This is the last post from a wonderful  ten-day trip with Andrew Beck and Sammy from Wild Eye. I thought Masai Mara and Serengeti were fantastic places for a wildlife photographer to visit, but Amboseli and Tsavo West have added another dimension to fantastic.

“We eat light, drink it in through our skins. With a little more exposure to light, you feel part of things physically. I like feeling the power of light and space physically because then you can order it materially. Seeing is a very sensuous act–there’s a sweet deliciousness to feeling yourself see something.”
~ James Turrell

The Oryx are different in this part of the world. The Fringe-eared Oryx is listed as near threatened on the IUCN red list of threatened species.  Oryx is a genus consisting of four large antelope species. Three of them are native to arid parts of Africa, and the fourth to the Arabian Peninsula. The next image is of a Fringe-eared Oryx. It is fawn coloured and it does not have the same degree of  black on its legs as a Gemsbok. Fringe-eared Oryx are found only in south-eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania.  The Tana river in Kenya divides the ranges of the Fringe-eared and Beisa Oryx, with the Fringe-eared being below the Tana river in Kenya. 

The Fringe-eared Oryx has the same markings on its face as a Gemsbok, with black and white markings and a black stripe which runs from its ear through its eye down to its chin. It also has fawn colouring on its lower legs and hocks whereas the Gemsbok has  black and white lower legs and black hocks. I often wonder why these animals have different markings and I wonder whether the environment dictates whether they should reflect or absorb light and heat – just thinking. 

A handsome male Lesser Kudu. The Lesser Kudu is native to Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, but it is extinct in Djibouti. the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) rates the Lesser Kudu as “Near Threatened”. Horns are present only on males. The spiral horns are 50–70 cm long, and have two to two-and-a-half twists, the same number of twists as the greater Kudu.

“The first act of awe, when man was struck with the beauty or wonder of Nature, was the first spiritual experience.”
~ Henryk Skolimowski

I have converted this image to black and white and emphasised the  colour sliders to bring out the Kudu. In colour, this Kudu is remarkably well camouflaged.

A Purple Roller is also called the Rufous-crowned Roller, is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as Namibia and the South Africa. Compared with other rollers, its colours are rather dull and its voice harsh and grating. It prefers the dry thorn veld and can spend long periods perched at the top of thorn trees, watching for prey on the ground such as insects, spiders, scorpions and small lizards.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
~ Albert Einstein

It is only when a Purple Roller takes flight do you really get to see its mauves and purples. There are two genera and 11 species of roller. Thankfully the conservation status of this species is of least concern but that does not mean that you see them often. This is only the fourth time I have seen a Purple Roller. Rollers get their name from the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights. We did not see them performing this time but their rolling displays are spectacular, I have only seen Lilac-breasted Rollers doing these rolling displays!!. 

At the top of the valley looking down from a high tree, this Martial Eagle was intently watching all the goings on in the valley below. You could not see its eye colour but the Martial adult has a deep orange coloured eye. This was a juvenile as the adults have a dark brown head, shoulders and neck colouring. The breast and belly feathers are white with dark brown spots.Even this independent juvenile with take prey which ranges from dik-diks to Guineafowl and even monitor lizards. This is the largest bird of prey in Africa, with a wingspan of up to 260 cm and a maximum weight of 6.2 kilogrammes

“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”
~ Anaïs Nin

Further down the valley we saw what at first I thought this was a Tawny Eagle, but the shape of its head and the deep gape makes me think this was a Steppe Eagle. It was probably an almost fully fledged adult but its colouring is not yet the  overall, dark chocolate-brown of the mature adult.

Down in the valley, a landscape view showing you the rugged terrain in this part of Tsavo West.

A pair of Egyptian Geese down in the valley close to the elephant carcass. We saw  pairs  close to the scattered waterholes but there were not nearly as many as we usually see in town. 

I could not believe these Egyptian Geese mated and washed in this foul-smelling, stagnant water. This male did not seem to be fussed.

Early on our last morning we found two lionesses down near the elephant carcass. The male and two females had been feeding on the carcass for a few days and it was starting to get “ripe”.

“Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.”
~ Betty Smith

A Baobab tree with buffalo weaver nests hanging from its branches with Tsavo’s volcanic mountains as a backdrop.

This large bull elephant was wandering down to our favourite series of dams to drink and get more closely acquainted with the females.

