Wildebeest Migration, Serengeti

…if not another planet! We are experiencing rather horrible weather at the moment. I have been almost glad my car is at the shop so I don’t have to deal with it. But the prospect of walking in a deluge of thunder and anything from freezing rain to torrential downpours was not a fun option either. Watching for black ice underfoot, lest I tumble. Add the warning of heavy wind gusts until 3:00 p.m. today to yesterday’s flood warnings.

I saw a beautiful male White-Winged Scoter yesterday morning in the river outside the train station, but could not even bring myself to pull the point-and-shoot, which was all I dared pack in anticipation of the forecast, out of my backpack, because the next moment I was nearly blown over by a gust of wind. This morning when I arrived three WW Scoters flew by with five Red-Breasted Mergansers – nice to see even if they were gone in a split second.

Anyway, I’ve grown tired of the weather – today we are presently, at 34 degrees and whatever the wind, warmer than we will be for the next 6 days as temperatures steadily plummet again. I have retreated to the task of going through the East Africa trip pictures, and here are some from the day we left the Serengeti and traveled to Tarangire National Park.

Leopard Tortoises

Perhaps no surprises here but a reminder that color does exist somewhere.

Eastern Double-Collared Sunbird

There are so many species of eagle to worry about, and there are snake eagles and fish eagles and hawk eagles too… This Steppe Eagle was nice enough to pose. Please click on the photos for more detail.

Steppe Eagle

The Black-Breasted Snake Eagle below flew by close enough to identify later.

Black-Breasted Snake Eagle

So as not to leave out the magnificent mammals that were spectacular to see…never as many elephants to constitute a herd, but small groups nonetheless.

African Elephants

On the same day as the rest of these photographs, we were fortunate enough to see Cheetahs.

And in my desperation for color, I conclude this post with a Grey-Headed Kingfisher.

Grey-Headed Kingfisher

I’ll be back soon, weather (ha!) permitting.