Mara Valley - Day 3 PM

Out again at 16:00 and we firstly drove past the hippo pond.  

Where there were a few out on the banks which is surprising as it was a hot, sunny afternoon.

A male then decided to go and join these two females.

I'm not sure if this is a welcoming smile, or a bu**er off grimace.

The male clearly saw it as an invitation and once he'd lumbered up the bank he paid close attention to the female's rear.

And when she continued to ignore him, he simply turned around and tried to sit on her.

The photo clearly illustrates the huge difference in size between the two.

I wonder if the one in the water has been spying on them all the time.

On the bank nearby was this Woolly-necked Stork.

I know that Cape Buffalo are glad of the attention from Oxpeckers for removing ticks etc but do they really have to venture into such places.

I love that this one is actually winking at us.

That's a much better pose from both of them.

Some of the herd had clearly found a nice mud pool to wallow in.

I'm not entirely sure where we bumped into these elephants, but there must have been more than these two there.

I think these are very similar to ones I've already taken, but I'm trying to get braver with amy cropping; so many magazine pictures have bits chopped off

Rüppell's Vulture

Unusal to be able to get so close to Hammerkops.

Me and my shadow.

"Stop pecking my head" an old Northern expression which fits this scene well. 

Lone Dik Dik

Our last stop of the day was back to check on lions and when we first got there I really thought we'd arrived at the site of a massacre - there were bodies everywhere!

Sadly Esther thought the small cub on the right here probably wouldn't survive the night.  He was probably a twin of the one feeding, but as you can see half the size.

The greedy brother didn't look like he was going to surrender his position to anyone.

It's 19:00 here now and almost dark so I think this new camera is definitely giving me better results in low light.