Birding in Kenya V

and a visit to the nursery school.

As promised this is my last bird post. I have finally caught up sharing all the birds and other animals we've seen during the first two weeks back in the valley.

This little chick was standing on a rock in the village market calling plaintively for its mother

On Tuesday, Sue collected me at home to go to the market. We did our shopping, chatted to the stall-owners and loaded our lovely fresh produce into the vehicle.

We paid a visit to the company nursery school. Sue dropped off some "dress-up" clothes and other toys for the little ones. She also had a bag full of cardboard boxes and other recepticles for re-use in the school. I was impressed to see how innovative the staff was by recycling light-bulb cardboard holders to good effect.

 Re-use of cardboard light-bulb holders in a very practical manner

The Head Teacher, Monica, with the "baby" class. Here she marches with these three-year-olds after a visit to the bathroom. They are encouraged to wash their hands in a bowl of water which has disinfectant (Dettol) added to it 

Charles and Rita Field-Marsham, owners of the mine, in partnership with Free the Children Program.  You can also read more about this program here

Once we'd taken our leave of Monica, we returned to the vehicle. We were off for a short spell of birding!

As we arrived at the dam, a smallish crocodile slid from the bank into the water. Further along the bank, the large crocodile which I posted about earlier this week, lay sunning itself.

Nile crocodile on the banks of the dam, basking in the hot African sun. From this angle (I was lower down on the bank and much closer than on Sunday) you can see how huge its legs are

What a wonderful way to spend a weekday morning: wandering through the African bush with a good friend 

We wandered through the bush and watched and photographed many birds which I'm not going to post about here. I've posted two birds below. A bee-eater which I've posted about before.

 White-fronted Bee-eater

and a sunbird species which was a first for me.

Beautiful Sunbird

The Beautiful Sunbird is a small slender-looking sunbird with a long think tail. It has metallic-green upperparts and a red chest with yellow sides. The belly colour varies according to the region: east of the Rift Valley it is black while in the west it is green.

And that brings me to the end of my bird posts this week. Thanks for visiting.