Capturing the Moment

Meal Time for Lions Morning Growl   When people ask me what a good time to visit Kenya is, I tell them pretty much anytime. With places like the Masai Mara, Kenya is a wildlife lovers fantasy world. There are so many parks, game reserves, and fence-less plains here where you can see wild animals grazing. And where you find grazers you will inevitably find predators lurking not too far behind. Or in the case of lions, they might be so sure of there place in the wildlife hierarchy that no lurking is necessary. Fresh Kill Vultures got too close Our first indication that predators were about here in the Mara was the sheer number of carcasses strewn about the savanna. We drove past so many wildebeest, zebra, and buffalo skeletons which were still intact but picked perfectly clean on our way into and around the reserve. Then we hit the motherload, a pack of lions with a fresh kill! Typical scene in the Masai Mara Sleep Time Play Time This pack of lions was...

Our beautiful Mara lodging at the Serena Safari Lodge Mom and Calf Buffalo Male Waterbuck   The Masai Mara National Reserve is the crown jewel of Kenya's parks. It is contiguous with Tazania's Serengeti National Park and is the home of the famous Great Migration of zebra and wildebeest from July to October. Even though we were here on the very back end of the Great Migration we still saw plenty of animals planning on staying and others lined up heading South.   The Mara, as the locals call it, is also a wonderful place to spot predators. In fact, we saw so many that I will leave those till the next post and focus on the place and the grass-eaters of the African savanna that we came across.  Masai Mara gets its name from the traditional homeland of the Maasai people who lived here, as well as the Maa language, in which 'mara' means spotted, an apt description for the random acacia trees dotting the landscape here. I had been here ten years ago during my ...

A few flamingos remain at Lake Nakuru  Lake Nakuru National Park was created in 1961 to protect the dense wildlife area in and around Lake Nakuru located in Kenya's rift valley area. The lake is one of Kenya's rift valley soda lakes, which have natural dissolved minerals giving it an alkaline or saline content. It is pretty wild to see a salty lake this far inland and at an elevation of 1754m above sea level. The lake gained fame for the thousands, sometimes millions of pink flamingos that feed along its shores, sometimes giving the illusion that the entire lake is pink. If you ever watch the movie 'Out of Africa' you can see a beautiful overview of Lake Nakuru as Robert Redford flies over it.   A bleak sight at Lake Nakuru  Even though Lake Nakuru National Park is home to rhinos, lions, leopards, and buffalo, it's the hoards of flamingos that are the real draw. However since 2013 there has been an alarming rise in the level of the lake. The rising waters...

Samburu Sentrim Camp Sizing up the prey: Leopard   In the past week our whirlwind tour of Kenya's best National Parks and game reserves has taken us to Acacia Camp, Tsavo West, Tsavo East, Amboseli, Solio Ranch, Aberdare, and now across the equator to Samburu National Park. Samburu is again a huge change in environment. We left the lush moorlands of the Aberdares behind us and entered a dry, dusty shrubland with a mostly dry riverbed running through it. I remember 10 years ago this place being the spot where I first saw lions in the wild, so I was very eager to get back.   Most of the group stayed at the uber fancy Larson's Tent Camp, while Lea and I 'made do' with a place 30km down the way called Sentrim Camp. Before we even got into the park we saw a new species, the Grevy Zebra, which I grew up with on St. Catherines Island. This island was the off-site breeding program for some of the Bronx Zoo's most endangered, yet prolific animals. Imagine a Jura...