Photos from Kenya
A trip to East Africa in 2013
These photos were taken in Kenya, in November of 2013.
Here we go. By the way, Kenya Airways is affiliated with KLM, so it's easy to fly through Schiphol (Amsterdam) to get to Nairobi.
This bird is a Superb Starling. There were a lot of these, everywhere.
A pair of Grey-Crowned Cranes.
Pumping water from a local well. Africa really needs more sources of clean & potable water (which is obviously something that most of the rest of the world is aware of).
Now these thorns, which are each over an inch long, are from an acacia tree/shrub/bush. Also known as the whistling thorn. There are a lot of acacia trees in Africa. Watch out for the thorns.
A giraffe. There are three types of giraffes in Kenya. This is the Rothchild's giraffe, I think. The three types are differentiated by the patterns of their spots, and the Rothchild's is the "middle" of the three, which is basically a mix of the other two types.
Eric, classic safari pose.
My first lunch in Kenya was a pretty fancy buffet.
This Egyptian goose appears to be showing off for his lady friend. Or maybe it's a female, showing off for her gentleman friend?
Lizard. Despite the point of view, he's just a little guy.
A White-Browed Sparrow Weaver, Plocepasser mahali.
An African bush elephant. This one is pretty clean.
Women lined up waiting to get some petrol.
Another giraffe, which I again believe is a Rothchild's.
This is an Eastern Yellow-Billed Hornbill, Tockus flavirostris.
This must be the world's smallest banana (or plantain). We don't have tiny bananas like this in Canada. In fact, we really only have one choice for bananas in Canada (at least in my local grocery store). That's too bad, because there are a lot of really tasty varieties of banana in Africa. The Smirnoff Ice can is not associated with the banana. I just put it in for scale.
This is a Common Oryx.
This furry little fella (called a Hyrax) lived on the edge of a giant cliff. I'm not sure why he thought that was a good place to live, but the view was incredible (I'll put a photo of the view up as the last photo on this page). It was also kind of surprising that this animal was not the slightest bit nervous about us standing there, and walked right up to check us out. Odd, for a wild animal. Perhaps other humans had fed him before.
The lighting on this flock of ostriches was really unique. Early morning. That's another pair of Common Oryxes in the foreground.
Now I apologize for this photo being out of focus, but it's because this is a "Dik-Dik." It's a very small deer, about maybe 15-18 inches high. There are dik-diks all over the place, like rabbits in Canada. That's why I have such a blurry photo. Since there are so many, I assumed that I had taken lots of good photos of dik-diks, but this was the only photo that I took. Oops. There are two species, the Dirk's Dik-Dik and the Guenther's Dik-Dik. They're hard to tell apart, and I'm not sure which one this is.
Maasai villagers. The Maasai can be found in many parts of Kenya and northern Tanzania. Rather than trying to explain a lot about this important group under one photo, you should click HERE to read a page about them.
This is a jacaranda tree.
Safari time. I didn't expect to see so many animals in Kenya. I wasn't really surprised to see lots of animals in the game reserves, but there were also quite a few outside the reserves. This photo was taken in the Masai Mara.
I assume that these are some sort of morning dove, but I'm not sure. This is photo 24, if you can identify the exact species.
This is a Steppe Eagle.
I think that's a Maasai giraffe in front, and a Rothchild's in the background.
Maasai souveniers for sale. So colourful.
This is one of my favorite photos. I'd be lyin' if I said otherwise (yes, that's a really bad pun).
This was a really impressive view of Lake Nakuru. If you look closely, you'll see that some of the roads are underwater. There was some major flooding here at the time.
Zebras and wildebeests. They graze and migrate together. Safety in numbers. I wasn't there during the "Great Migration" (look it up), but there was one point where we spent a hour or so driving slowly through a scattered herd of what might have been close to a hundred thousand wildebeest. We also saw many, many Plains Zebras, sometimes mixed with wildbeest and sometimes in herds by themselves.
A plantation.
