Kenya’s Lake Nakuru National Park: A Photo Story of Wild Riches
It is a place where you can see hundreds of thousands of flamingos in one view making it one of the most famous bird spectacles in the world. It is a stronghold for both of Africa’s endangered rhino species. It is one of Kenya’s top wildlife destinations that is also a bird lover’s paradise. It is an important pitstop on the African – Eurasian migratory flyway. It is home to the big five and other animal and bird species. And it is one of Kenya’s lakes system UNESCO world heritage sites. I am talking about Lake Nakuru national park, a Ramsar wetland that is nestled in the vast Rift valley. This national park is a wildlife enthusiast’s delight and a stay of a few nights here is enough to wow you with its wildlife riches and panoramic beauty. This photo story aims at showing you the diversity of this rich ecosystem though these varied wildlife and bird photos shot here during a Kenya wildlife safari holiday.
Above photo: Flamingos gather at Lake Nakuru by the millions. There is something about the Rift valley lakes that appeal to these birds and the sight of them feeding and flying together in millions is a sight for the ages.
Above photo: Apart from flamingos, other water birds like Great white pelicans, african spoonbills and others can be seen at Lake Nakuru in huge numbers. Most of these birds migrate to the lakes of the Rift valley from Europe every year.
Above photo: The grassland surrounding Lake Nakuru is fertile and is made up of highly adaptable alkaline grasses, which attract herbivores in hoards. This is an example of a common zebra chomping on these delicious grass.
Above photo: This is another instance of a herbivore enjoying the grasslands surrounding Lake Nakuru. All herbivores thrive in healthy numbers in this national park.
Above photo: This olive baboon family can be seen enjoying the morning sun on the jeep track inside Lake Nakuru national park. These olive baboon families are rowdy in nature and the males can fight any animal, however large when threatened.
Above photo: Lake Nakuru national park is home to 400 species of birds. And one of them is this vibrant yellow-billed stork that can seen feeding in the shallow waters of the lake.
Above photo: Egyptian Goose, another migratory visitor, fills up new colours in your camera viewfinder.
Above photo: Black faced velvet monkeys are playful in nature and are commonly seen at Lake Nakuru National Park. Other primates that can be easily spotted here are olive baboons and colobus monkeys.
Above photo: The star attractions of Lake Nakuru national park are the greater and lesser flamingos that congregate here in millions. It feels as if the whole horizon is dressed in different shades of pink.
Above photo: The shallow algae rich waters of Lake Nakuru attract more than 2 million flamingos. The biggest numbers can be seen during the dry season. When the lake is full, the flamingos are known to migrate to another Rift valley lake, Lake Bogoria or sometimes Lake Turkana.
Above photo: Wildlife, bird and nature photographers like Lake Nakuru for its amazing flamingo photography. And you don’t have to travel a lot inside Lake Nakuru unlike the other national parks of Kenya, which ensures that you get lots of animal and bird photos with minimal hassle.
Above photo: A fluffy pied crow perched on top of a dead tree branch at Lake Nakuru national park. A common citizen here, the pied crow looks exactly like a crow, but with the added white colour chest jacket.
Above photo: This is the baboon cliff view point inside Lake Nakuru national park. It is situated in the middle of the park and offers great vistas of the lake and the surrounding hills and forests.
Above photo: Lake Nakuru is one of the few places in East Africa where one can see Rothschild’s giraffe in the wild. The population of this giraffe at Nakuru is the second highest after Murchison Falls national park in Uganda and the largest in Kenya.
Above photo: The common zebra exists in healthy numbers in Lake Nakuru national park and seem to love the grasslands here.
Above photo: If hippos interest you, go near the mouth of the Makalia, Njoro or Enderit rivers as the hippos like the freshwater that the river brings. Do keep a safe distance from the hippos as they are known to get aggressive.
Above photo: A dozen white and about 20 black rhino were translocated to Lake Nakuru in the 1990s and have since bred to form populations or around 100s of each species. The white rhino in particular is common on the lake’s southern floodplain.
Above photo: The best place to see the cape buffalo (one of the big five of Kenya) is in the swamps next to the lake. In all probability, you will see the buffalo wallowing in the mud.
Other nearby tourist attractions:
1) Samburu Tribe: One of the colourful tribes of Kenya
2) Samburu National Reserve: An Oasis of Wildlife in Arid North Kenya
3) Thomson’s Falls: A stunning waterfall at Nyahururu
4) Nanyuki’s Equator Point: A great place to understand the Coriolis effect
5) Maasai Mara’s Great Migration: 8th Wonder of the world
6) Maasai Tribe: The tribal people of Maasai Mara Game Reserve
