Month by month
Queen Elizabeth in September
September doubles August's rainfall and opens the best birding stretch of the year. Those two facts are connected, and they are the reason to come this month.
If you only want the answer
September averages 103 mm over eight rain days, double August's 53 mm and still well under October's 241 mm. It is the month the Palearctic waders, gulls and terns start arriving, which makes it the opening of the migrant season on top of a resident list of over 600 species. Prices are still at their high-season level.
Queen Elizabeth weather in September: the climb back towards the October peak
One hundred and three millimetres over eight rain days puts September squarely on the rising edge of the second wet peak. August was 53 mm, September is 103 mm, October is 241 mm. In three months the park goes from its shoulder to its second wettest month of the year.
Afternoons warm to 28.3 degrees, the third highest average of the year, which is the last of the heat before November brings the coolest days at 26.6. The tracks are still holding from the June and July window and have not yet taken the October soaking, so the driving in September is better than the rainfall total suggests.
The migrants arrive
Large numbers of Palearctic waders, gulls and terns arrive in the protected area between September and April, so this is the month the bird list expands. It expands from an already exceptional base: over 600 recorded species, the longest list of any protected area in Uganda, a claim traced to Byaruhanga, Kasoma and Pomeroy in 2001 and one of the few park superlatives that holds up under checking. The protected area carries more than half of all bird species recorded in Uganda.
The wetlands on the north shore of Lake George, 250 square kilometres of them, have been a Ramsar site since 1988. They are listed as habitat for the shoebill, and UWA reports in the same document that the birds formerly seen in the Lake George basin have probably moved on, based on irregular sightings over the preceding decade. Do not build a September trip around that one species. Build it around the volume: cormorant colonies roosting in Maramagambo and commuting to Lake George, Lake Edward and the channel, and migrating flamingos on the Kyambura salt crater lakes.
Still high season, and worth it for the right visitor
September is the last month of the high season at both Ishasha Wilderness Camp and Elephant Plains, which each end theirs after this month before December picks it up again. So you are paying peak rates on 103 mm of rain, which is a poor trade for someone who wants classic dry-season game viewing and a good one for someone who wants birds.
The activity prices themselves do not move with the season. Birding and day walks are $25 per person, a night walk is $50, and a night drive is $30 per person in your own vehicle with a UWA guide, which is compulsory for a night drive and restricted to visitors sleeping inside the park. One inconsistency worth knowing: the summary table at the back of the tariff booklet omits the night drive line for Queen Elizabeth while listing it for Murchison Falls, Kidepo and Lake Mburo, so confirm at the gate.