Kenya 1/4

July 23, 2017
Selenkay Conservancy

After flying for quite a few hours from Asia and spending half a day waiting for everyone in the group to meet up in the capital Nairobi, everyone was happy to head toward our first destination- Selenkay Conservancy. Selenkay is located on the outskirt of Amboseli National Park and is about a 2-hour flight from Nairobi if I remember correctly.
A conservancy rented land from the locals, the Masai use only some parts of it for raising their animals, in turn, almost all of the people who work there are from the villages nearby.
As it was dry season during July and August, everything is pretty dry and dusty. Most of the woody plants have hard thorns so it is not a good idea to wander off-road.

Occasional termite mounds are a treat to see. They are not on every cornor, but there are still more of them than I expected. You may not be able to tell the size of things in the photos so you'd have to trust me the mounds are not small.

The quite-developed Game-watcher campsite has roofs for the tents, so your cameras don't get cooked during the hotter hours of the day. The taller tent of the left is shower and there is also flushing toilet!

Dining area. Really glad the big tree doesn't shed its thorns into my soup.

It is time for Safari after dropping off the unnecessaries. Of course, all birds are welcome.

First up is the Helmeted Guineafowl. They roam the open grounds in large flocks of dozens to more than a hundred.

Helmeted Guineafowl

they also happen to be on the menu of many animals so their feathers are not hard to find on the ground.

Crested Francolin

Crowned Lapwing

Their range cover basically all of the places we went to so they are on almost all of my bird checklists.

Fischer's Starling

White-bellied Go-away-bird

they seem to fly away when we hit the brakes.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

First owl of the trip. And there were no more owl sightings after this exciting find.

Pygmy Mongoose

Lesser Kudu

Kirk's Dikdik

African (Bush) Elephants

Opportunities to watch large animals are always exciting.

Probably don't need to tell you what are those in the next pictures, but I'm going to.

Lion

they can be difficult to spot crouching low in the bushes.

 Understandably, they prefer to move only during the cooler times of the day.

 a yawn

 a yawn didn't stay like that for long.

The pride moving out at dusk.

Here's the gate between us everything outside.

July 24, 2017

Selenkay Conservancy

Let's start with the bush chickens of the day.

Helmeted Guineafowl

Yellow-necked Francolin

new chicken

Black-faced Sandgrouse

thought thse look like grouse, but they are actually placed next to pigeons in the field guide.

Female is more dull.

 The male's face is more decorated.

Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove

 Mourning Collared-Dove

Woolly-necked Stork

a stork on dry land during dry season, this bird surprised our guide a little.

Double-banded Courser

 Buff-crested Bustard

Spotted Thick-knee

Seeing Thick-knees reminds me of a trip to Sri Lanka a few years back.

Hamerkop

monotypic family, the head looks unique, but in flight it reminds me of raptors.

Eastern Chanting-Goshawk

Common Bulbul

Fischer's Starling

Wattled Starling

Fork-tailed Drongo

Long-tailed Fiscal

 Northern Pied-Babbler

Red-backed Scrub-Robin

Red-cheeked Cordonbleu

comes to the camp to drink water from a puddle.

Rosy-patched Bushshrike

One of the many something shrike of the trip.

White-browed Sparrow-Weaver

One of the many something weaver.

White-headed Buffalo-Weaver

White-browed Coucal

White-bellied Go-away-bird

White-headed Mousebird

and some I-don't-knows

Vervet Monkey

Olive Baboon

looks like they do need the thick skin on their butt because they spend a lot of time sitting.

Lesser Kudu

Grant's Gazelle

 the ones without horns have black flanks

Grant's (left) and Thompson's Gazelle(right)

Grant's have a white patch aboe the tail.

Gerenuk

I think there are no records of Gerenuks drinking water, they get it from their food.

They look like the deer god in Princess Mononoke.

Eland

 Zebra

Giraffe

 Those thorns

think the closer one is a different subspecies.

I think these are Cape Hare

 Masai and Campfire