Another day full of variety – Giraffes, Gazelles, Hartebeests, Crocodiles, Baboons, and lots of birds.
As you may have noticed, I am very partial to the giraffes we saw. Here is a pair with their attendant Red-billed Oxpeckers. The male is closer to us. The males have horns with a bald patch on top, maybe from fighting and rubbing against trees, and are usually significantly taller than the females. But of course the under-carriage tells all.
I asked Adam to please back up so I could get a picture of this Thompson’s Gazelle with the burnt grass background. (Part of the care of the park requires burning much of the grass each year to allow the new grass to grow back, which is already happening.)
Watching a bit of aggression here, a female obviously being the center of attention!
The Hartebeest gets its name from the Dutch “deer beast” because they thought they looked somewhat like deer. I was quite amused seeing the two of them standing with such a nice pattern of horns and ears, one on top of the other. Seeing the young one behind, I wonder if this might be a little family.
The Topis were grazing, seemingly unaware of the leopard slinking towards them through the tall grass. Note the young one in the center. When the topis became aware, the adults all stood en guarde and the leopard headed back to wait a bit. We drove on. (I don’t know what the tents are in the background. I presume they house tools for the people working in the park.)
Nile crocodiles – almost too big for the lens I had. Shortly after seeing the big croc in the first picture, we came across two other large ones and 2 babies nearby.
A mother and baby baboon sitting on a termite hill.
And so many more birds. We drove past many watering areas, especially where the hippos and crocodiles were. There we saw an Africa Black Crake,
Egyptian geese in flight,
Black-headed Herons roosting hear the Hippo pond.
Three-banded Plovers on Hippo poop! The second shot is an immature one later in the day, on sand this time!
We saw lots of different types of Lapwings. This is the elegant Spur-winged Lapwing.
The Tawny Eagles have a lovely color and feathery legs.
It turns out that the little Bee-eaters are not rare in the Serengeti. I was able to get this very close-up shot, right near the jeep.
Finally I got shots of the Lilac-breasted Roller in flight – keeping up with the airplane!
A couple of nice portraits, one where you can really see the forked tail of these beauties.
the Silverbird reminds me of our Bluebirds.
At the picnic sight on day 4 there was the usual coterie of greedy birds!
The Francolin, similar to partridges but actually in a different family
The Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu was new to me – another striking finch.
Three weavers were in the crowd – the Speckle-fronted, the Rufous-tailed Weavers, and the beautiful White-headed Buffalo Weaver.
The ubiquitous Superb Starlings dominated, as always. The last picture is just for fun – the shot was a funny one but poor in quality so I put it through the photoshop oil paint filter.
And two little creatures, not to be forgotten: a mongoose and a field mouse, also after scraps.
And with that, day 4 comes to a close!