Lisa's Birthday

Today is my birthday and my birthday wish was to see flamingos....... not 45 pink plastic ones on the lawn, but rather thousands of real ones on Lake Nakuru.  Lake Nakuru is a soda lake about 2 hours north of Nairobi.  Its alkaline environment means that it grows blue green algae in abundance -- the favourite food of pink Lesser Flamingos.  The lake has had a population of up to 2.5 million flamingos.  The numbers vary depending on the climate.  During times of drought the lake dries up and the flamingos move to a more wet environment.  During times of heavy rain the water becomes diluted and no longer has blue-green algae so the flamingos move in search of food.   

Lake Nakuru National Park also boasts over 400 species of birds.  Simon is our bird boy and we all took part in spotting the most interesting ones and looking them up in his book.  






Besides flamingos, we saw Pelicans, Hamerkop, Egret, Kingfishers, Ring-necked Doves, Blacksmith Plovers, Crowned Plovers, Rollers, Hoopoe, Glossy Starlings, and Widowbirds. 




The Park also has the usual selection of animals -- rhinocerous, giraffe, water buffalo, zebra, monkeys, baboon,  gazelle, impala.  And one thing that we did not expect to see was a tree-climbing lion.  This is a very rare species of lion that likes to climb trees and rest in the shade.  Climbing trees is not a usual feat of lions and a safari guide told us there are only 8 or 9 of these animals in the Park.  We were very exited!!