Paddling with the big guys, enough to give you goose bumps!

Early morning game drive down in the Tsavo valley. The light was beaming in shafts through the trees creating spots of warm radiance. Andrew kept encouraging us to look and look some more and we would see. This image is of paper-thin bark and spiders webs illuminated by the early morning light.

“Learn to see, and then you’ll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision.”
~ Carlos Castaneda

Back lighting a spider’s web in an acacia bush.

Another first, a Black-headed Lapwing which has a familiar wispy black crest on the back of its head like a northern Lapwing. It has very clear black and white markings on its face, its bill is reddish pink and its eye is yellow with a black iris.It likes dry plains with bare or with short grass, and dry woodland. It feeds mainly on insects.

One very relaxed female leopard wandering across the sand road in front of us. You can see from the long morning shadows that it was still early. If you can’t get front lighting then get rim-lighting creating a silhouette.

“But how can you have a sense of wonder if you’re prepared for everything?”
~ Margaret Atwood

This young female leopard stopped on the ridge to have a good look around. This is obviously her territory but she shares it with lions so it seemed infinitely reasonable to have a good look around before wandering on. There were plenty of trees for her to climb if she needed a quick escape.

Looking in the opposite direct to the leopard was this noisy Crested Francolin who was busy telling everyone where we were or perhaps where the leopard was whilst pecking grass seeds from the sand.

“The finest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.”
~ Albert Einstein

This young leopard decided to climb an acacia to get into a better lookout position. She must have seen something off to our left because she stared intently at it for about five minutes before relaxing on the fork of the tree. We could not see what caught her attention but it could have been a dik-dik and there were many in this area.

She kept an eye on us to make sure that we did not move.

She lay down and moulded herself on the bough of the tree, looking alert but relaxed knowing that no lion would be able to follow her up that tree.

In our last afternoon we watched this  lone bull elephant walking through this warm saturated colour palette.

“No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.”
~ Elizabeth Bowen

Success at sunset, a Hammerkop with supper.

A Black Crake silhouetted against the reflection of the fading evening light.

A winter sunset in Tsavo West from down in the valley.

“Dreams, memories, the sacred–they are all alike in that they are beyond our grasp. Once we are even marginally separated from what we can touch, the object is sanctified; it acquires the beauty of the unattainable, the quality of the miraculous. Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.”
~ Yukio Mishima

Another big thank you to Andrew Beck and Jimmy from Wild Eye for a wonderful trip to Amboseli and Tsavo West. This is a diverse and spellbinding part of the world and for a wildlife photographer you can’t wait to get up and get out in the bush each morning. The trip was punctuated by unusual sightings and many firsts for both mammals and birds.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is my third post on our trip to Tsavo West. Usually we were out at first light but this post starts later in the day.

“A spirituality founded in the pursuit of truth is one that should be able to adapt with changes in knowledge. Better yet, it is one that gains in value with increases in knowledge. As it turns out, the more we learn about the nature of existence, the greater and more impressive its mysteries become”.

~Guy Tal

There were large flocks of queleas flying back and forth across the two waterholes in front of the Kilaguni Lodge. These large flocks make quite a noise en mass when flying down to drink at a waterhole. Certainly enough noise to scare a zebra stallion.

There was an abundance of bird life in front of the lodge down near the waterholes. There were many Von der Decken’s Hornbills around the lodge.

We also saw many White-bellied Go-away birds in front of the lodge displaying all the usual antics of go-away birds like chasing each other between and inside trees and bushes.

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean”.
~ John Muir

As we started to venture further away from the lodge all sorts of opportunities opened up. On our way out of the lodge we found this Grey-headed Kingfisher who was very intent on its insect hunting.

Usually the dik-diks move around in thick grass so it is worth stopping when a Kirk’s dik-dik is walking and foraging in the open. These are such small delicate antelope. That big black patch just under its eye is a scent gland which it uses to mark pieces of stems of grass and small bushes. There must have been an interesting scent which caught this Kirk’s dik-dik’s attention.

Next to the road  we found this Black-faced sandgrouse which had been foraging for seeds in the sand. It was very wary but sat tight.

This Black-faced sandgrouse walked around but stayed in more or less the same place and gave us an opportunity to get quite a few decent shots. I always marvel at the colouring of sandgrouse. Their backs are cryptically coloured making them very difficult to see from above but their fronts are much more exotic and distinctive. If this bird puts its head down you will never see it.

