Entries about marabou stork

Today we are leaving Ndutu and heading to pastures new. A pretty sunrise sees us on our way.

Vultures at Lake Masek

Initially we cannot fathom out why so many vultures are descending on the shores of the lake.

There are vultures (and Marabou Stork) everywhere: on the ground, in the trees, flying in! I think all Ndutu's vultures are here in this spot!

The sound of their huge wings flapping as the come in to land is really quite something to hear.

Then we see it: Floating wildebeest carcasses – animals who drowned trying to cross the river.

Not just one, but dozens of bloated, putrid decomposing bodies. The stench of the rotting flesh is heinous.

For some light relief I turn my head towards the heavens, where the dark sky has now opened up a small window to let the sunrise through.

I spend some time watching the large flocks of egrets making their way across other parts of the sky while I wait patiently for a bird or two to fly past the sunrise window.

Meanwhile, the hole in the cloud is rapidly changing shape, and finally I get lucky!

Not being able to stand the atrocious stink any longer, we move on to see what else nature has to offer us today.

Grey Capped Social Weaver

Vitelline Masked Weaver

Black Backed Jackals

Temmincks Stint

Avocets

Gull Billed Tern

Giraffe

Lion

As we are following the contour of the lake, Malisa is busy looking around as always. I feel sure, however, that he has seen the lion whose paw is across the track we are driving on. He makes no attempt at slowing down, so I start to alert him to the big cat, without wanting to shout and scare the lion away. My warning comes out a little meek and feeble: “erm..... stop...?” Of course, for the rest of the trip, the boys tease me mercilessly about it.

By the time Malisa swerves out of the way onto the grass alongside the track and stops, the lion is most certainly not happy.

We move a little further away for our safety and the lions comfort. He obviously realises that lying in the road is not a good ideas, and gets up, sniffs the air and marks his territory before moving off.

We follow him down to the lakeside, where he sees one of the many dead wildebeest floating in the lake. You can tell that he so wants it, but it is just that too far away for him too reach.

We hang around, hoping he is going to go for a swim, but he obviously doesn't want to get his hair wet, and makes a rapid beeline for the thicket further inland instead, walking with a definite purpose.

He wanders into the bush. We follow. There is a delicious smell of mint wafting across the savannah as we bulldoze our way through the undergrowth to follow the lion – such a pleasant change after the grim odour from the wildebeest carcasses earlier.

So that's what he is heading for!

She's coming down!

She most likely sought refuge in the tree as a respite from her mate's sexual advances, and now she's ready for some more action.

We watch as she disappears into the ever-thickening shrubs. The terrain where she is going is too dense for us to follow, we are already in a place outside our normal comfort zone.

“How do we get out of here?” I ask Malisa. “I have no idea” he replies as he creates a new 'track' through the bush.

We return to the area where the lion was watching the wildebeest carcass for our breakfast in the car (too dangerous to get out with the predators around), hoping he'll come back.

He doesn't, so we continue on our way to see what else nature has to offer us.

Thank you to Calabash Adventures for this amazing safari.

We have our picnic breakfast in the car on the plains, completely surrounded by the enormous herd of wildebeest.

We are thrilled when we spot 'our' baby in amongst the crowd – his mum is instantly recognisable by the manner in which her afterbirth is hanging. It's a relief to know that our grandchild survived the first critically vulnerable period of his life.

Zebra

This guys is missing his tail – probably a close brush with a lion or hyena!

Tawny Eagle

Marabou Stork

He's on the lookout for wildebeest placentas for lunch!

Pregnant Hyena

David is not feeling at all well, and asks Malisa to take him back to the lodge. He must be poorly, that's the first time I have heard him ask that in our seven safaris here. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

Once David is safely delivered at the lodge, where we take the opportunity to use the facilities, Malisa and I continue our safari “to see what nature has to offer us” as he always says.

White Backed Vulture

I'm intrigued as to how the vulture became so wet. It seems to me that he might have had an involuntary dip in the lake. He is looking quite bedraggled!

He is certainly busy trying to dry off, waving his huge wings around in the hot, still air.

Giraffe skeleton

Wildebeest crossing Lake Ndutu

With all the recent rains and subsequent flooding, Lake Ndutu has extended its shores considerably across the flat landscape, with shallow pools being creating where the usual path of the wildebeest was.

