7/24 -- On to Amboseli

Our early start this morning got delayed when one of our group broke his wrist, making our first stop a nearby hospital. Amazingly, the whole xray/diagnosis/casting process only took an hour and a half. Today was a long drive from northwest of Nairobi to southeast of Nairobi, along the border with Tanzania. While we were waiting for the hospital process, Jim wandered around and took pictures of the birds there, including a couple new ones.

Weaver bird and nest. There are at least a dozen kinds
of yellow ones.

Weaver bird

Weaver taking off

Mouse birds

Much of the drive was on the highway and somewhat faster than the drive up because it was Sunday and fewer trucks were out. South of Nairobi, we stopped for lunch and a chat with a young woman who is actively rescuing young women from 'female circumcision' and forced marriages at age 13. She said 10% of the girls die from the process, that it is an assembly line, transferring bacteria from girl to girl, and very painful. She left her early marriage and rescued her two younger sisters before they could be cut and married off, but is now an outcast to her tribe as are the sisters. She set up a school to educate the girls and a shop to allow them to earn  money by making an selling souvenirs. Kenya has passed laws against this mutilation, but is fighting tradition in some tribes. Penalties are up to a $1000 fine and 6 months in  jail.

A small part of the Kibera Slum, which most of the group visited

From there we left the good roads and spent several hours on gravel ones. Two of those hours were Amboseli National Park, in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We saw lots of familiar animals as well as the Thompson Gazelle, several ostrich, and a sleepy hyena who lifted its head a couple times to show that it was not dead. We saw flamingos from a distance again and are promised that tomorrow we will get to the side of the lake where they are. We also got a nice view of Mt. Kilimanjaro at sunset before we checked into our tent camp.

Above and below: Secretary bird - we watched it stomp on
something small to eat and stalk off.

Ostrich

Young Grant Gazelles with stripes like the smaller Thompson's
Gazelle, which signals predators that they are adults when they
are not. Notice the black stripe fading on the nearer one.

Profile of Thompson's gazelle

Thompson's gazelle - much smaller than Grant's. The other big
difference is that the white patch on the rump stops at the tail.

Some kind of plover??

Some of the elephants here are much lighter gray than the
others we have seen.

Great Gray Heron

Egyptian Goose

Flamingos from a distance

Sacred Ibis

Zebra Parade

Jacana

Egret

Lone hippo -- water in the area is marshy. He is a ways away
from a shallow lake, so not sure where he spends his days.

Resting Hyena

Mt. Kilimanjaro at sunset