Back at the camp for lunch and luckily we were once again the only guests as I realised I hadn't yet taken any pictures of the common areas.
Entertainment this lunchtime at the waterhole started with eland.
But very soon a small herd of elephant approached and one of the youngsters thought it great fun to chase away the eland.
The elephants then had the place to themselves apart from a large flock of egret.
After yet another large lunch it was nice to have a walk around while Ian dozed.
I did a circuit of the 1km path all around the perimeter of the property which has been created and well maintained with bark chippings and Louise has positioned large versions of the metal piggies to show the way.
Around 1600 we set off for our last drive and not far out of camp came across the elephants again. I don't know if it was the same youngster causing trouble again but there was a bit of pushing and shoving going on and a very small calf nearly got squashed. The one time I should have switched to video!
Unfortunately, I think we're in for flat, grey skies all afternoon but I rather liked the limited tones of this Grey-Capped Social Weaver sitting on the Acacia branches. The Vachellia drepanolobium or Whistling Thorn Acacia dominates the open bush land which covers 53% of the conservancy. Its nickname comes from the sound the wind makes blowing through the swollen nodes at the base of some spines.
At first glance this is just a bunch of branches, but there are two Bee Eaters sitting there and although they look very different they are the same species - Blue-Cheeked
This one looks like he/she's going through a moult (although I do remember on a previous trip being told that some migratory species lose some of their colour on the journey and it takes a while for it to come back - I've just looked that up and apparently lighter colour feathers keep them cooler when in flight).
This is more like the colouring.
These Ethiopian Swallows look like baubles on a Christmas tree.
Our next encounter was this lone, single tusked, male.
Whilst at first he didn't seem at all bothered by us, a fair degree of ear flapping and head shaking then went on.
I was amazed at the speed he whipped around, no time to move my lens so I clipped his tail.
We haven't seen a great deal of giraffe in Ol Pejeta so it was lovely to be able to spend some time observing this calf and its mum.
It's most unusual for Guinea Fowl to stay still long enough for me to get a shot.
My notes tell me this is a Steppe Eagle rather than a Tawny Eagle like the one I shot this morning) but they are very similar so I could be wrong.
And to round off a terrific afternoon, one for the AoA Album