Momma Plains Zebra with baby.
Now this photo is pretty blurry, because I took it quickly out of the window of a moving bus. But I couldn't miss the opportunity. People carry a lot of stuff on motorbikes that you wouldn't see happening in Canada. For example, this gentleman is moving a couch. I can only assume that he's actually moving the couch, and it's not strapped up there for people to sit on. But one never knows.
Classic game reserve scenery in one of the more lush parts of the countryside.
Plains Zebras in the front, and all kinds of random animals off in the distance.
Giraffe trio.
This hyena is really embarrassed that I took a photo of him while he was pooping.
Uh oh. They weren't kidding when they said that there was a bit of flooding at the lake.
This lion definitely should have brushed her teeth after eating.
A photo of some of the trees in the early morning sunlight. Everyone else seems to focus just on the animals, but I liked the trees too.
Hand-crafted artifacts.
I haven't been able to figure out what these are yet. But they're obviously some sort of yellow berry or seed, and it looks like they're on an acacia shrub, because the thorns are visible. I'll keep digging.
This isn't the clearest photo, but that's because these people are boarding the president's plane. Obviously, the security was pretty heavy at the airport the morning that I took this.
A bottle of Summit, a nice clean beer. Actually, I think that all the beer that I drank in Kenya was fairly light, but it was all good.
A photo taken from the window of my room at Giraffe Manor in Nairobi.
Maasai women.
Someone looks very suspicious.
A baboon, just hanging out, bored.
Wildebeest.
A lizard, just chillaxin', eyes half open.
A local lumber store.
A Bohor Reedbuck.
A wine store, a couple of office supply stores, and another hardware store.
I don't know what's going on here. Some sort of roof repairs?
A Cattle Egret riding on an African Buffalo.
Baboon, plotting mischief.
DJ Bolivia (Jonathan Clark), hanging out in the safari van. Photo by Mitch Bol.
Baby elephants, which are being cared for at the Nairobi elephant orphanage.
Marabou Storks. These are very odd, and very large birds. They'll fish for themselves, but they're also commonly found as scavengers in cities, where they'll sit on rooftops and in tall trees, but sometimes come down to the streets to eat garbage. They'll even fight with feral dogs for scraps.
This elephant is very dirty. If you look closely, you'll also notice that it has a tracking band around its neck.
This is a Gerenuk, also commonly known as a Giraffe Gazelle.
A mamma monkey with a baby monkey.
This hyena is walking over to the wildbeest, to check them out and see if they'd like to be lunch. The funny thing is that a few minutes later, about twelve wildbeest took exception to the presence of the hyena, and actually chased it away as a group.
Pumba! A family of warthogs.
A group of Maasai children, with their teacher.
These are White-Bellied Go-Away birds, Corythaixoides leucogaster.
Writing postcards in the lounge.
Lunch-time. Notice the white-necked vulture waiting in the grass to the left.
Down by the river. Everything is so rich here.
I loved the lighting in this shot, taken in the early morning. Those are Sable Antelope around the zebra. Also, this is a Grevy's Zebra, the other type of zebra, which is much more rare than the Plains Zebra.
A herd of cattle, cautiously drinking from the river.
A secretary bird. These are my new favorite birds.
This bird is a Vulturine Guinea Fowl. We also saw lots of Helmeted Guineafowl, which similar looking but which have a significant yellowish triangular growth on the top of their heads.
This is the most dangerous time for a giraffe, when it's trying to take a drink. It would be easy for a predator to catch it off guard while its legs are splayed out so it can reach the water.
Hippos, being lazy. Hippos are good at that (although you need to be careful, because they kill a lot of people).
Nice work by the EU to assist with this.
One of the crazy plants at one of the game lodges that we stayed at.
The roasting pit at Carnivore! Carnivore used to be a place where you could eat all kinds of exotic meats. However, several years ago, Kenya changed it laws to protect a number of species that are important for the game reserves, so right now, aside from conventional meats like beef, pork, and chicken, the only "exotic" meats that you'll taste at Carnivore are crocodile and ostrich.
