A stroll through the backyard (May 22, 2011)

          Finally, after a week of watching the wildlife in my backyard pass me by at a distance, I went for my first walk today.  I'm not sure if I could have acted like any more of a tourist if I tried.  As we strolled down the hill into the enormous open green space behind our house, we were greeted by a heard of 30 impala.  Impala are like miniature deer, but much cuter.  What's interesting is that in a heard of 30 or so, there only seemed to be one male, surrounded by a family of female and young.  If being an impala spouse and father is anything like it is in the human species, that must be one very busy man!

A herd of impala

          Within 100 m of the herd of impala, we came across 5 giraffes sitting in the shade and grazing on acacia trees.  It is interesting to note that acacia trees are the most common type of tree around the lake and are heavily browsed by giraffes.  As development around the lake continues, giraffes (and other wildlife) find themselves forced into an increasingly small grazing space.  This also means that the trees in that grazing space are very heavily browsed.  But, the trees don't go down without a fight.  You can always tell the trees that are over browsed because they are the ones that are short and gnarly and they have developed 2 inch spikes all over their branches.  It's a rather interesting adaptation!

My roomie, Melissa, caught this great shot.  It would look even nicer if I could figure out how to rotate it!

           OK, back to the giraffes.  As we approached, the 3 of us girls did a 3 way camera exchange, each hoping that the other would be able to snap one or two good shots of them with a real, wild giraffe!  (Did I mention that I was a big, fat tourist?)  In the end, we got a few good ones.  The giraffes tried to avoid us by moving further into the field, but we followed them, cameras still clicking.  (I now know that I shouldn't be that really invasive type of tourist because it isn't healthy for this already stressed population of animals to be disrupted and stressed unnecessarily by humans.)  On the ensuing 30 minute walk to the yacht club, I never felt lonely in the field.  We past one heard after another of zebra, wildebeests, impala, waterbuck and an assortment of birds.  The highlight of the trip was seeing a baby zebra suckling!  Over the course of the last week and a half I have seen all sorts of interesting animal behaviour, including mating monkeys, jumping fish, grunting hippos, and suckling baby wildlife of various species, but I have to say, it never gets old!  Kenya is truly a very beautiful country.