Flamingoes Lake Nakuru
We camped one night at Lake Nakuru National Park. Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley soda lakes at an elevation of 1754 m above sea level. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya. This lake is famous for the presence of flamingoes. At any one time there can be anywhere from thousands to millions of flamingoes.
There were a number of others groups camped under the trees near the lake. In the middle of the night, we all heard a horrible screaming. It sounded like someone had been attacked. It turned out that a monkey swinging through the trees had fallen and landed on top of a small pup tent and both the woman occupant and the monkey had both screamed. No one was hurt.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I wasn't including photos of animals because this has been done 100s of time and we all know what lions, elephants, cheetahs, etc, look like. I was amazed at the variety of birds in Kenya. There are over 400 species of birds at Lake Nakuru. There were some serious birders in our group.
Lilac-breasted Roller
Grues Couronnées
Black Headed Gonolek
Malachite Kingfisher
Secretary bird
I feel so inadequate when it comes to identifying bird species. I need to really start carrying a book with me so I can look up information when I see a new bird, rather than trying to remember I saw several hours later . . .
ReplyDeleteThese photos are spectacular. Is the lilac breasted roller a really small bird? It's really beautiful. I did learn about the Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala, after which they named their currency. I never saw a live specimen but the photos are beautiful.
The roller is about 14" long and is the National bird of Kenya and quite common. The Quetzal can also be found in the Monteverde Rain Forest of Costa Rica.
DeleteI have an app on my iPhone called iBird West 6.1 which covers aver 8,000 birds and includes photos and their call ($7 or $8). Also check out www.whatbird.com