Reaching. Amboseli Elephant- Kenya

Off to the coast- back next year. Happy New Year everyone!

elk

Silver-Cheeked Hornbill. Nanyuki Kenya

Difficult to photograph, Silver Cheeked Hornbills inhabit closed-canopy highland forests in East Africa. They are BIG birds!  See the location here.

Snow on Kilimanjaro- from Amboseli Kenya

We get a bit of Christmas snow here on the equator too! It just takes a bit of effort to get to where it is.....

Tagalog. Amboseli Park, Kenya

Merry Christmas!

elk

Pink! (It must be Christmas).

Flamigos at 'Little Lake' off Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya.

Invertebrate zooplankton colour the feathers via a vitamin A precursor- canthaxanthin. Some lakes have a different selection of plankton which add little or no colour. These birds seem to have been coloring up quite nicely on what they are eating (filtering actually....).

Sunset over Lake Baringo, Kenya

Sunsets are usually lovely sights to behold from Lake Baringo. I've collected a few as you may have noticed!

Signing off till Dec 24th.

elk

Weaver bird & nest- Lake Baringo

A Jackson's Golden-backed weaver does his best to entice a female into his nest overhanging the water on the shores of Lake Baringo, Kenya

Cattle Egret Fly-By, Amboseli Kenya

These Cattle Egrets were homing in on a small herd of elephant in Amboseli when I shot them 'on the wing'.

Old elephant. Amboseli Kenya

A Very old elephant from Amboseli. This complete the series of three ages (see the two previous posts).

Is it the absence of a fur coat that lets us see the age of elephant so clearly? They wrinkle with age just like humans.

Elephant can live to +- 70 years of age, but the average for wild populations is typically in the region of 45 before tooth senescence  deals the final blow. Amboseli, noted for it's fine wind-driven volcanic dust, is a harsh environment in terms of tooth wear I would expect.

Young elephant- Amboseli Kenya

A young Amboseli Elephant- a bit older than yesterday's.

A very young elephant- Amboseli Kenya

A very young elephant samples some sprouting grass in Amboseli. This one could be 5 to 7 months old.

Egret & Mt. Kilimanjaro- Amboseli Kenya

Caught this cattle egret on the wing with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop in Amboseli Park, November 2010.

Egrets - Lake Baringo Kenya

Great Egrets from Lake Baringo. See the location here.

Amboseli wildflowers & Mt. Kilimanjaro. Amboseli Park, Kenya

A couple days after the first good rains of the short rainy season in Amboseli Park, Kenya.

See the location here.

Turaco- Nairobi Kenya

Hartlaub's Turaco, Nairobi.  This is a resident of closed-canopy forests, often seen from a distance as a flash of brilliant red when flying- it's primary feathers are all bright red & not visible wben wings are folded.