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive”. 

~ Eleonora Duse

Further down the bumpy road into the valley we found this Golden-breasted Starling.  We really tried to get a decent image of this character but it was having none of it.

This is a stunningly beautiful bird, the Golden-breasted Starling, but like many good looking beings remains aloof.

This female Bateleur Eagle had not got her full adult dark plumage. I figured it was a female looking at the greyish band of secondary feathers on its wing, unlike the male which has all black secondaries. The male has a thick black trailing edge on the underside of the primaries and the female a thin black trailing edge on the underside of  its primaries.

 Short maned male Tsavo lion.  This was the young female elephant which had died from an infection from a poachers spear. This big male lion was strong enough to open up the carcass.

“True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing”.

 ~ Jean Cocteau

Down in the thicker woodland areas were found many Lesser Kudu. These were always special sightings, especially for a southern African resident. These little Kudu cousins are quite different to their larger southern cousins, size wise they are much smaller and it has conspicuous white patches on the upper and lower parts of the neck and does not have a neck fringe.

Juvenile Eastern Charting Goshawk. We never drive past a sighting like this. Even though it might not be a perfect pose, we wait for it to change position into a better pose. Often waiting for the change of pose is just wishful thinking.

This Eastern Chanting Goshawk soon got bored with us dominating its view and flew off so it could concentrate on the matter of hunting.

The Lesser Kudu is quite different to the greater Kudu. It has a broad white stripe down its back and its has distinct whites stripes which run down across its stomach and hand quarters. The Lesser Kudu has white eye rings and no white band between its eyes. It has those distinct large Kudu ears and a ridge of hair along its spine.  

Sparring giraffe down near the series of waterholes. This became a favourite spot. These youngsters started reasonably gently but got progressively more aggressive, but all ended well. They were just testing each other.

  

Down on the valley floor looking west to the volcanic hills

Most of the buffalo took no notice of us but there was always one which watched us carefully.  The sentry was usually a buffalo cow.

This was a herd of buffalo which we estimated to have included more than 300 animals.

At times, sections of the herd got spooked by something we could not see and once the thundering hooves got moving they threw up plenty of red dust and scattered the oxpeckers.

Impressive vista – an African privilege – space, big skies and abundant wildlife.

A small family herd of elephant came down to drink at the series of waterholes along the river course

Black and white treatments provide drama to the otherwise peaceful scene around the waterhole

In the late afternoon, the colours were saturated. The scene was peaceful and each individual walked quietly to the water’s edge.

It was warm and not especially hot but this family group of elephants were really enjoying sating their thirst. The light was saturated, the colours rich and the scene peaceful. There was a sense of rich harmony.

I could not resist taking a few shots of the reflections of the elephants on the surface of the water. It was a quiet time with these large animals sating their thirst and was probably a time of quiet mediation for them too.

Golden reflections paint colours and shapes of the elephant but reveal nothing of the experiences this elephant has had during the day.

We were so absorbed watching the elephants and buffaloes down at the waterhole that we did not see this young female leopard had killed, what we think was, a dik-dik.

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul”.

~ Alexander Pope

Not only had she killed the dik-dik without spooking or attracting the attention of the buffaloes but she had almost finished eating it right under their noses. The only way we found out about her was when another game vehicle arrived behind us and radioed to tell us to look around and have a look at this leopard feeding on a kill about thirty metres behind us higher up the slope.

This young female leopard blended beautifully into the grass. Only when she moved and lifted her head could we see her.

Having fed well she wandered down to river stopping a ridge of rock to have a look around. I find it very interesting the these animals do not show any haste. They are stealthy and very aware of everything around them. In this state, they stop frequently to look, smell and listen.

The photography is more difficult in Tsavo West because of the thick woodlands. Nevertheless, the quality of sightings and very different species compared with those in southern Africa make it an intriguing destination. It makes you realise that Africa is a continent with an incredible diversity of wildlife. more than enough to keep you occupied for a lifetime.

“When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty”.

~ John Muir

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

We set off early on our third morning in Tsavo West to explore Mzima springs. This was only the second day in eight that I saw Mount Kilimanjaro’s peak. We were travelling north-west from the Kilaguni lodge to Mzima springs when our vehicle’s right rear tyre was punctured so we had to stop and repair it. When I say we, in fact Sammy who knew exactly what to do, fixed it, and in no time we were pneumatically restored and on our way.

