Capturing the Moment

  Having fun with the school kids, just outside the boundaries of Lake Manyara park. We had a wonderful walking tour of the village, medical center, and school with a local guide. The hits just keep coming. We've followed cheetah in the Masai Mara, we've cheered on migrating wildebeest swimming across the Mara river in the Serengeti, and now we are living in tree houses, scanning the darkness for nocturnal creatures, and hanging with some of the friendliest kids around in Lake Manyara National Park. Our guide, Aron, took us out on a relaxing drive in the morning. We added new birds to our list, and had our first good look at a mature bateleur eagle. We had rare barbets and fire finches, and lots of colorful kingfishers. We checked the area where we found the tree climbing lions the evening before, but they were nowhere to be found. Just a reminder of how lucky we were to see them at all. It is easy for animals to disappear into the dense bush here. The real jewel of the morning...

One of the most unique lion photos I've ever captured. This was one of the famous tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara. It is a behavior that is hardly seen anywhere else in the world with lions. To find these, up on a tree, was such a huge surprise for us during our drive through the park to our lodge. It is so unusual to have sky as the background behind a lion, since they are usually on the ground and you are shooting down at it from your vehicle. The late afternoon light lit up the inside of the mouth, bringing out incredible detail of the impressive teeth and rough looking tongue.   After six days of intense wildlife safari action in the African savannah of Masai Mara and the Serengeti, we find ourselves traveling to a new ecosystem. We are switching up the vast plains for the lakeside forest of Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania. Its not just a change in scenery we are after, it is a home for new species of animals. Lake Manyara is well known for its numerous monkey, incre...