All the meat at Carnivore is roasted in the giant fire pit that can be seen in the previous photo, then servers bring it to the tables on giant spits, and carve it directly onto your plates. The servers wander around the restaurant constantly with all the different spits. It's sort of a "buffet that comes to you" style of service. Each table has a "surrender flag" so once you're full, you put the flag up, and the servers stop visiting your table.
Holly, taking a photo.
Hyena, chewing on something.
Another of my favorite photos. This is a tracked elephant. I like this photo for two reasons. First, you can really see the way that the ears grow on the elephant in this photo, and second, it looks like he's doing a little dance, kicking up his back leg.
Kenya has 1,136 species of birds. Lots of variety, the second-most variety of any country in Africa. You'll see lots of birds, either by themselves, or in groups such as in this photo.
Maasai warriors.
Impala.
Natalie, talking to some of the children.
A lot of the safari lodges have airstrips beside them, so visitors can fly in and out. I went by road access all the time, which was bumpy, but it allowed me to see more wildlife.
Greater flamingo.
Our group had a special private BBQ at the lodge this evening. We ate really, really well on this trip. I was impressed.
Three cheetahs, getting ready to hunt down a wildbeest. The cheetah is the fastest land animal on the planet, able to run up to 115 km/hr for short distances. It looks somewhat similar to the leopard, but it's easy to distinguish from a leopard because the cheetah usually has a black stripe on the side of its face, coming up from the mount.
Maasai.
A lion, drinking from a puddle.
An African buffalo, with several cattle egrets.
More stores. There are very few "western style" stores like large malls, or western architecture with large plate-glass windows. This is the type of commerical activity that is common everywhere.
A Nile Crocodile.
More hardware stores. In Canada, it is common to see very large hardware stores, located sporadically. In Kenya, there were smaller hardware stores everywhere, very common.
Baboon fight. It's too bad that I didn't have audio recorded to accompany this photo. It was not a quiet scene.
Lion.
Maasai women, singing.
Cheetah, lying in the grass.
A colourful Agama lizard.
Now you see why it helps a giraffe to be so tall.
This is a Gerenuk, a type of antelope. This is an interesting species because it will often stand on its hind legs to eat. I didn't get a clear photo of a Gerenuk doing that, but you can see a fuzzy outline of one standing and eating in the background of this photo.
This is a Common Hippopotamous. The hippo is one of the most dangerous animals in the world, by accident. They kills thousands of humans every year, because when they are startled, they run straight to water and crush anything (including people) in their path. They will also occasionally chase people when they are annoyed.
A Grant's Gazelle. When you're driving around, it seems like there are a lot of generic antelope/gazelle, but if you look closely, there are a lot of very unique varieties. My wildlife guide shows at least 26 different types of deer, gazelle, and antelope.
Acacia trees.
A herd of cattle.
There are five different types of mongoose in Kenya. This is the Dwarf Mongoose.
A time capsule monument.
A typical river scene. Not a great place to go swimming or hang out, despite the peaceful appearance. Rivers hold lots of hippos and crocodiles. Look closely at the bottom left of this photo.
A nice waterfall. But probably not a safe place to go swimming, for half a dozen reasons.
A tree full of weaver bird nests.
A Secretary Bird in flight.
This looks like a yellow morning glory, but I don't think it is. I believe that morning glory flowers are a single flower, wheras this one has distinct petals. This is photo 115, if anyone knows what it is.
A sign marking the equator. There were a lot of equator signs visible around here, not surprisingly, spread out along the equator. At this particular point, someone demonstrated the coriolis effect. He poured water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom, first 20m north of this sign, and then 20m south of the sign. In one spot, the water funneled out clockwise, and in the other, it funneled out counterclockwise.
Maasai warriors. I believe that the warrior on the right was the son of the village chief.
A brief rest stop, to take some photos.
