Kenya - Thursday, Lake Nakuru, Afternoon Game Drive

After lunch and the early part of the afternoon processing photos and writing up this blog, whilst simultaneously avoiding the hottest part of the day, we set-off on another game drive.
First stop was the watering hole where we’d seen all the waders a couple of drives back. This time no waders, instead an African Fish Eagle was taking advantage of the recently deceased Buffalo:



Next we spotted an Augur Buzzard perched in a tree and looking for dinner:



I willed it to take off, to give me a chance to capture it in the act. It did!





The drive was proving to be quite slow in terms of big cats but we were still enjoying ourselves. We stooped off at one point in the middle of a group of very vocal Rattling Cisticolas:



Next-up a second African Harrier Hawk, showing much more clearly than the one we saw at Sweetwater:



It’s a big bird, but of course size is relative:



The Greater Blue-eared Glossy Starlings are just fabulous birds, and appear to be just about everywhere:



Just around the corner from the Starling a juvenile Giraffe:



Next-up one of the weirdest things we saw in Africa… a Secretary Bird:



Why are they called this? They are all leg, scratching around under bushes to grab things and eat them. We watched a pair of them for a few minutes, fascinating and weird together.

This Steppe Eagle was one of four together in a single tree, though this one was showing the most clearly:



Our last new species of the day was a Bar-tailed Trogon which proved elusive and hard to photograph even once we’d spotted it:



We were about 80% of the way round the circuit of the National Park when we got close to the lake where a group of Lesser Flamingos had gathered and were moving around each other, the light was also very sympathetic, rendering the birds plumage beautiful to behold:



Seen here briefly on film, though the engine was still running:



The last bird of the day proved to be quite dramatic. This Tawny Eagle:



decided to have a go at one of the not-quite-adult Black-backed Jackals we’d seen on the morning drive. It flew in for the attack:



Presumably at least wounding the Jackal, before then being chased off by the parent:



It settled on a nearby tree, no doubt keen to see what effect its attack will have had on the injured animal.

So the game drive started and finished with Eagles :)