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

Although not a great image, the next image shows the graduations of light and colour stretching through the valley to the first range of hills and further to “Mount Kili” about 40 kilometres away. It also showed one of the few large open stretches of woodland savanna in what is a mountainous area.

It was still reasonably early in the morning and looking east into the sun we got some wonderful moody images of zebras walking through the golden flecked grass and with mist in the trees behind them. This has got to be one of the magic aspects about photography, when you realise that the light is golden and dancing and try to catch it.

“We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfillment”

~Hilaire Belloc

The zebras all walked in single file through the grass,  in strict hierarchy – as they do.

Mzima  usually refers to the body’s state of health and well-being, literally meaning “full” or “whole.” It is an apt name for Mzima springs because it is an  verdant oasis in the hot, dry, dusty bush. In the neighbouring Chyulu Range stand porous peaks of volcanic ash, whose youngest cones were formed about 500 years ago. Rising 2,000 metres above a dry woodland plain, these hills trap up to a metre of rain each year from moisture-laden winds. All that rain soaks into the sponge-like ash and percolates down until it hits impervious bedrock and begins its underground journey to Mzima Springs. 

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” 

~ Martin Luther

The Chyulu range is composed of volcanic lava rock and ash, which is too porous to allow rivers to flow. Instead, rain water percolates through the rock, and is thought to spend many years underground before emerging 50 kilometres away at Mzima springs. Filtered over many years, the pure water gushes forth at a steady pace of more than 200 million litres a day, creating this oasis at the heart of Tsavo West National Park. The natural filtration process gives rise to Mzima’s famously clear stream, which flows through a series of pools connected by streams washing boulders to form rapids. You can see just how clear the water is as you can see the hippo’s body and legs quite clearly under the water.

Two kilometres downstream from the springs, the stream is blocked by a solidified lava flow and disappears below the surface again.

In one of Mzima’s pools this Reed Cormorant stopped for a break on a fallen tree trunk and was shaking water off its feathers. I would imagine it is quite difficult for the cormorants to hunt in such clear water but this character looked to be having a very busy time.

The area immediately around the springs and pools is verdant. The grass is thick, lush and green, and there are a variety of palm trees and many Fever trees. I find the colour combinations on the trunks of Fever trees fascinating. It is the only tree, I know of, which at maturity has a green trunk.

“What did the tree learn from the earth to be able to talk with the sky?”

~ Pablo Neruda

There are numerous paths which traverse one side of the pools. The paths guide bush lovers through the forested area in Mzima and follow old hippo trails.

“What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in, whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, to whom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorly understood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profound understanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vital role they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertain future that is unfolding.”

~ Jim Robbins

In one of the pools is an observation hut. It is a semi-submerged viewing hut where you can view hippos, crocodiles and fish underwater. Being semi-submerged makes it more interesting  because to get to see what is going on above and below the water level. We were hoping to see crocs and hippos under the water but only got to see what looked to be a type of carp. You get a real sense of a diverse integrated ecosystem above and below the water level.  I tried to take some images through the see-through glass of the submerged hut of the fish swimming around, but my focus was not up to scratch. This was one of the two large pools at Mzima spring which are connected by a babbling stream, fringed with lush reeds.

In the shade in the verdant oasis it is bursting with life, beautiful and tranquil – a break from the dust and heat of Tsavo. A family of Sykes’ monkeys seemed to agree with us.

Sykes’ monkey is also known as the white-throated monkey or Samango monkey. Thankfully this species has a ‘ least concern’ conservation status. Their coats are mainly a dark grey, the hair on their tail, limbs and shoulders is almost black and they have a brownish-yellow tinge to the hair on their back, face and top of their heads. Their white moustaches make them look old but they have large inquiring auburn-coloured eyes, and a flattened nose.

“There is no logical way to the discovery of elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.”

~Albert Einstein

Sykes’ monkeys are semi-arboreal, semi-terrestrial and are therefore comfortable in both in the trees and on the ground. While we were wandering through the forested area around the springs they were playing and feeding on vegetation on the ground. Their main diet comprises  shoots, fruits, leaves, flowers and berries, but they will eat eggs and insects when they can find them. 