I think this much deeper section has taken the small group – or confusion, the collective noun of wildebeest – by surprise.

Oh my! There is a tiny baby in the group!

There seems to be some consternation, with the adults agitated and the baby nowhere to be seen. I hold my breath as I am terrified he may have drowned.

He is only tiny, likely to have been born earlier this morning. After a few tense seconds, he re-appears and all is well.

Thankfully, they soon reach shallower waters.

We can all breathe again now.

Speckled Weaver

Red Bishop

Pond Life

Lots of birds – and a few animals – gather down at the lake shore.

Greater and Lesser Flamingo

The lesser flamingo is the more colourful of the two species

Avocet

I had no idea that Avocet use the same principle for fishing as spoonbills – sweeping the bottom of the shallow water from side to side to disturb any living organisms that they can then scoop up and eat.

Greenshank

Kittlitz Plover

Marabou Stork

Common Sandpiper

Giraffe

Giraffe and Wildebeest

In places the earth appears to be dried out, with huge cracks. It is very deceptive, however, as the ground underneath is still very soggy, and as soon as you drive out onto it, the car sinks deep into the mud.

Ndutu Lodge have issued stark warnings to all its drivers and visitors, and will charge 300,000 Tanzanian Shillings to rescue you (ca £100 / US$130).

Oxpeckers

Feasting on a dazzle of zebras (the collective noun for a group of zebras)

Long Crested Eagle

She off hunting for lunch.

Lion

A lazy male lion relaxes in the shade. It's amazing how we've predominantly seen male lions on this trip, no large prides with females and cubs as we have on previous visits.

We let sleeping lions be, and go off to see what else nature has to offer us today.

Tawny Eagle. "You looking at me?"

Wattled Starling

Cheetah

Malisa thinks we should return to see what the cheetah cubs are doing. We find them not far from where they were yesterday, and today they are mostly sleeping in the shade, occasionally turning over.

After a while the other clients get bored, and one by one the cars leave until eventually it is only us and a car with two serious German photographers left. Our patience pays off when the cheetahs get up from their slumber and start to play!

A few more cars arrive in time to see the cubs trying to climb a tree stub, somewhat precariously!

At one stage one of the cubs walks straight towards our car, and I am sure (hoping) she is going to jump on the bonnet of the Landcruiser!

She veers off last minutes and heads for another car, but doesn't climb on board that one either.

After nearly three hours (and 2,500 photos) of watching this gorgeous family, we have to reluctantly leave and make our way back to the lodge in order to get there before dark.

Also watching the cheetahs playing is a Northern Double Collared Sunbird - another lifer!

Storks

Down by Lake Ndutu, Abdim and Marabou Storks are gathering for the night.

Baby Wildebeest

This young guy is wandering all alone, and Malisa surmises that his mama has been killed. He won't last long on his own, unfortunately.

White Bellied Bustard

By the time we get back to Ndutu Lodge, David is up and about, feeling very much better after a long sleep, plenty of water and a shower.

Dinner

Tonight's gastronomic offerings consists of

Chef's Salad

Fennel Soup (which we decline)

Beef Lasagne

Chocolate Brownie with home made Toffee Swirl Brownie Ice Cream

While we are eating, there is a terrific electric storm going on in the distance. I try to capture it on my phone, but it really isn't very successful. By the time we have finished dinner, the storm has passed.

And so we go to bed on the last evening here in Ndutu. As always, our thanks go to Calabash Adventures for such terrific arrangements.

Zebra

Looks like we have us some zebra love here.

It's pretty obvious that this liaison isn't going to result in any zebra babies!

It looks like a kinky threesome to me.

Cattle Egret

Wildebeest Buffet

Marabou Stork and a variety of Vultures feast on a wildebeest carcass left behind by a much larger predator. These scavenging raptors are the hyenas of the skies, playing a vital ecological clean-up role by disposing of decomposing carcasses.

There is always a strict pecking order at such buffets, with the Lapped Faced Vulture being the first, as with their powerful hooked beaks they are the only raptor able to open up the carcass to allow other, smaller vultures to access the innards.

These huge and aggressive birds stand more than a metre tall with wingspans of around three metres. They are also, however, known for being particularly affectionate and mate for life, which in the wild can be up to thirty years.

