Nancy and I were able to see 580 species of birds on this trip to Kenya, plus numerous animals, including the "big five." This trip was with anticipation of being during the rainy season, thinking we would spend several days of our three weeks sitting in a lodge waiting for the rain to let up. As it happened, we were only rained on, of any amount, one afternoon that we had chosen to take the afternoon off and rest. We have been so lucky on all of our trips so far relating to weather. Our guide and driver were superb, very bird and wildlife knowledgable, and the driver knew the country roads and trails like the back of his hand. Our guide had lived in the area for several years as he and his wife helped develop a tent lodge in the middle of the serengeti grass lands along a river, although being from England. We visited it on our way through our planned route. We traveled approximately 3,000 miles in three weeks, stayed in 14 different lodges, and were at elevations of approximately 11,000 feet to sea level.
We were joined on this trip by one other birder, Mike from Maryland. We traveled in a vehicle made for touring the country with a pop-up top, allowing quick access to anything we wanted to photograph. We typically did not exit the vehicle except at designated areas due to the expected dangers noted for in this country, such as the nine lions that stood up, one at a time as we approached for the second time, having reversed our course to take another trail. We were but 15 feet from the first lion lying in the grass but did not see them. The leopard we encountered was but 10 feet from us when the driver spotted it sneaking thru the tall grass along side the trail.
With the unrest in several of the countries in Africa, now including Kenya, we are reluctant to return to find the other half of the birds we did not see that can be found there in Kenya. Maybe some day, but for now, we will enjoy the ones we were able to photograph, and we hope you will enjoy the ones we posted below.
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| Only 6 inches tall. |
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| One of my favorite photos. |
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| On the endangered list. |
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| A giraffe in this case. |
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| Not a bird, but a Serval. |
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| Another favorite. |
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| Rivals our Bald Eagle. |
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| Only 600 left on this planet. |
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| Very small. |
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| Best non-bird photo. |
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| A White Rhino in this case. |
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| First seen in France. |