There were lots of species of wild flowers which attracted many types of flies, beetles, bees and butterflies. After hunting around a bit I think this might be a butterfly called an African Golden Arab, drinking nectar from a Wort Club (http://www.ngkenya.com/flora/plants.html).

Along the paths there were many what I think were Turbinas sprawling over the other vegetation. These flowers were a magnet for insects of all kinds.

All the insects buzzing around the multitude of flowers were in turn a magnet for the lizards like this agama.

Mzima springs was a unique place to visit, like nothing I have ever seen before. It was just busting with life.

“Walk tall as the trees, live strong as the mountains, be gentle as the spring winds, keep the warmth of the summer sun in your heart and the great spirit will always be with you.” 

~ Native American proverb

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

After a wonderful five days in Amboseli, we drove to Tsavo West National Park. The road trip took around four hours (around 150kms on mostly dirt roads). Tsavo West and Tsavo East were once one large park. It was split into two by the construction of the railway line which was routed from Mombasa to the interior of Kenya. The park is located equidistant between Nairobi and Mombasa.

“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

~Bruce Lee

Our Wild-Eye guide, Andrew Beck told us these two parks have quite different eco-systems. The slightly larger Tsavo East is generally flat with dry plains across which the Galana River flows. By contrast, Tsavo West National Park has much more wooded, hilly landscapes, and is dotted with volcanic cones and stark black lava flows.

As we entered Tsavo West, Andrew suggested to us that we were in for an unusual couple of days. Unusual because of the landscapes, wildlife and birds, all of which were going to be quite different to those in Amboseli.

” A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions”.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr

Tsavo is known for its “ghosts in the darkness”, those two infamous man-eating lions. Tsavo males look different to the Mara and Serengeti lions. The most vigorous Serengeti males grow large dark manes, while in Tsavo they have short, thin manes or none at all. The thinking is that the thickness of the manes has much to do with access to water. Tsavo is hotter and drier than the Serengeti. A male lion with a thick mane “would squander his daily water allowance simply panting under a bush, with none to spare for patrolling his territory, hunting or finding mates”, according to Patterson. – ”http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/man-eaters-of-tsavo-11614317/

In 1898, the infamous two male lions were believed to have killed, most of whom were eaten, between 120 and 140 construction workers who were  builing a bridge over the Tsavo River as part of the Uganda railway line from Mombasa to Lake Victoria in Uganda. The man-eating took place  until John Henry Patterson, a military officer working on the railway line,  hunted them down and stopped the man-eating spree.

With these stories swimming in our thoughts we entered Tsavo West National Park at the Chyulu gate in the north west of the park. We had just driven through the Tsavo West entrance when we came across a pair of White-bellied Korhaans. This was sign of interesting sightings to come.

Tsavo West National Park, covers an area of just over 9,000 sq. km. This park has wide savannah plains, hilly landscapes, lava flows, springs, large permanent rivers and its southern boundary is the border with Tanzania.

“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience”.
~Oliver Wendall Holmes

About four kilometres west of the Chyulu gate inside Tsavo West National Park are the Shetani lava flows. ‘Shetani ’ means ‘devil’ in Kiswahili. These flows occurred a few hundred years ago and local peoples believed that it was the devil himself emerging from the earth. This vast expanse of folded black lava spread across the savannah at the foot of the Chyulu Hills. These larva flows are a reminder that as old as this area is some of the tectonic activity was recent.

The Shetani Lava Flow is a black lava expanse eight kilometres long, 1.6 kilometres wide and averages five meters deep. We walked over the hardened larva flow. Its surface was very hard and jagged. We did not see any animals on this dark stark landscape for very good reason. The surface was hostile for any living thing with just the odd tree and tuft of grass or creeper managing to gain its footing. Perhaps sufficient dust had gathered into pockets in the larva to sustain this limited flora.

The last major eruption in this area is believed to have taken place around 200  and 240 years ago, a fraction of a second in geological terms.

“Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.”
~Mahatma Gandhi

Sammy, our driver and guide – a man with a great sense of humour, excellent knowledge of the parks and their wildlife and birdlife,  and a man with eagle eyes.

This larva flow was like nothing I had ever seen before. Very interesting and different but I have to admit I prefer savannah, woodlands and sand roads.

The entrance to the Kilaguni Serena lodge. This is one of the oldest lodges in Kenya and still well cared for.