I have to say that he doesn't look very 'affectionate'.

Their heads are free of feathers to avoid blood clinging to it as they bury themselves deep into the carcass to get at the sinew, their preferred food. Potent stomach acids help them deal with the most putrid carcass.

Vultures can store up to one kilo of consumed flesh in the distensible section of their oesophagus, called a crop. They have been known to eat so much that they become too heavy to physically take off; although should they sense danger, they are able to empty the crop for a quick get-away.

Different species of vultures have different shaped beaks, which means they eat different parts of a carcass, hence they should - theoretically - all be able to eat peacefully at the 'dinner table'.

Hartebeest

A large antelope, standing at around 1 metre at the shoulders (3 feet), hartebeest are gregarious animals that are usually found in herds, such as here.

Now let's go back to what I said about the size of the Lapped Faced Vulture: should the bird be standing next to the Hartebeest, this is what it would look like.

Giraffe

A lonesome giraffe eats his way across the savannah.

Golden Jackal

She is sniffing around, looking for something, maybe food or a scent.

She finds a hole and disappears into it.

Elephants

It's interesting to see the different lengths and angles of the tusks of these two elephants.

Kori Bustard

Eurasian Avocet

Common Pratincole

Lions

At first the only evidence of the lions sleeping under this tree, is a paw sticking up.

Later we a head appears, then drops down again.

We let sleeping lions be, and carry on exploring.

Another Lion

A young male lion is surveying the landscape from a hillock overlooking Big Marsh.

We can tell he is young – less than seven years old – from the fact that his nose is still pink. As they get older, their nose becomes black all over.

He gets up and walks down onto the flat area.

We move down to the flats too, and at one stage he comes up and lies under our car for the shade!

Eventually he seems to settle down and go to sleep – in the middle of the sun – so we drive off to find somewhere to have our lunch.

Picnic at Big Marsh

Malisa finds a great lunch spot overlooking a sea of wildebeest on Big Marsh.

There is something really special about getting the picnic chairs out, in the company of wild animals.

There are literally thousands of wildebeest down on the marsh.

Judging by the number of Superb Starlings who join us, I would guess this is a popular picnic spot.

"Got any food for me?"

I might just accidentally drop a piece of cake on the ground while I was eating; it is so easily done.

Just as we are packing up, we hear a commotion down on the marsh, with thousands of hooves beating the ground as the whole herd – or confusion as a group of wildebeest are known as – make a run for it. Soon there are none.

Just a couple of minutes ago, this was heaving with animals

I have no idea what spooked them, so we pop down to find out.

This safari was arranged by Calabash Adventures, the best safari operators by far.

After breakfast we continue on our quest to see the wildebeest migration and maybe even a female giving birth.

The first thing we come across, is a less-than-a-day-old baby suckling his mum.

Large herds of wildebeests attract a number of followers as they cut across the savannah, in the form of flies, which again entice birds, in this case Cattle Egrets, who ride along, hoping for a tasty snack.

Marabou Stork

Grant's Gazelles

Thomson's Gazelle

The difference between Grant's and Thomson's (affectionately known as Tommies), is not just that the latter is much small (which of course isn't easy to see in a photograph), but also the shape of the horns, and the dark stripe along the side.

Here you can see them together – Grant's in the front with the paler body and the curved horns, and Thomson's at the back: smaller with a distinctive dark stripe.

Dung Beetles

Hundreds of thousands of wildebeest in one place naturally produces a lot of waste, with the waste again attracting dung beetles. Lots of them. Malisa knows what a fascination I have with these cool little recyclers, and stops for me to take some photos as they roll away their prized balls of shit.

So, why do they do it?
While there are different types of dung beetles, these little critters we see here, start by converging on a fresh pile of dung and rolling it into a ball. Sometimes you see several beetles on a pile of dung, and they can transform a huge mount of manure into perfect balls in minutes.

Usually it is the male doing most of the rolling – they can roll up to 50 times their own weight – with the female simply hitching a ride.

Things don't always go to plan.

When a spot with soft soil is found, they stop and bury the ball.

After mating under ground, the female lays eggs inside the dung. Once the new brood has hatched, they eat their way out of the ball, thus the dung doubles up as housing as well as food.

