphaedra rattrayi, bicyclus alboplagus, pikachu moth, mulberry hawkmoth, savanna pathfinder, African caper, cucumber moth, charaxes fulvescens, charaxes pollux, small black bush brown, bicyclus mollitia.

Tailed bush brown, fulvous hawk, blue diadem butterfly, square winged red charaxes, euphaedra hybrida, hill bush brown, boisduval’s tree nymph, common ginger white, dark yellow forest sylph, rhipidarctia crameri, Bethune baker’s bush brown, common palm forester, simple orange forester, marcipalina umbrosa, chirinda bush brown, amata marina, gregori’s brown pansy, and haritalodes polycymalis among others.