So…Neil’s birthday was yesterday…he turned the big seven zero and celebrated early with an almost 14 mile ride in 53 minutes for 15.6 mph with a top speed of a bit over 20 on the downwind leg. After that it was mostly a rest day until dinner when he did some black rice with corn to be on the side of some pan fried halibut and grouper…there was just one small piece of each in the freezer so he and Connie split them…and then had some pineapple as well and some caramel cake similar tiramisu later on in the evening. They get it whenever Publix has it and have learned to divide it into 4 pieces instead of 2 based on their dessert rule that you run out of “this is really good” before you run out of dessert and they stop rather than waste the calories…so they almost always eat less dessert than what one would consider a normal serving or a single dessert at a restaurant which they split if they have it at all.

They put off Date Night© from last night until today and are headed to Bonefish Grill for a Tequila and Tapas dinner of which they’ll surely have leftovers as it’s 5 courses even though they’re supposedly small plates.

There’s an Elks thing over the weekend they’ll head off to as well…quick weekend trip to Orlando to the Rosen Center. He’s taking cameras and will head off for some photos at Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive while she’s in the meeting…he’s not expecting much as it’s summer and way past the breeding season but hope springs eternal ya know. And he upgraded them from a standard room (queen bed, small table and not much seating other than the bed itself) to a king bed suite with kitchen so they’ll have a sitting area with a couch and a fridge to keep drinks cold for their trip down to Costa Rica later on. 

Ok, let’s dive into…again…photos from Tanzania.

Female Kori Bustard.

And her male counterpart displaying his finery in hopes of catching the ladies for…ya know…he strutted around for 10 minutes (at least) all puffed up even though there were zero, count ‘em zero, ladies around to be impressed. Mebbe he was just practicing…when he gets really going he blows up the white patch under his bill into a big white balloon thing. Neil got a picture of that but it was from the back and was crappy so he didn’t process it for me.

Red Necked Spurfowl…it’s a member of the francolin family (whatever that is…looks like a guinea fowl to me…it’s about the size of a large chicken.

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl.

Tawny Eagle…this species has a great deal of plumage coloration differences as we’ve seen from various posts here.

And on Day 5 they moved from the first camp they were at to the second one located more in the southern Serengeti as opposed to the north. It’s more of a wooded area than the savannah they were seeing up north. Once again…doesn’t really come to mind when one thinks of the word tent. The bathroom is solid walled and is behind the beds but the remainder is canvas sided. That’s Neil’s roomie Anthony at the table.

Here’s the outside front, the main camp buildings are about 200 yards to the left, he’s standing here on the path leading back to them. 

Running Thompson’s Gazelle.

Hyena.

And here’s the male Kori Bustard with his throat patch inflated…he can’t remember if this is the same individual as the one a few photos back or not. This one didn’t have any ladies around to be impressed either.  

Python…not sure what kind but it was about 12 or 15 feet long. The other vehicle was a mile or so away when they found it so they hung around to keep track of it until they arrived. Ellison wouldn’t drive very close to it…he had no problem driving right up to lions or cheetahs but snakes he said…no way.

Black Chested Snake Eagle.

Rainbow out on the horizon.

On the way back to the camp in late afternoon they found this lion lounging.

And got a nice portrait of him.

Then found this Black Backed Jackal around the back side of the kopje. He was hanging around a hundred yards or so away from the pride and kept sneaking over to a kill ab out 50 yards from them to grab a bite or two then scurried off again. Fortunately for him…the kill was mostly out of sight from where the lions were lounging as they were on the down sun side of the kopje to stay mostly in the shade and the wind coming from that direction as it was a warm late afternoon.

Along with the rest of the pride. 

Neil did a high key version of the lion above…he likes the dramatic B&W effect here.

And finally…near the same kopje…another Verreaux’s Eagle Owl…and again slightly different coloration…there’s a lot of that going on with birds in Africa.

After the shots above…they made like the Baja 1000 getting back to the camp…because of roads and gates and such one had to leave the National Park for a couple of miles on a more main (i.e., not paved but graded and at one time compacted dirt road) before reentering the park to get to the camp…and you had to be through the gate by sunset although they were a bit loose on the definition of sunset at the gate. 

Sorry…no interesting things found on the net this time…it’s been kinda slim pickin’s lately.

Cyas.