I think I might be having another giraffe moment. George is a fabulous guide and although he doesn't take photos for himself (he takes phone snaps to upload to his Mara Guide Group) he is brilliant at positioning the vehicle for the best light and angle. No doubt driving Paul Goldstein (professional photographer and one of Kicheche's owners) for so many years has rubbed off on him. He also knows his animals and their behaviour intimately and as a consequence will tell me what to be ready for and once I've started shooting to keep going - I have a habit of thinking I've taken too many shots and so easing off the shutter, thereby missing vital moments. That doesn't happen when I've got George saying "keep shooting, keep shooting". Just outside camp we stopped and watched these giraffes drinking.
It almost looks like one body and three heads.
Awe, that's so cute!
Let me just stick my tongue up my nose.
Anything you can do ...............
Eventually we dragged ourselves away and spotted this Striped Kingfisher posing nicely.
A small family of silver-backed Jackal where hanging around near the track.
This one was enjoying the warm sunshine and wasn't keen on moving.
There is a healthy lion population in this conservancy and sure enough we soon found some. Whether these two had been intimate recently or not I don't know but they were happily sitting around together.
We thought this might be a prelude to mating (Lions mate very frequently during a short, intense breeding period,
often coupling every 15–30 minutes, totaling up to 50–70 times a day for
about 3–5 days. This high frequency occurs when a lioness is in heat, helping
to maximize the chance of conception, which is low per act).
But she just wandered off.
Leaving him to show us his best side.
Before hanging his mouth open and looking gormless once again.
The lioness had moved to a sunnier spot.
George said there were quite a few cubs in an overgrown hollow behind where she was sitting and she wanted them to move.
Despite her standing and calling for a long time, none of the cubs appeared.
So eventually she gave up and went back to them. It's hard to see on this photo but there are about 4-5 nursing mothers (any lioness with milk will happily feed any cub).
The cub here is the youngest; only a few weeks old.
And of course the branch would be straight across this one's face.
We sat and watched a while longer, all the time pestered by horrible flies and eventually we gave up. Just as we set off this Mongoose appeared, I think it's a Little rather than a Banded.
Rather a good afternoon I thought.