By burying and consuming dung, they improve nutrient recycling and soil structure; as well as the dispersal of seeds found in the animal waste. Additionally, by removing the manure, they decrease the number of flies that would otherwise be attracted to the wildebeest.

I just love these little animals!

Hyena

A pregnant hyena eyes up a zebra.

While they are known to be opportunist predators, hyenas generally go after abandoned kills. In this case, our female is looking for placentas left on the ground after animals have given birth.

The zebra nearest us is limping badly, and we momentarily get quite concerned for safety, but either the hyena doesn't notice, or she has not got the energy in her at her current state to pursue a potential prey. There is less chance of losing her baby by foraging for leftovers than chasing a large animal.

Marabou Stork

Meanwhile, a Marabou Stork circles above. They too are carrion eaters, so probably looking for placentas too.

And an Abdim Stork

Kori Bustard

Judging by his flamboyant courtship display, this guy doesn't have food on his mind, he is looking to attract a female.

Zebra with Young

This guy seems to have a lot of passengers.

Wattled Starlinsg

Black Headed Heron

Far in the distance we see him stalking something on the ground, then dip down and reappear with a snake in his beak!

For the next ten minutes we watch the battle of wits between the still-live snake and the hungry bird.

It is a tough flight. The snake keeps trying to slither out of the heron's mouth but obviously the heron gets the better of it.

While trying to re-arrange the snake within his beak, he drops it at one stage, but is very quick at picking it up again.

We are fascinated by the spectacle unfolding before us - this surely has to be today's highlight!

Knob Billed Duck

As we are watching the heron, Malisa calls out to alert us to a Knob Billed Duck flying overhead. I grab my other camera (I have been using Big Bertha for the heron, but find that too heavy and cumbersome for birds in flight), but by the time I get myself sorted, it has almost passed us over.

Wildebeests

As we continue our journey across the flat meadows near Ndutu, we find ourselves surrounded on all sides by wildebeest. There are literally thousands of them, everywhere we look, as far as we can see into the distance.

Today's challenge is to find a wildebeest – or zebra – just about to give birth so that we can witness the beginning of a new life. It seems, however, that we are too early for the wildebeest, and too late for the zebra.

Zebra Dust Bath

Zebra on Heat

Someone ought to tell this female zebra on heat that mounting another female zebra is not going to satisfy her sexual urges, nor is it going to produce baby zebra.

“Stop it! You're scaring the children!”

The other female is obviously not in the mood for lesbian love, and kicks out before making her escape.

Car stuck in the Mud

In the distance we see a car at an odd angle; obviously unable to get out of a bit of a hole, quite literally.

The ground is so deceptive here: the savannah looks its normal grassy self on the surface, yet – in some place – as soon as you drive on it, it is all boggy underneath.

There are already other people helping the female driver of the grounded vehicle. A few years ago there were no female drivers here in th Northern Circuit, but that is slowly changing as the lodges prepare accommodation to support both genders. On this trip we see two lady drivers.

It rather concerns me seeing the vultures circle above – what do they know that we don't? The presence of a number of wildebeest, however, indicates that we are reasonably safe from predators.

At the beginning of this trip, Malisa mentioned about making sure he had a couple of tow ropes in the car, now I am beginning to understand why, as a rope is attached to the stuck car, with another vehicle ready to pull them out. They are travelling together in a group of three cars, with the passengers being a bunch of very friendly Americans.

The lead car goes full whack in top speed and makes it all look very easy. One of the passengers, however, makes the mistake of standing up in the vehicle as they are being pulled out, and ends up completely airborne. I am pretty sure she must have hit her head on the roof – that's gotta have hurt!

Malisa tells us to hold on for dear life as he drives across the boggy area at full speed too, creating some serious bounce, resulting in painful jarring of my back. We stop the other side of the bog to make sure all the vehicles get across. The atmosphere here is like that of a party, with everyone treating it as an adventure. There is lots of clapping and cheering going on.

There's an enormous amount of surface water about!

Hyenas

We see four hyenas scattered in different places, in amongst the zebra. Neither species seem that bothered by the other.

As we move to get closer, we almost run over this fifth one in a den.

Eland

A small herd of eland appear on the horizon. Traditionally hunted for their delicious meat, these large antelopes are usually very skittish.