 

As we walked through the entrance onto the veranda, we looked out onto an incredible view of the Chyulu Hills.

Directly in front of the lodge were two waterholes and the area was covered in red soil. The animals also took on this red colour. The elephants and zebra were noticeably red.

Southern White-crowned Shrike minding its own business on the side of the road. I find it quite incredible that some five thousand kilometres north of South Africa you will find the same birds – adaptive, genetic survivors. The fact they have not changed shape or colour tells me there is something about these birds which enables them to move around a continent intact.

“Experience is a jewel, and it had need be so, for it is often purchased at an infinite rate.”
~William Shakespeare

We were starting to get a sense of the unusual landscapes in this park, when we got our first of many firsts, a lesser Kudu. The lesser Kudu has a single white stripe running down its back and white stripes running off this central stripe down the sides. The males do not have the bearded neck. Instead their neck is a plain dark grey-brown colour with two white  horizontal stripes. The horns and shape of the lesser Kudu are similar to their larger cousin but the Lesser Kudu is around two-thirds the size of a Greater Kudu which we see frequently in southern Africa and is closely related to the Nyala. It feeds primarily at dusk and dawn, and is a mainly a browser eating leaves, shrubs, twigs but will also eat grasses, herbs and roots. The Lesser Kudu has adapted to hydrating from the moisture collected in leaves.  

The next image is of one of the volcanic rock outcrops we saw on the way down onto the river valley floor. We were half expecting to see a large raptor sitting on a prominent rock or a Klipspringer looking down at us.

This Black-backed Jackal was scavenging something on the black larva soil when it looked up to see what we were doing.

We then travelled south-west of the lodge into a very mountainous area. On the way we found this unusually dark male Masai Giraffe. Giraffes’ “pelage” varies in colour with age, usually the spots change from sienna-brown in the young to coal- black blotches in the old. Another way to get a sense of their age is to look at how worn their ossicones are and how big the bone protrudence is on the males forehead.

“One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.”
~ Frank Herbert

After an interesting and bumpy drive down into the valley, we found a young female elephant lying on the ground. After seeing so many elephants sleeping in Amboseli, we thought this elephant was just resting. Unfortunately, we found out later that she had died from wounds from a poacher’s spear, which had become infected. There are no doctors in the bush!!!! 

Down in the river below the fallen girl elephant was this “lightning bird” or Hammerkop.  The lightning bird is a mythological creature in the folklore of the tribes of South Africa. The impundulu (which translates as “lightning bird”) takes the form of a black and white bird, the size of a person, which is said to summon thunder and lightning with its wings and talons. With a little luck that thunder and lightning will be directed at that poacher!!!

We found d’Arnaud’s Barbet in the undergrowth down near the river, waving its tail and noisily trilling.

The Hornbills were also different in this part of the world. This was a Von der Decken’s Hornbill.

“All your life you’re yellow. Then one day you brush up against something blue, the barest touch, and voila, the rest of your life you’re green.”
~ Tess Callahan

Another first, this was a gorgeous Golden Breasted Starling. This was a male, the female looks similar but her head and shoulders are much duller.

We desperately tried to get closer to get a better shot but this wiley bird kept its distance.

Yet another first was this Kirk’s dik-dik. This is a small antelope much like a duiker but it has a prehensile nose. This particular character was a male as the female does not have horns. Dik-diks are some of the world’s smallest antelopes. The largest of the group is the Kirk’s dik-dik, standing between 14 and 18 inches tall and weighing no more than 7.2 kg. The dik-dik has a hairy proboscis with tiny slit-like nostrils. This proboscis contains an enlarged nasal chamber which is supplied with a rich amount of blood that is cooled via rapid nasal panting.

A dik-dik would make an easy meal for this young Martial Eagle, only it was  much further down the river near a large herd of buffalo.

Down on the valley floor we were watching a large herd of buffalo around a waterhole as more and more buffalo streamed in along the valley floor for a drink of water and to join the herd.

“To my mind the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted”.

~Bill Bryson

Even the go-away birds are different in this part of the world. This was a White-bellied Go-away bird. There were many in the park and they behaved just like our Grey Louries.

Some familiar faces, this pair of Egyptian geese and their five goslings were waddling away from the small waterhole to a safer place away from the multitude of black legs.

