1/29/14: SAFARI DAY 4: SERENGETI #2
We had an all day game drive on this day. Here are the photos:
Colony of dwarf mongoose - very cute and curious
Impala with 40+ does
Splendid starlings find bugs and seeds in the elephant dung!
Well camouflaged Dik Dik
Out in the open. His mate nearby.
Hippos were here!
Lesser Flamingos
Coke's Hartebeest
Tawny Eagle scanning for his next meal.
New born
Scratching your itch!
Lunch wagon!
WE COMPLETE THE BIG FIVE!
Where'd he come from?
Finding the right nap spot can take some doing.
Snake!?!
Ah, the breeze is just right.
Through the lens.
His buddy!
Cheetah and his impala meal!
Papa and baby smell the loss to their family!
Anything left for me?
Egyptian Geese
Hippo pool
How many lions in the bush?
Storm clouds at sunset, but the rain fell elsewhere.
Cape Buffalo herd checking us out!
Here's Yehudah's list of highlights for the day, although not in order of appearance!:
-Two leopards, one who suddenly appeared in the grass next to our vehicle and casually ambled over to a nearby sausage tree to find a perch
-Lizard buzzard destroying a love bird nest in the hollow of a dead tree trying to get at the young
-Buck impala with his 40+ does
-Over 30 elephant troop grazing and slowly moving down Rindo Hill
-Black kite hovering and watching the ground for prey
-Dozens of hippos Side by side in two pools with marebu storks landing around them
-Learning to pronounce Serengeti as sirin-getting and Olduvai is actually, Oldupai and comes from the Maasai word for the sisal tree
-GRAND FINALE of a cheetah munching on an impala doe with a buck and fawn watching nearby
Burchell's coucal
Coqui francolin
Southern white crowned shrike
White buffalo weaver
Didi cuckoo
Superb & long tailed ruppel's starling
Barefaced goaway
Wire tailed swallow
Tawny flaked prinia
Ostrich
Bateleur
Ring necked dove
Rufous crowned roller
Lilac breasted roller
African hoopoe
Red billed teal
African kite
Blacksmith lapwing
Kitlit's plover
Lappet faced vulture
Lizard buzzard
Lesser flamingos
Gray crowned cranes
Grey backed heron
Lesser kestrel
Tawny eagle
Dik dik, Coke's hartebeest, boht reedback, impala, elephant, giraffe, buffalo, warthog
1/30/14: SAFARI DAY 5: SERENGETI DAY #3
We packed out of the wonderful camp and moved to a lovely lodge by the crater by evening.
Here are the photos of the day:
Sunrise at Rongi camp #4
Troop of elephants moving across the hill. We shall see more of them later.
The long reach of the giraffe.
Hamerkop - saw a pair of them carrying large branches in the process of building their huge nest.
Silverback Jackal
Muba identifies the bones as well as the strange protuberances on the Cape Buffalo horns. They are from insect larva whose eggs were planted after the animal died.
This father and son team are given credit for km saving the black rhinos. Unfortunately,they of each died I. Tragic accidents. One in an airplane crash. The other by rhino.
Muba stops to get a comrade going again. One fuel line had broken. We eventually push started his rig.
Recent Maasai cave paintings. Wait a thousand year and THEY will come!
Our first siting of a male lion in the Serengeti
Ostriches
The lion and the lizard lie down together.
Cozy, cool spot for this lioness!
First good shot at the symbol of Uganda - the Grey Crowned Crane
They take the "lions' share"
Lioness pulls the wildebeest carcass over so the cubs can get to the other side!
We counted at least 18 lions in this pride but never saw the dominant male!
Freshly killed wildebeest belly expanding in the heat. Probably killed by a shy cheetah who disappeared when the vehicles approached!
This must be where all the boys have been hiding!
Joanie getting some moves down from the Marebu Stork
This explains a lot about the Kopjes and why the animals love them!
Rolling through the Ngorogoro Conservation Area
Ngorogoro Crater
Maasai herding their stock out of the Crater for the night!
Our digs at the Rhino Lodge
Sunset after a long day.
Here is Yehudah's list for the day, again not necessarily in order:
Our morning started early and we soon saw two silverback jackals, one which took off after a coqui francolin and almost caught it
Moru Kopje area that looked like Monument Valley, Utah
Seeing male lions for the first time in the Serengeti
Our guide spotting at least two lions feeding 200-300'meters away and discovering 20 lions feeding on a wildebeest kill, watching them ripping it apart, one of the females turning it over so the cubs could feed off the other side, hearing the growls of the competing lions
Gazing on Ngong Rock and seeing recent cave paintings. Places where the Maasai do ceremony
Small museum dedicated to Michael Gz, son of Bernard. Both were dedicated to saving the black rhino. One died in a plane crash; the other gored by a rhino.
Didrich's and Striped cuckoo
Lilac breasted roller
Little bee eater
Black shouldered kite hovering
Hamerkops carrying large sticks. They take 90 days to build a 40 lb. nest
Black winged stilt
Avocet
Rock hydras, banded mongoose, silverback jackal
Ballalite tree
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