For that reason there is no point in trying to get any closer to get a better shot, so I grab Big Bertha instead (my 600mm lens). Because of how far away these critters are, there is a lot of atmospheric distortion in the air, making the images quite soft.

Abdim Stork

Pee break

Unlike the Serengeti where there are a number of organised picnic areas with modern toilets, here at Ndutu it's au naturel. You'd think that after all these years I would have learned to face into the wind when 'marking my territory', especially on a gusty day like today. Not a chance. The only casualty is my knickers, my jeans remain unscathed, and thankfully there are no other tourist vehicles around as I take them off. The wildebeest don't seem to mind.

You - and I - will be pleased to know there are no pictures.

Thomson's Gazelle

A mother and her ten day old baby.

We race across the savanna – not because we're in a hurry, but in order to prevent ourselves getting bogged down in the marshes - to reach a tree which will provide shade for our picnic lunch.

More to follow in the next blog entry. Thanks to Calabash Adventures for arranging this safari for us.

Nicely refreshed after a break to stretch our legs, use the facilities, eat our breakfast picnic packs and photograph the hippos at Retima Hippo Pool, we set off again to “see what nature has to offer us”.

Dik Dik

We don't have to travel far before we see our first animal, These cute little antelopes are within the grounds of the picnic site. Dik Diks mate for life and you usually see two of them together, such as here.

Baby Warthogs

Also at the rest stop is a family of warthogs, including these arorable baby piglets.

Tower of Giraffes

Impala

Mum keeps her 2-3 day old baby close.

Look at those ears! The baby is all legs and ears, it seems.

The baby suckles her mum.

While the rest of the voyeuristic family look on.

Lioness

Malisa stops the car near a few other vehicles. “Lioness” he informs us. We all look in the distance but none of us can spot the cat.

“There” Malisa exclaims with more than a hint of amusement in his voice, pointing downwards, “right by the car”.

She has been out hunting and has returned to where she thinks she left her babies last night, and is now searching for them.

Even the abandoned aardvark hole is inspected.

Appearing to be in distress, she stops and calls out to her cubs, but there is no obvious reply.

"Have you seen my babies?"

Turning this way and that, there is still no sign of her offspring.

On the side of her head a nasty gash is indicative of a much-too-close encounter with the horn of a wildebeest or buffalo.

As she walks from one side of the road to the other between the vehicles gathered here, still calling out, I feel like we are somewhat invading her personal space, meddling in nature's progress. Is our presence preventing her cubs from coming forward?

We leave her to carry on looking for her lion cubs and continue on our way, as we have a fair distance to travel today.

Marabou Stork

Above us a Marabou Stork is circling, creating a striking image against the bubbling white clouds.

An altogether larger bird.

Secretary Bird

White Rumped Helmetshrike

Waterhole

As we pull up at the waterhole, Malisa announces that we have a flat tyre and gets out of the vehicle to put the spare on. Before he can even get anywhere near the jack, he has to get our luggage out, which he then puts of the roof for safety (the green bits you see on the roof are a couple of our bags).

Elephants

In the distance we can see a herd of elephants approaching the waterhole and we become aware that we are right in the path between them and the water, which causes us some concern, especially as we realise that we are unable to move the car anywhere with one wheel off.

As the majestic animals rapidly approach, we urge Malisa to get back in the car; from the safety of which we watch them all walk past and around us in order to reach the water where they spend their time splashing around, drinking and bathing.

Stubs

One of the elephants sports a shortened trunk, probably the result of a crocodile attack (or maybe even a poacher), although it does not seem to hamper him much as he appears to have learnt to live with his disability.

Bath time is over for now, and the large animals clumsily climb out of the waterhole.

I'd love to say they do it with elegance and grace, but the truth is anything but.

Meanwhile there are still only three wheels on our wagon.

There is an unwritten rule of safaris that you don't park between another vehicle and the animal sighting; but some people have no consideration for others. Not only is he blocking my view of half the waterhole, his aerial is dissecting all my photos in the other half. Thankfully this sort of thing happens very rarely, but he is most definitely not a good advert for his company.

I can get rid of the aerial in Photoshop, as I have in the image below, but that is not the point. Malisa asks him politely to move on, and he does.

Once all the elephants have finished bathing, have climbed out of the waterhole and are on their way to pastures new, another driver pulls his vehicle up right against ours to block the elephants' view of Operation Tyre Change.

