Red-flanked bluetail

I almost forgot this one, the Waxham bluetail from back in October.

Turkana Tribe

During my last couple of visits to Lake Turkana we have made friends with a small group of Turkana people who are living close to where we have been carrying out surveys. At the moment a drought is underway, which means they have to collect water from around 10 miles from their settlement.  To save them the two day trip, which consists of one day to walk to the nearest water and one day to walk back to their settlement, we took their water cans back to South Horr and returned them full the following morning.

I'm not sure how they manage such a marathon trek in such heat with so little water, I walked around 1km one day and had to immmediatley drink 3 litres of water! 

Turkanas, dont normally like having their photograph taken because they think the photograph is taking their blood away.  Providing them with water and a few kilos sugar, which they normally trade for goats persuaded them photography wouldn't harm them.  In the end I was inundated with requests to take their photo.

This mum encourages her little girl to drink so she can give us back an empty water container for refill

Turkana women shaing out sugar and tobaco

Heading back to camp

When a baby goat is born the turkanas carry them around for a couple of days until they build up their strength and are able to join the herd. 

The Turkanas usually wear sandals made from old tyres, but they often wear nothing on their feet, the ground is littered with sharp stones and thorns and would rip our feet to shreds in a few hours.  Visible in the photo of the girl above is the missing bottom two incisors, these are always pulled out in early childhood.

Link to Turkana on Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkana_people

I'm not sure about some of the pictures which I think are of another tribe but the information seems pretty much correct.

Lake Turkana birds

African white-backed vulture taken by a small colony in the South Horr valley

Buff-crested bustard very common between South Horr and Lake Turkana, it is seldom seen in the open like this one and tend to inhabit semi-wooded habitats on the edge of the desert.

Eastern chanting-goshawk

Lichtenstein's sandgrouse, really hard to find, i only managed to see one group in one week in the desert.

Roller, common in semi-wooded country.

Migrating steppe eagle, one of several seen migrating south during the week.

This Verreaux's eagle-owl was hunting weaver birds every night at South Horr Camp. Picture taken using a torch which it completley ignored and carried on hunting.

More Kenya, Lake Turkana images coming soon

I have been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time in in Kenya over the past couple of months, great birds and great people. more pics to come soon.  Kori bustard and two Turkana girls.