Feb 15. 0:600 am. 06:55 first edge of sun.   Got up at 03:45 and went out to hang out with the Maasai sentries and hear some sounds.  No one around and only bird sounds.  Head to mess tent to check on chargers of i pad/phones. Sentries in the couches snoring and mumbling in their sleep. Stayed outside til 05:00 when three of staff came down the hill in the dark to make our 05:30 coffee.  In the truck at 06:00 to go catch the leopard mom with her two cubs, which she had left alone when we first saw them.

No leopards anywhere,  worrisome since we saw a pride of lions yesterday pm crossing an adjacent field.  Hopefully they didn’t kill them, which they would make a point of if they were aware.   Southern ground hornbills. Three in tree. New bird. 2 1/2 feet tall,  night jar birds on ground in headlights scatter as we’re about to hit them.   Sun is up now, and the monkeys are starting to come down from the trees.   White backed vultures are in almost every tree.   A dikdik pair, the second smallest antelope  about 18 inches tall, is next to a tree very still, pose for a nice picture.

Sun grouse pair on the ground.  Special feathers on chest that absorb water.  They carry water to their chicks, that suck the water from the chest   Spur winged plover, one of the sharpest plovers, is next new one. We’re going to make a little book for you all attaching faces to these names..   Pool of 15 or 20 hippos, very busy. Two of them yawn  widely.  Lots of very loud grunting, back in water to sleep all day.  Baboons are grooming each other as 15 marabou storks observe from the banks.   African cuckoo. New bird in tree with two brown parrots. Then a bee eater in the next adjacent bush.   A hammerkop nest in a tree.  Nest weighs about 150 lbs. Has four chambers.  Other birds use its nest after it’s gone, like eagles that use the top of it. Pythons have been known to use it as well. The hammerkop came by and landed on the top of a post next to it so we could get a pic.  Head looks like a hammer.  After one use, never uses it again!  Takes three weeks to build.   Grey hornbill we come on next. Slate colored boubou???  Yep great name but plainest bird we’ve seen. Black creck, yellow fronted canary, Hueglins courser.   Thirteen new birds so far and it’s 08:34.   Hyena crosses road in front of us.  Alone, sleek, well-fed, loping.  Healthy  looking. Stopped at 0900 and had picnic breakfast presented by Peter.  French toast, muffins, waffles , bacon, sausage .  The following birds all arrived immediately.  Better than any aviary: spotted morning thrush, (15 diff songs it mimics of other birds) speckle fronted weaver, grey headed sparrow, gray capped weaver, black headed weaver, a Babbitt (ate Bev’s french toast), yellow fronted canary (visited and went inside our truck and explored).   The rest of the morning punctuated by a four foot monitor lizard in the road , a bateleur eagle, a family of baboons and a little fight, elephant family, giraffe family.   Got in 12:30–6 1/2 hours.   Meet us with cold washcloths.  Table is set for 1 pm lunch outside in grass.  May just take a nap.  Can’t go hiking, watch tv, use phone.  No communication here.  Not complaining.   Last night we were the only people in the camp. Eight tents here.  Had dinner with Peter who entertained us with more honey badger stories– unbelievable.   Great fire at sunset.  They call it “bush tv.”   Jambo