Taking flight: why the sky’s the limit for a women’s birding club in Uganda

‘We are here to break male dominance in the field of birding,’ says Judith Mirembe, chair of the Uganda Women Birders Club. All photos by Badru Katumba/The Guardian Photograph: Badru Katumba/The Guardian

On a Sunday morning on the shores of Lake Victoria, the cars and motorbikes arriving from Entebbe are laden with fishing gear. The minibuses – matatus – full of market women and their big brown sacks of snacks and goods for sale follow closely behind. All whisk past a thin strip of grass that separates the lake from the asphalt.

It is here that the boda boda motorcycle taxis drop off keen birdwatchers, where century-old trees and vegetation make the perfect home for some of Uganda’s 1,100 bird species.