Tuesday, 28 June 2011
I paid a visit to Ol Pejeta Conservancy. See here. Here's some info about it (from the website):
The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is an important“not-for-profit” wildlife conservancy in the Laikipia District of Kenya and the largest sanctuary for black rhinos in East Africa.Our mission statement reads as follows: The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to conserve wildlife, provide a sanctuary for great apes and to generate income through wildlife tourism and complementary enterprises for re-investment in conservation and community development.Working closely with the Government of Kenya, our conservation activities are carried out to the highest international standards.
Our revenue generating enterprises includeworld-class wildlife tourism and a fully integrated livestock production system. All surplus internally generated revenues are used in conjunction with donor funds to support anextensive community outreach programme, and to sustain conservation initiatives beyond our boundaries.
In summary the Ol Pejeta Conservancy aims to develop as a financially self-sustaining and innovative model that achieves conservation in a manner that produces tangible social benefit at both a local and national level.
Beautiful sunrise at MRC:
Some views along the way:
River crossing:
At the equator!
Street crossing. Just another day in the neighborhood:
Ol Pejeta welcome sign:
Indecent baboon:
I watched a Tawny Eagle being mobbed by two very angry Crowned Lapwings. This shot makes it look like it's the other way around, though.
The open plains of Ol Pejta:
Lots of impala:
I got to see Baraka!
Baraka's sleepy eye, lined with flies
Standing next to a giraffe's neck vertebrae at the visitor's center. I am shorter than a giraffe's neck. No surprise there.
Behind me is a male lion's skull and backbone
Another rhino:
Perfect posing:
Waterbuck, with male impala in the foreground. So far this is my most favorite ungulate. I think I like waterbucks so much because they look like Yakul, the red elk steed that Ashitaka rode in the movie Princess Mononoke.
See?
Rattling Cisticola, rattling away
Rattling Cisticola
Bathing sequence of a Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu male. He's looking at the water lovingly... :)
Belly dip
Splashing away
Hehe, living bird sponge
Gorgeous female waterbuck
Male olive baboon
Red-fronted Barbet, gulping down a beetle
Lose something down there, buddy?
Huh? Did somebody say something
I particularly love this composition...
Pretty butterfly (swallowtail?)
Yellow-rumped Seedeater feasting on grass seeds
Between a stick and a hard place
Now it's obvious why it's called a Yellow-rumped Seedeater
Brimstone Canary
Black-winged Lapwing
Hartebeest, feeding
Here's looking at you, kid
White-bellied Bustard, female
Lesser Striped Swallow
Scaled Pigeon
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Today I went to Ilmotiok Primary School where I wandered about looking for birds (but also sat in on a class presentation)
Another day, another sunrise.
One elephant track... huge! At least fifteen of my little feet can fit in it.
The school
An Ilmotiok classroom
Cute little girl
Fawn-colored Lark... so well camouflaged in its terrestrial environment
Typical African toilet. This is the one all the kids in the school used. Just this one hole in the ground.
Impala tracks?
Beautiful kopje in the distance. Kopjes are insular rock outcrops that provide striking topographic relief against the relatively flat grasslands and thorn tree woodlands that cover much of Lakipia. They are in essence the tips of mountain tops... you don't see the whole mountain because many years ago the land was buried by lava. So kopjes are ancient geological remnants of mountain tops. So cool!
Male and female Von der Decken's Hornbills
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