Echoes from the Wild: In the Quiet of the Reeds
Words & Images by Lona Downs
For those who might one day walk this path…
The Shoebill.
Elusive by nature, and increasingly rare due to its shrinking habitat and declining population.
Everyone said you could just see one in a zoo.
But I didn’t want that.
I didn’t want to see it behind a barrier—far from its world.
I wanted to find him in his own space.
A still stare from the reeds—intense, present, undisturbed.
So we landed in Uganda—jet-lagged and hopeful—and headed straight to a swamp.
Just my husband, a guide, and me in a long wooden canoe.
It was a quiet morning. Reed-choked.
The kind of place where you listen more than you speak.
The kind of place where silence isn’t empty—it’s watching.
We saw him once—early and distant.
A heavy bird lifting off, slow and silent, already deciding we weren’t worth his time.
I caught a few frames, barely.
And then he vanished into the distant morning sky.
A calm lift into the sky. Not a retreat—just a choice.
But the swamp had more to give.
Later, there he was again.
Standing in the tall grass. Preening.
Not just a silhouette in flight, but a living, breathing being—
Feathers ruffling.
Beak tilting.
Eyes catching light.
He had reappeared. No urgency, no alarm. Just calm and feathers.
He shifted once—raised a foot as if to scratch or maybe just to feel the water move beneath him.
Not in a hurry. Not unsettled.
But he knew we were there.
Stillness isn’t always still.
And then, for a long, suspended moment, he locked eyes with me—with my camera—and remained.
No flight. No flinch.
Just two creatures, watching each other in the hush of a Ugandan swamp.
And that’s the only way I ever wanted to see him.
He didn’t look away. Neither did I. Both of us, mesmerized.
In the Silence Before Flight
For those who want to linger in the moment……
If you go looking for a moment like this, don’t expect it to happen. Just be still long enough for it to come to you.
And if it doesn’t—be content in what was offered.
— So go with your eyes and heart wide open.
Until the next wild place,
LD
→ Read another quiet encounter:
Echoes from the Wild: When the Wild Looks Back
