Swan Lake: A Fascinating Performance at Lake Oloiden

Above: Great white pelicans herding fish for breakfast. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Replace the swan with pelicans because in Africa we have pelicans and not swans. We’re sailing on Lake Oloiden that’s changes dramatically every so often that it keeps everyone guessing – what next? Salty or fresh?

 

We’ve woken up to a spectacular performance by the pelicans – that is the Great white pelicans – performing a ballet that’s captivating. On a blue lake, flotillas of the great white birds synchronize their dive in the water, upturning their white butts like a ballerina’s tutu while their enormous yellow bills vanish in the water to swallow the fish they have herded below. It’s spectacular.

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Soysambu’s Cats, Colobus, Raptors and All

Published 29 September 2018

Above: Seen on Sept 13 2018 at Soysambu. The male in the photo is SM2 (collared) who is Flir’s son and the female is SF3, Valentine’s daughter. We think Flir and Valentine are sisters so they would be cousins. Unknown father’s  but  they are one or two of the males in Nakuru National Park. Copyright: Kat Combes

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Soysambu Conservancy with Flamingos on Lake Elmenteita and Delamere’s Nose. Copyright Rupi Mangat

There’s so much happening at Soysambu, the wildlife conservancy straddling the soda-fringed Lake Elmenteita in the Great Rift Valley. It draws one like magnet to keep up with its intrigues. For starters the wildlife haven is set picturesquely between the fresh water Lake Naivasha and the alkaline Lake Nakuru and being part of the volcanic upheavals from the last 20 million years or so, it’s a tapestry of little mountains with craters, volcanic rubble and an inch-thick layer of soil good only for hardy grass and trees.

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