Tsai's Nature Blog: January 2018

July 25, 2017
Amboseli NP and Selenkay Conservancy
Being so close to the equator makes the time of sunrise and sunset very predictable, around 6 am, and 6pm. From now on until the end of the trip, the wake-up time is 5:45. We headed out for our first morning safari after breakfast and tea. It was an over-one-hour drive to Amboseli from the camp. The NP has several different areas, some parts swampy others are savannah, but the park lacks the thick bush habitat found at Selenkay. Everyday, hundreds of vehicles come into the park to see large elephant herds, and we joined the other tourists in search of elephants.
No off-road driving in national parks, everyone has to follow the tracks on the ground.

African Fish Eagle
the first raptor seen in the national park is already a lifer for me.

Martial Eagle

my second lifer of the day was also a big eagle

Black-winged Stilt

African Jacana

Long-toed Lapwing

Collared Pratincole

Black-headed Heron

Common Squacco Heron

Purple Heron
I am still not able to locate any purple on the heron after seeing them several times in south-east Asia and Kenya.

Great Egret
the familiar white bird is also found in Amboseli

Saddle-billed Stork
the coloration of the bill really struck me.

Sacred Ibis

Egyptian Goose

Spur-winged Goose

Common Ostrich

a must see in Kenya, just looks so different from all other birds.

Malachite Kingfisher

stunning colours as kingfishers never disappoint.

another view of Amboseli

Common Zebra

Sun bath+sand bath

I put some Zebra photos here from Selenkay so you can notice the difference in vegetation in the background.

Mini tornado

Wildebeest

young wildebeests have strait horns

lots of mini tornados in this part of the park

Buffalo
Are the eyes open?

Elephant
the main target everyone is after

although only about a dozen of them, we are all happy to see the happy family.

Bohor Reedbuck

Gerenuk

Thompson's Gazelle

Giraffe

Lion

this male has a beautiful mane

As cats cannot chew on bones, they use their rough tongues to scrape off meat on bones.

Spotted Hyena

Yellow Baboon

Tawny Eagle

started and ended the day with eagles.

July 26

Sunbird Lodge at Lake Elementaita

The lodge is close to Lake Nakuru where flamingos used to gather. For reasons that I do not know, flamingos no longer stay in Nakuru in recent years, so we had to go farther north to Lake Borgoria see them. We stayed at Sunbird Lodge for a night on the way to Borgoria. As the name suggests, several species of sunbirds can be found around the lodges, but I was only fortunate enough to photograph two of a few sunbirds that showed up during our stay.

Variable Sunbird