Also looking for a drink at the waterhole were a small herd of Coke’s Hartebeest.

The pelage pattern of a Masai giraffe. There are nine different pelage patterns of the giraffe in Africa. Each has a distinct pattern and colour according to its specific geographic location.

I cringe just looking at this male Masai giraffe wrapping its tongue around these acacia  leaves and thorns.

This was the gathering herd of buffalo down at one of the small dams along the valley floor. I converted to image to black and white to tease out the drama of the gathering herd.

The heavy cumulus clouds added to the drama of the waterhole setting. Further drama was added by the knowledge that where there are buffalo there are sure to be lions.

“The purpose of life is to live it, taste experience to its utmost, to reach out eagerly without fear for a newer  and richer experience.”

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

Simon, Jocelin and I had five wonderful days in Amboseli during our photographic safari with Andrew and Sammy from Wild-Eye. Amboseli is the most amazing place to visit as a photographer because of the incredible diversity of habitat, wildlife and birdlife. This is the last post from Amboseli and hopefully shows some of that diversity.

“Africa – You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the Hand of God. You watch the slope lope of a lioness and forget to breathe. You marvel at the tripod of a giraffe bent to water. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else in nature. In Africa, in the midday heart, you can see blisters in the atmosphere. When you are in Africa, you feel primordial, rocked in the cradle of the world.”

~ Jodi Picoult

Around 6h30 we left the Serena Lodge nestled in an acacia forest in the south of the park. Travelling north up to the acacia forest in the Oltukai area we found a troop of Olive baboons and this Yellow-throated Spurfowl. It was early in the morning so the sun was not out yet but this character stood and posed for us. It must have been a female as it did not have a pronounced spur on the back of its legs. The males need the spurs to fight for dominance and territory. I have found that you can try over and over again to photograph a species with little luck then out of the blue one character poses beautifully. This was one of those occasions.

This female spurfowl was quite relaxed standing on top of a berm on a drainage line. Spurfowl are generally cryptic in colouring but always have   definitive colouring around their head.

On into the acacia forest where the Oltukai lodge is nestled. Baboons seem to love this area perhaps because it offers protection and food. On the side of the road a male Olive baboon and his female sat close together. Within the hairy tangle emerged this very young baboon.

This youngster was cradled within his mother’s thigh and seemed to be sucking his thumb – genetic cognisance!

The male was an impressive character who looked like he was up for any sort of territorial tangle.

On our travels around the Olokenya swamp we found this lone Serval wandering parallel to the road about 20 metres into the grass. The Serval is characterised by a small head, large ears, a golden-yellow to buff coat spotted and striped with black, and a short, black-tipped tail. The Serval has the longest legs of any cat relative to its body size. This character looked to be out hunting. It came to a drainage ditch and instead of walking around, it jumped straight over the water filled ditch. Servals have very strong back legs and are known for their ability to jump high into the air to catch doves and guineafowl.

“One cannot resist the lure of Africa.”

~ Rudyard Kipling

In true cat style, this character was confident and walked through the long grass ever alert with those big ears moving backwards and forwards like radar scanners.

This Serval knew where it was going and stopped to take in different smells. As an observer you get the impression that all the smells help form a picture of who passes by and the state they are/were in.

Once out of the grass, the Serval’s colouring was very distinctive. It stopped to scratch its ear with its back leg. These creatures are so lithe.

Further on this African Hoopoe was foraging on the ground and hopped onto a log to get a better view of the goings on around it. They are beautiful birds with a distinctive onomatopoeic trisyllabic “oop-oop-oop” call.

Past the Oltukai forest we travelled west towards the Amboseli lake. It is dry for most of the time. On the edge of the dry lake bed we stopped to photograph some trees and this small herd of wildebeest wandering through the grass fringe.

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.”

~Edward Abbey

The Amboseli lake lies on the west side of the park. The lake bed is huge and desolate.

As it got hotter, the heat waves began to form a mirage and the legs of the zebra began to shimmer.

Plenty of game cross this lake bed including zebra, wildebeest, ostriches and elephants.

The lake bed is dry and the fine alluvial mud forms interesting patterns when it dries. Naturally forming mud cracks start as wet, muddy sediment and desiccates, causing contraction. The top layer shrinks faster than the underneath layer causing the crack.

A sign of a large pachyderm having passed this way!