Malisa, with the help of is mate from the other vehicle, gets out of the car again and manages to complete that tyre change in record time. Phew.

With a fresh new tyre, we move ever further south towards the exit gate of Serengeti.

Thank you Calabash for arranging this amazing safari for us.

Even before we are dressed and getting ready to go out on today's safari, at the unearthly hour of 05:15, we can hear the roar of a lion. It sounds terribly close by.

Giraffe

Our 'breakfast this morning' (as in the first animal we see today) is a giraffe, just sauntering past the camp. The sun is still considering its next move while painting the sky with purples and pinks.

Topi

A few metres further along, we see a mother topi with her very young baby, the kid being maybe a day or so old.

Spotted Hyena

Hyenas are Malisa's favourite animals. While at certain angles and in a certain light, they can look kinda cute (I suppose); at other times the hyena's sloping back gives it a rather menacing demeanour.

Dik Dik

These, the smallest of Tanzania's antelopes, mate for life and are often found in family units of three such as this.

Tommy Porn

Avert your eyes as a couple of Thomson's Gazelles put on an energetic display of early morning sex for us.

When I say “energetic”, I mean that he is putting a lot of effort in, while she is so not interested (preferring to continue eating), resulting in a number of aborted attempts.

This must be particularly frustrating as Thomson's Gazelles only mate twice a year to coincide with babies being born at the end of the rainy season after a gestation period of 5-6 months.

Success at last! Although you may notice she is still eating.

Pygmy Falcon

This bundle of fluff is just about the cutest thing we'll see this morning.

Black Breasted Snake Eagle

Black Backed Jackal

We come across this jackal having his breakfast and stay with him for a while as he (unsuccessfully) tries to get the last leg of a hare down his throat.

Balloons

A few hot air balloons glide effortlessly by.

Marabou Stork

While Pygmy Falcons score highly on the cuteness scale, the Marabou Stork has to have been hiding behind a bush when looks were given out. There is nothing remotely attractive about this scavenger bird.

They seem to be 'everywhere'.

Nile Crocodile

The pond is also home to a rather large crocodile, sunning himself on the bank. Crocodiles are often found with their mouths wide open like this, hoping that any rotting food leftover in their teeth will attract insects and the insects in turn will draw birds to enter the cavity... and wham!

Also hippo wallowing in the mud. As they do.

Suddenly an almighty racket occurs as the Egyptian Geese on the shore start urgent and deafening honking.

We soon discover the reason for their panic: Mr Crocodile is on the move. How exciting, it is something we have very, very rarely seen, if at all.

He soon settles down and the geese seem to be almost mocking him by getting dangerously close.

Meanwhile, the hot air balloon has finished its morning flight and landed safely. As safely as you can while surrounded by wild animals.

Lilac Breasted Roller

No blog entry from Tanzania is complete with at least one roller picture.

Sausage Tree

The original vegetarian sausages anyone? These elongated fruits are much loved by a variety of animals, and, although poisonous in their raw state, humans have been known to use them for medicinal purposes to treat fungal infections, eczema, psoriasis, boils, diabetes, pneumonia. More importantly, the fruit can also be used to ferment beer!

Lions

Lazing in the shade, the four lions are nonetheless very aware of the Thomson's Gazelle not terribly far away behind them. The Tommy, however, is totally oblivious to the danger lurking underneath the tree.

With a jolt, he realises that he could so easily become breakfast and runs for his life. Good move Tommy, good move.

Yellow Throated Sandgrouse

Often found in large flocks, these noisy birds seem to just keep coming and coming until there are sandgrouse everywhere.

Immature Silverbird

White Rumped Helmetshrike

Cape Buffalo

Elephants

This is by far the largest herd of elephants I have ever seen. Just as we think we have counted them all, more appear. And then some. There are at least 75 of them, with elephants as far as the eye can see in two directions. Wow, wow and wow.

Giraffe

Lion Crowd

Nestled in the shade of a tree, three lionesses with two cubs seem to have drawn quite a crowd with more coming all the time.

