Lake Nakuru National Park

On the third day of your Kenya tour, we went to Lake Nakuru, a saltwater lake that is only four feet deep. 

Nothing lives or grows in the water here, but the national park is most famous for two creatures: flamingos and the rhinos that graze in the marshy land nearby. 

The forest and grassy scrub that surround the lake also harbour all sorts of birds and one very unwelcome creature – huge and voracious mosquitoes that were specially bred to eat the smaller malaria-carrying mozzis! 

(Connie can finally put to good use the mosquito net her friend gave her!)

The grazing animals here seemed less skittish than in the Masai Mara, so we were able to get quite close; plenty of cape buffalo, zebra, impala, and baboons. 

We also came across five small fox cubs, that scampered away when they saw us (we couldn’t see their mum).

Birds of the savannah

It’s not just big animals on the grasslands of the Masai Mara, all sorts of muliti-coloured birds make their home here too. 

 

The most striking (and one of the biggest) is the crowned crane, with long skinny legs, blue and white body and long neck, ‘crowned’ with a feathery headdress.

Lilac-breasted rollers are much smaller but just as vividly marked, with a bright blue body and violet breast. 

Another huge bird on the plains is the marabou stork, while the tiny red-billed ox-picker, as the name suggests, could be seen perched on the back of buffalo, feasting on ticks!

See previous posts on the ostrich and vulture.