This large dish seemed a bit out-of-place in the random countryside. It was one of the most high-tech installations that I noticed on the trip.
A vervet monkey, who has discovered the wrapper from a Kit Kat bar. This monkey was in the middle of the city.
This is a Laughing Dove, Streptoelia senegalensis.
Maasai children.
Some sort of small ground squirrel.
A Vervet Monkey.
A Maasai woman.
A Lappet-Faced Vulture in a tree.
Maasai women.
Maasai women, singing.
I think this is a Maasai Giraffe. Yes, it's sticking its tongue out at me.
When new world meets old world. This Maasai warrior is checking his cell phone.
Hanging out with one of the giraffe's at Giraffe Manor in Nairobi. If you wonder what it's like to touch a giraffe, they feel like horses.
A bunch of birds riding on an African Buffalo. I imagine that the buffalo likes having the birds, because they eat the flies that bother the buffalo.
Looking down at some animals by the flooded lake shore. The animals don't care about the flooding. They're just like Honey Badger.
Welcome to Samburu National Reserve.
Maasai women.
An ostrich, hanging out with all the wildebeest and zebras.
A peaceful river scene. Look closely though, another Nile Crocodile.
A Yellow-Necked Spurfowl.
Wildebeest and zebras everywhere.
More flamingos and other birds.
An African "sausage tree," properly known as a Kigelia. The "sausages" are the fruit of the tree, and they're poisonous when they're fresh. However, once they are dried or roasted, they become edible. They can be used to brew a type of alcoholic beverage similar to beer, and they're also used for medicinal purposes.
Another common Plains Zebra. This one is obviously quite pregnant.
A male lion.
A family of warthogs.
A Yellow-Billed Stork.
Another mongoose photo. Each of these is a Banded Mongoose.
This one took a while to identify. This is a dark morph Tawny Eagle.
Zebras and other animals near the lake. Look at all the flamingos in the background.
Group lunch at Giraffe Manor.
I am definitely not an expert on flowers. If anyone can identify these, this is photo 150.
Adam, getting a photo. I was jealous of this telephoto lens, which was much better than mine.
Vervet monkey.
Walking through a Maasai village.
A typical Kenyan highway scene, with lots of fresh produce stands alongside. I should note, however, that many of the highways in Kenya, except for the very major roads, are not paved.
This is an Oribi. This is one of the smaller members of the antelope family, only a couple feet high.
This was neat. It was a tasty carbonated fruit beverage. I think this is the first time that I had seen a see-through can with aluminum top.
This was hard to photograph, because it was very tiny. I noticed it crawling in the dirt one afternoon. It's only about three to four millimeters long. I'm not sure what it is. Possibly a Red Spider Mite, bright red after feeding, although many of the photos that I found online don't exactly match this.
Captive baby elephants, being raised at the Nairobi elephant orphanage, for eventual reintegration into the wild.
Maasai women.
A White Rhinocerous. White rhinos are not white, as you can see. It was a mischaracterization in language translation that gave this species its name. The Dutch called this the "weit" rhino because "weit" is the Dutch word for "wide," and this species has wide lips compared to the endangered Black Rhino. People thought that "weit" meant white, hence the strange name.
People observing the elephants at the elephant orphanage.
Warthogs. These are similar to Bush Pigs, but the warthog is probably a bit more common.
Statues outside one of the Nairobi nature walk areas.
Many of the Kenyan highways have these traffic spike barriers so vehicles have to slow down. Sometimes they are so authorities can check permits and passports, and other times they just appear to be there to regulate the speed on the highways.
A baby monkey, about the size of a softball.
This is a Lilac-Breasted Roller, Coracias caudata.
A Plains Zebra, scratching its back on the ground.
This is a Sacred Ibis, Threskiornis aethiopicus.
A very colourful Agama lizard.
A female lion. She doesn't look very happy. Not very surprising, considering how many flies there are on her nose.
More Greater Flamingos.
Overlooking Lake Nakuru. Such a beautiful view.