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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lake Bogoria revisited

On Sunday, Grant and I took Bertus to see the flamingoes of Bogoria. I have posted about visiting this amazing lake and its thousands of flamingoes but just had to record another trip.
As it's early summer here in East Africa, there were many babies along the way to the lake. Baby donkeys, baby goats, (kids) baby cattle (calves) and baby monkeys. As we entered the park, the first thing we saw was a herd of zebra with two babies in tow.

Once again, we weren't disappointed by the display of flamingoes

Last time I posted, I only showed one Greater Flamingo. This time we spotted at least four Greater Flamingoes amongst the more prolific Lesser Flamingoes. The two birds at the back with pink bills tipped with black, are also larger than their "lesser" relations - the two to the front show these with their dark red, black-tipped bills

The Greater Flamingo feeds by filtering food from the bottom mud of shallow waters. Note the waterline on the bird at the rear of the photo which has just re-emerged from dipping it's head into the water. The Lesser Flamingo which occurs in much larger numbers, are surface feeders, filtering their food from the top few centremeters of the water. See the bird to the left front of the image doing just this

The Greater Flamingo (rear) with it's head immersed in the water while it searches for food in the mud
This time around I was determined to photograph other waders and waterbirds. In the rear is a Black-winged Stilt while the bird to the front is Spur-wing Plover also known as a Spur-wing Lapwing

We drove further along the lake to the geysers - time for photos again! Being a longweekend in Kenya, there were many tourists visiting the park and the flamingoes moved into the centre of the lake

One of the visitors asked Grant and Bertus if she could photograph them. She then noticed I was photographing her at the same time and asked her companion to take a photo of her and me!

The boiling geyser in which an egg can be boiled
Just beyond the geyser above, is this boiling cauldron
Driving back to the gate, we spotted many buck again, including the elusive Dik-dik's which I've posted about before. Near the end of the park, we spotted this family of warhogs grazing in the shadows. I just love the way they kneel to graze

As a farewell treat this Marabou stork posed on one leg atop an acacia near the end of the park

For more beautiful worlds out there, click here

13 comments:

  1. What a wonderful variety of photos, Jo. I love the baby zebra, and I had no idea warthogs knelt to graze. This must be my learn-something-new for today!
    Luv, K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  2. Wonderful photos of Lake Bogoria again. Did you boil an egg this time or were you too early?

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  3. Beautiful, beautiful@! Your photos have taken me to Lake Bogoria. The African wildlife are amazing. My sister was in Kenya for a volunteer stint with the VSO and she happens to have photos of African wildlife in her blog as well. I am so jealous of her :D

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  4. What a wonderful experience to see all this wildlife in person!

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  5. Wonderful, wonderful experience, Jo! I loved the whole outing from beginning to end :)

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  6. What a fabulous place to visit. No wonder you go again. Interesting info about the two different flamingos and how they feed. The boiling springs and geysers .....you just have everything there. Your post is like reading a Geographic Magazine.

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  7. What a trip you took us on! I LOVE all those birds and critters!

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  8. Awesome series of wildlife photos. The flamingos and I lvoe the zebras. What an awesome place to visit. Thanks for sharing world, Jo!

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  9. Only where you are could a person see such varied nature all at one time. Seeing flamingos and zebras along side one another is awesome. Quite the sight for this old gal. Love your post this week.

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  10. What a beautiful place, and so alive with all the animals and birds. The flamingos are wonderful!

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  11. Thank you nice sharing and useful informations.Regards.

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  12. Thank you for the beautiful tour of Lake Bogoria. It was very interesting to learn about the differences between the Greater and Lesser Flamingoes and also to learn that warthogs kneel to graze!

    I was also surprised to see that the same lake that has waterfowl on it also has a geyser and a boiling cauldron area to it.

    Fascinating, as usual, Jo!

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  13. I just went on Google Earth and saw that the hot springs area of Lake Bogoria is at the north end of the lake....The north end looked all steamy.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo