Cattle Egret
Birds are always a little more amusing when they’re looking directly at you. This is a cattle egret and it was photographed in Uganda. Cattle egrets also occur in the United States and as the name indicates, they’re often found around cattle. Like other egrets and herons, they are primarily wading birds, but they make their way to pastures to pluck ticks and flies from cows and other mammals.
Elephant Eye
Although these eyelashes may look long, they’re actually quite short for an African elephant. Sometimes you see elephants with four inch long lashes. They act as sunshades to block out the harsh light, and also dust, of the African savannah. This one was photographed in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
Mountain Gorilla Mother and Baby
There were three baby gorillas in the troop of twenty three that we saw in the Ugandan jungle. The two other babies were running around, swinging from vines and playing when this one settled into its mother’s arms to take a nap.
Crested Crane
Certainly, the crested cranes of eastern Africa are among the finest looking of all the cranes. This one was photographed on an island in the middle of Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda. They are also sometimes called crowned cranes, or crested crowned cranes.
Elephants at Twilight
I posted a similar photo a few years ago, but was recently going through my files and I was able to get a cleaner image of these three African elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. The sun had been down for a while when I took this shot in the last possible light of the day. In the background you can see the euphorbia candelabrum trees that are typical of the Ugandan savannah.
Burchell’s Zebra Portrait
Just a zebra minding its business. There are three different kinds of zebra in Africa, the mountain zebra, Grevy’s zebra and plains zebra. This guy is a Burchell’s zebra which is a subspecies of the plains zebra. You never know when you might need this valuable information. This photo was taken in Mburro National Park in Uganda.
Baby Mountain Gorilla
A quick break from Brazil to head back to Uganda. This was one of the four babies in the troop of twenty three mountain gorillas we saw in Bwindi National Park.
The Kingfisher Lodge, Uganda
I usually don’t take pictures of the places that I stay at, but this particular lodge was very cool. We were in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. The two story huts had great balconies off the backside and amazing views out across the plains. You can’t tell from this picture, but elephants were walking around down there in the valley below.