More Safari Pics - from Ndutu and Serengeti parks

I have selected maybe another 100 photos from the 6400 I shot, trying to capture in general what we experienced. I did not shoot a lot of scenery or people pics because I had the long telephoto zoom on the camera and rarely switched it out for the regular wide angle to tele zoom. I will rely on Rani's cell pictures and those of our friends to fill in these gaps at a later time...

 

Because we were in Ndutu and Serengeti during the great migration we saw huge herds of zebras intermingled with wildebeests and other ungulates. I must have shot 500 zebra pics, so please forgive me if I post a number of the better ones as these are such photogenic horses!

We did not witness any calving, but did see many very young wildebeest and zebra babies

These last two photos provide a bit of the panorama, too. These plains of Ndutu had much shorter grass than we saw in the central Serengeti a couple of days later

We saw many animals taking dust baths presumably to either cool off or rid themselves of parasites

Male waterbuck (I think)

We did not get all that close to ostriches but this shot caught a female and a male side by side

Same two as above but with a friend added

We thought these two were probably siblings?

A little bit of context. I believe this was shot in Tarangire park on the first day when elephants were still a novelty to us

Our guide John was able to estimate the age of each elephant to within a few years. The one on the right is a lot older based on its tusk length, amongst other things

Wildebeests were present in great herds but I found it very hard to get a good photo of them because they were shyer than zebras and often fast moving

The baby zebras are much lighter brown than the adults. We often saw babies lying down and at first we thought that they were dead because they lay completely still for several minutes at a time. We all cheered when the first baby we saw like this popped up onto its legs and walked away.

Another adult and young zebra

A jackal gives an impressive yawn

We think this is an Abdim's Stork

Possibly an African Hare

We had the good luck to see a few different groups of cheetahs including a mother and her two offspring

The cheetahs we watched were mostly lazing around although they would occasionally get up and move to another suitable looking place to lie down again

Marabou Stork - some people refer to it as the undertaker bird

These are Kirk's dikdiks, the 2nd smallest antelopes. They resemble and run like large rabbits

Male impala

This lovely bird is a Superb starling - much more colorful than the European starlings we have in Canada

Marabou storks off for an evening stroll

More photos still to come...