Having had the luxury so far of generally being on our own at sightings (or at most, a couple of other vehicles), seeing so many trucks in one place comes as a bit of a shock. It doesn't take long, however, before photographing the lions seems to take second place for these people as their attention is drawn away from the cats to our vehicle. Big Bertha is now the main attraction and 'everyone' wants to take her photo. For those who have not been following this blog, Big Bertha is my newly acquired, and impressively massive, 600mm lens.

Banded Mongoose

On a small mound just behind the lions, is a band mongooses, with their sentries keeping a close eye on the big cats and other dangers.

Leaving the lions behind, we make our way to one of our favourite picnic sites for breakfast.

Thank you Calabash Adventures for yet another fantastic morning in the bush.

As we wait for Malisa to come and collect us for today’s safari, Chris catches up on some sleep.

The sun has not yet made an appearance and darkness hangs over the camp when we leave, so I still have no idea what this place looks like: the layout, or the surroundings. Usually I do a lot of research of each accommodation before we leave home, but this lodge is a complete surprise for everyone - an alien concept to me.

It's quite exciting really, like a mystery tour!

Sunrises (and sunsets) are pretty speedy affairs this close to the equator, so we haven’t travelled far before we can start making out the outlines of the kopjes around the camp.

Initially just as a silhouette, but within a few minutes we can distinguish some features on the landscape.

Cape Buffalo

So these are the guys we heard chomping last night, right outside our tent, and whose eyes the escort shone the torch into while (over) dramatically telling us how dangerous they are?

The temperature this morning is a little on the cool side.

It will soon warm up when the sun comes out.

Lions

Chris isn’t the only one who is feeling tired this morning it seems.

On a meadow of fluffy grasses, a lion pride made up of nine members, gathers around a kill. A wildebeest. Or rather an ex-wildebeest. It could even be the mother of the orphaned calf we saw yesterday.

The pecking order is very evident here as a couple of the youngsters try to join dad for breakfast. He tells them what he thinks of that in no uncertain terms, while mum looks on with resignation: “They’ll learn”.

The cubs are soon distracted. “We’ll have a play instead”

Wildebeest

All around us, literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest greet the rising sun. Individually their grunt sounds a little like a human groan, but in these numbers the noise they make becomes a hum, like an enormous swarm of bees!

Speaking of sounds – we can clearly hear the lion crunching the bones as he devours his prey.

Dad licks his plate, then moves his breakfast a few feet along the open plains. Erm… why?

In the crater we had a Rasta Lion and at Ndutu there was a Punk Lion. Here we have a Hippy Lion – just look at that hair… I mean mane. It is like a 70s rock star!

Well, kiss my ass!

“Do you think a fringe suits me? I’ve heard it is all the rage this year.”

The youngsters wait in the wings for dad to finish his meal.

On every bush and in every tree is a vulture hanging around until it is their turn too.

Wildebeest

A long line of wildebeest is heading straight for the lions. Their poor eyesight is leading them into trouble again.

The young lionesses realise that there is a potentially earlier - maybe even easier - breakfast than having to wait for dad to finish eating.

The wildebeest have also spotted the lions and are running for their lives. Literally.

She’s closing in, aiming for that baby at the back. An easy prey…

She has to be quicker than that, it’s no good just sitting there looking at them; they’re not going to come to you.

The last of the wildebeest makes it alive past the lions. Phew! I can breathe again now.

Meanwhile dad continues to eat his breakfast.

While the rest of the family lie around licking their chops impatiently for when they will be allowed to have some.

“Let’s go and harass dad”

Dad, however, is totally unperturbed by the whole thing.

Has he finished?

Nah.

Finally?

It certainly looks that way, as with a full tummy he wanders off to find water.

Typical male: once he’s had his meal he goes off to the pub for a drink, leaving his wife to do the clearing up!

The rest of the family descend on the dining table like hungry… well, lions.

I notice dad hasn’t left much to be divided between the remaining eight. You could say he's had the lion's share. I can certainly see where that expression comes from.

This guy has managed to secure himself a tasty little morsel, however.

The vultures move in a little closer, and noisy plovers circle above screeching out distressed warning signals. “Yes, we know there are lions. Thanks anyway guys".

As we wonder how many lions you can fit around a scrawny wildebeest carcass, we leave them – and the constant wildebeest hum - to it and move on to our next wilderness experience.

