Ok, moving along here. Connie and Neil had a nice date night the other day at Applebee’s…they’ve got an outside patio and it was a nice day…and as it’s late April nice days are going to be few and far between going forward until October or so. And he wanted a burger…they’ve got this one with mushrooms, Swiss cheese and he adds bacon…and the sauce on the mushroom makes it nice and juicy…and they’ll actually cook it where it is still pink in the middle which is a bonus. 

Then last night he made some chicken curry and they’ll have leftovers from that today.

Connie’s off at physical therapy…again. She was having some back issues caused basically by some joint issues in her spine so the doc sent her to PT to get some exercises to strengthen the areas that are causing issues and alleviate the pain she’s having. Strangely enough…it turns out that most of the issues come from standing but if she’s wearing heels instead of flats it doesn’t happen much. While he’s unhappy that she’s having issues…for him her wearing heels is a plus…she dresses up for date night and for choir on Sunday’s and he likes that because he’s old fashioned and likes it when women dress attractively.

He got his new backpack in the other day and got both the old one and the new one properly configured for carrying stuff on their upcoming trip to Costa Rica and his follow on trip after that to Glacier National Park. They’re both looking forward to the trips for different reasons…he’s going in the jungle in Costa Rica for monkeys, sloths, and wildlife and she’s going fishing one day and hanging around the resort, pool, and hot tub the rest of the time. She’s going as a +1 on the photo workshop which means no photo stuff but she and the other +1s will eat meals with the group, and if she catches any fish the resort will cook them for dinner.

He’s also got a lost of settings changes from Africa…things that didn’t work as he wanted them to and some additional recommendations and ideas he’s going to implement for future outings…most of them are in the autofocus area with various options for quickly changing from one area to another and to use or disable subject detection. 

Ok, here are the shots from the rest of day 2.

Another Superb Starling…again with the stare down…what’s with that (like the weaver last time) from such little birds.

And a couple of panorama images from the tea break where he got the starling above and the weavers at the end of day 2 part 1.

Lion couple.

And here’s the group at the tea break…from left to right we have Ellison our driver/guide, Luann, Pakeo the second guide just basely visible, Amanda (the sole Sony shooter on the trip), David in the yellow shirt and then Steve, Andy (Neil’s roomie), and finally Steve and Rose our hosts/workshop leaders on the far right. They stopped most days for tea in mid to late morning at either one of the kopje formations or a tree…mostly the latter unless the drivers were able to verify that there weren’t any creatures in the rocks.

A kopje that didn’t make it into the panos above.

Superb Starling with some nesting material…it was building up in the top of the tree.

Male and then female Agama Lizards…we saw a bunch of these over the week.

Another of the many weaver species in the area…the one on the right was happily enjoying its grasshopper meal when the second (probably its mate) tried to steal it.

Lilac Breasted Roller.

Juvenile giraffe and mother.

Coqui Francolin…yeah, it’s a strange name…duck sized bird 

Black Winged Kite…some serious talons on this species.

Tawny Eagle.

Ostrich.

I know it’s not the right color based on the name…but this is a Black Headed Heron…Neil thinks it’s got the same common ancestor as a Great Blue Heron as they’re really similar.

Lion…cubs and mama…and dad too. This was really getting close to sunset…

Three of the four cubs.

This wee one was really fascinated by mom’s tail.

Dad yawning. My…what big teeth you have dad.

Closeup of a second yawn.

And all four cubs lined up to follow mom across the road at the kopje to another smaller rock pile. Ellison said that she had 6 cubs originally (assuming it’s the same pride which he thought it probably was based on location and recognizing the male)…so apparently 2 didn’t make it…about 1/3 to 1/2 of each litter doesn’t survive…and a lot of the ones that don’t are killed by Masai tribesmen. That tribe doesn’t eat wild game…only cattle…which they graze illegally on the park lands. The lions kill some of their cattle so the brave warriors seek out lion prides, make enough noise to drive the adults away and then slaughter any cubs they find. This practice has eliminated almost completely the lion population in the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area located adjacent to Serengeti National Park. At one of their tea stops a group of Masai tribesmen walked past a quarter mile or so away…our drivers reported them to park authorities at the end of the day…but they were all armed so the group ignored them and didn’t take photos as directed by Ellison and Pakeo. Steve/Rose were glad that they specified no cultural activities as part of the workshop package as that usually means a visit to a Masai village and neither they or any of the participants were interested in supporting a tribe that violates national park boundaries to graze domestic cattle and kills the offspring of predators the park was established to help protect.

You’ll see these cubs again in Day 3’s images…Steve is a cat guy so we came back to this pride the next morning.

Cyas.