This elephant must have crossed the dry lake bed to get to the long grass and swamps on the south east side.

We found this bull who we had watched walk around the side of the lake. The bulls are impressive in Amboseli. They are big and some of the older “boys” have huge tusks.

“In Africa you have space…there is a profound sense of space here, space and sky.”

~ Thabo Mbeki

Having looked around the dry lake bed we travelled east. It was fun watching a long line of wildebeest cross this pool of water. They could have walked around but they chose to wade through the water. They must have some primal instinct that tells them to speed up when they walk through water, perhaps because of the danger lurking under the water.

As soon as the water got deep, the wildebeest would try and jump out of the water.

“The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.”

~David Attenborough

A little further east we found a hyaena den. This old female seemed to have be ostracised from the clan and had only one or two clan members who were prepared to tolerate her. It certainly looks as if life has been tough on her.

We then headed south toward a fever tree forest near the Enkongo Narok swamp. An old dead tree stump looked to be a favourite lookout and congregating point for this troop of Olive baboons. A place for earnest discussion!

All the youngsters were looking very mature on top of the tree stump conferring with each other.

That was until the boss came along, then the game was deference.

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”

~Gary Snyder

The baboons were looking onto a fever tree forest. This forest was fenced off to protect it from the elephants and looked to be a preferred place for the giraffe. Research shows that giraffe in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa have different coat patterns. The pelage of these giraffe and the location made me think they were Masai Giraffe, one of nine distinct species in Africa.

Amazingly, the long white acacia thorns seemed to be no deterrent for these voracious vegetarians. 

These fever trees have a beautiful green-yellow bark which seems to ooze a dark brown resin, probably because of some close attention from a number of large animals in the past.

The giraffe were not the only ones to enjoy this fever tree forest. Some elephant found their way through gaps in the fence.

The fence seemed to help protect the forest from the elephants, though a few canny individuals managed to find a way in and looked to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Beyond the fever tree forest, we moved down at a small dam along the Kioko road. Next to the road by the dam, we found this hive of African bees in an acacia tree.

It was interesting to see that the natural form of this hive was a cone shape. From the small dam we drove down to the lake and swamp below Observation Hill. The bird life was superb along this stretch of water. There were quite a few Collared Pratincoles in this area. One found a blue dragonfly and was  trying to  subdue it in order to swallow it.

″A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.”

~ Moslih Eddin Saadi

After some considerable maneuvering it finally got the blue dragonfly into a position it could swallow it.

It does not appear that these birds taste what they are eating although I am sure some birds can taste their food. I know that birds do not like the taste of Monarch butterflies and I am not sure whether sunbirds can taste their nectar or whether they just recognise the flowers which produce it.

There were also many Spur-winged Lapwings. This pair were ensuring the continuation of the species. It always intrigues me that the female never seems to buckle under the weight of the male.

Now this is something I had never seen before, Black-winged Stilt chicks. They must have been days old and looked just like Jacana chicks but for their lack of long toes.

The Black-winged Stilt mother was very busy fending off all other birds near her chicks.

The stilt chicks would tuck under their mother’s wing just like Jacanas do their father’s. The Black winged Stilt mother had to get down onto her knees so her chicks could nestle under her wings. The Jacana mother is usually no where to be seen as their father is their guardian. Both Jacana and Stilt chicks look to be precocial.

“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

~ Mark Twain

 

This little bundle of fluff seemed to be quite independent when its parent was away.

The Spur-winged Lapwings were also highly protective and territorial. This character had to nosedive to get out of the way of a stooping opponent.

In contrast to the dry Amboslei lake bed earlier in the day, along the lower reaches of the swamp we watched this contented pod of hippos enjoying the warmth under the cloudy sky.

“Amboseli” comes from a Masai word meaning “salty dust”, and it is one of the best places in Africa to view large herds of elephants up close. There are five different habitats to explore ranging from the dried-up bed of Lake Amboseli, wetlands with sulphur springs, grassland plains, savannah and acacia and fever tree woodlands. There is a vast array of mammals and a much bigger variety of bird life than I ever expected. We had a wonderful and interesting five days exploring Amboseli. Five days is not nearly enough so I will be coming back. From Amboseli Andrew and Sammy took us on to Tsavo West further down in the south east of Kenya to explore another interesting game park.

“Live out of your imagination, not your history”.

~Stephen Covey

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike