September 16 – Masai Mara Game Reserve

Sunrise over the camp's marsh.

We were up very early for breakfast before our next game drive.  Breakfast was interrupted when some of the local elephants wandered into camp and poked around.  Everybody headed under the covered patio, and the tables we all moved under as well.  The elephants don't go there.  Eventually they left so everyone could have breakfast. 

PS.  The really tiny elephant in the middle is a statue.  The live elephants are teenagers.

We ordered a packed lunch and headed out to find more wildebeests and hopefully another crossing.  Near where we had seen the crossing yesterday we came across a feeding frenzy with Ruppell’s and White Backed vultures working over a wildebeest carcass.  Guide thought that the wildebeest probably died a natural death, and the couple of hyena’s hanging around had already fed, so the vultures came in next.

Most of the birds were Ruppell's Vultures.

They were joined by a couple of Marabou Storks who occasionally tried to sneak in and grab a bit.  One got a dangly piece that must have been too dirty for his tastes, so he walked down to a puddle by the road and rinsed it off.  

At one point two of the storks both managed to get ahold of a single piece of the wildebeest, and they played tug of war with that piece for quite a while. 

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Feeding frenzy video 1
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We drove by the site later in the day and all that was left of the wildebeest was the rib cage and a few other bits.  Circle of life.

We eventually crossed the Mara River on the only bridge for miles.  

We made a precarious drive down a very muddy embankment and across a small ravine.  The vehicle spent a fair amount of time just sliding around with no traction at all in the mud.  But we eventually made it safely.

A watering hole.

From a small rise we were able to see a small portion of the vast Masai Mara.

Shortly after crossing the small ravine we came across a large band of banded mongooses.

This side of the river we drove around the hillsides where we found many, many wildebeests. 

In one area we saw a very, very long lines of them heading off into the distance...

led by a half dozen zebras.  So funny. 

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Zebras leading the herd video
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Wildebeest herd video
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Of course, there were many other animals in the area as well.  Lots of elephants:

jackals

Thompsons gazelles

more zebras,

topi,

and crocodiles.

We also saw hartebeests (a new gazelle for us)

and baby warthogs (sort of adorable but not quite).

Today we saw a very large variety of birds.  Some were new to us and others were familiar friends.

Saddlebilled stork (young),

woolly necked stork,

lilac breasted roller,

black headed crane

sacred ibis,

Egyptian goose,

blue eared starling,

red necked spurfowl,

and white bellied bustard.

As we were coming back across the bridge Solomon spotted an Agama Lizard.  They are so colorful.

We eventually ended up at the river crossing site where we broke out lunch…only to get a call that the animals were crossing upriver.  We made it there just at the tail end of the crossing.

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More First Wildebeest Crossing
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Tail end first crossing of the day
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More Gathering of the Wildebeests
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So it was back to the original site with the hopes of another crossing. This one happened almost exactly as the day before but without the zebras.  About 500 animals crossed.  

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More Second Wildebeest Crossing
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There were tons of safari vehicles, although Solomon said there weren't nearly as many as a normal (non-pandemic) year.

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Gathering for second crossing video
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Planning session video
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The wildebeest finally cross.  There are hippos near the right bank above the wildebeests.  And a croc somewhere.

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2nd Crossing of the day video
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We did see that a croc managed to catch a wildebeest calf.  

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Warning:  video of crocodiles catching a young wildebeest.
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The herd after the crossing.

Within five minutes of the end of the crossing the rains started.  Solomon got pretty soaked as he put the rolled canvases down on the vehicle.  It rained off and on during the drive to the camp.  But it was dry that evening in camp.