Jackal versus Vultures

We come across another kill where the predators have moved on, leaving what little is left in the hands of the scavengers, in this case some White Backed Vultures and a couple of Marabou Storks.

All is reasonably calm until a couple of Black Backed Jackals arrive.

End of Round One: Vultures 1 Jackals 0

Round Two: the jackal seems to have managed to somehow get hold of a slither of meat, and the vultures go all out for the tackle. The ensuing squabble is reminiscent of the scenes I once witnessed in Tesco when the reduced items came out on a Saturday afternoon.

The vultures bring in the reserves.

Despite this somewhat unfair advantage, the score at the end of Round Two is Vultures 1 Jackals 1

The opposition team regroup to work out their next move.

It seems they don’t quite agree on tactics.

With all the internal politics, and no real action, the audience looks bored.

While not exactly bored, we leave the jackals and vultures to fight it out between them and drive a little further north.

Lion and Jackal Prints

More Lions + Another Kill = More Vultures

Further along we see seven lions on a kill (that’s the fourth kill we’ve seen this morning, and it's only 08:15) and another ‘Vulture Tree’ full of birds waiting to swoop on the carcass.

As soon as the lions move off, the vultures descend en masse.

The lions and a jackal look on with bemusement.

Topi

Does my bum look big in this?

Wildebeest Rutting Season

This time of the year is when the males compete for the attention of the females – they have been known to fight until death!

This morning, however, hunger wins and they go back to grazing. So do we.

Picnic Breakfast

When we made our choices last night for the breakfast box, Chris crossed everything out on the menu except the muffin. That was all he wanted for breakfast – a muffin. Fair enough. Imagine his disappointment when he opens his box this morning, and finds everything in there, EXCEPT the muffin!

All around us is the hum of the wildebeest.

It is very much cooler this morning than any previous days.

Although Malisa doesn’t seem to feel it as he wears his Rasta Lion T shirt and motorcycle-tyre sandals.

Grey Crowned Cranes

Lions Re-Visited

We go back to see our lions, who have their eye on another wildebeest.

They do some more half-hearted stalking, but they are obviously not that hungry.

The vultures hover expectantly above, but this time they are out of luck.

As we're driving along, David shouts out "Oh, look: wildebeest". We all fall for it, sitting bolt upright and looking for... wildebeest? Even Malisa stops. Doh... for the last hour or so, we have been surrounded by several thousand wildebeest - they are not exactly a novelty!

My tummy is not at all happy today, and when I let Malisa know, he suggests going back to the camp to use their facilities, as we are very near anyway. That sounds good to me – not just because there is a proper toilet, but it will also be nice to see the camp in daylight.

Today we can see just how close to our room the buffalo do graze. Gulp.

The camp is totally devoid of human life, but we do see a few four legged critters.

Emergency over, we continue our game drive, this time we head south.

Klipspringer

Red Duiker

Cape Buffalo

Impala

One male can have a harem of up to 60 females.

Black Faced Vervet Monkeys

Giraffe

Hippos

A couple of hippos wallow in the shallow Orangi River.

Olive Baboons

Dust

We hit the main road through Serengeti; and while there is not much traffic compared with the main dry season, the huge trucks still throw up masses of dust!

Warthogs

You can only just see the top of their backs in the long grass; which is exactly why they run with their tails straight up - so that their youngsters can see them!

African Fish Eagle

Bare Faced Go Away Bird

These noise birds get their name from the sound they make when disturbed: “kweh” “kweh”, which does sound a bit like “go way”.

Magpie Shrike

Tree Python

Until this trip, we had never seen a snake in Tanzania, and it is one of the items on my wish list. Not only did we see a cobra in Tarangire, and a grass snake crossing the road earlier this morning; a couple of cars stopped with people staring at a tree alerts us to an enormous python.

At around two metres in length, this brute can swallow an antelope!

Black Chested Snake Eagle

Little Bee Eater

Black Headed Heron

Serval

This wild African cat is about half way in size between a domestic cat and a cheetah and it’s a fairly rare sighting. Lyn and Chris have been so incredibly lucky with their animal spotting on this safari, although we still haven’t seen a leopard to complete the BIG FIVE.

End of Part I

As today features quite a few more sightings, I have decided to publish it in two parts; so all that remains now is to say thank you to Calabash Adventures and Malisa for an exciting morning’s game drive.