Ben Wilhelmi

Flamingoes on lake Natron, aerials

 

 

 

Those white dots are nests.

 

 

The chicks are grey initially.

 

 

breeding flamingoes, lake Natron

 

 

those dark spots are flamingo nest by hundreds.

 

getting closer. The nest are now empty and the chicks are walking around under the adult supervision.

 

 

 

 

aerial photography, lake Natron

 

northern Tanzania, Rift valley. The black dots are flamingoes. The Natron is the only breeding place in Africa for flamingoes. A fact to keep in mind when bloody plans are proposed to open a soda mine there.

flamingo nests on a dry crust. They look like giant egg holders.

and baby chicks learning to walk. They love to stick together in the salt water for better protection from predator.

 

besides flamingoes let’s enjoy the ever changing colors and abstract patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

occasionally pelicans stop by on their long migration.

Tanzania, aerial photography

 

Once in a while in flight, I open my window and get a picture. Tanzania is an incredible beautiful country.

Mount Monduli and mount Meru further.

 

A common rainshower over the Serengeti.

 

Colored salts on lake Natron.

 

Long shadows, early morning.

 

The top of Mount Meru at about 15.000 feet.

 

volcan Lengai and lake Natron

 

lake Natron, the only breeding place for flamingoes in the whole Africa. And there are salt extraction projects to trash the place…

 

A Masai village, one early morning.

 

Those holes are boreholes. No idea why in this case they are so close to each other.

 

A bit of the Rift valley, lake Natron.

strong colors, lake Natron, aerial photography

 

a salt lake with an artistic touch...not the only one but I still feel privileged to fly over.

 

 

 

flamingoes breeding on the crust surface. Yes those little pink dots. It is very obvious on a large print.

 

Flamingoes nesting. Lake Natron is the only breeding place in Africa and one of the very few in the world. And they don't even breed every year. If conditions are not right, like salinity, water level...they won't breed, just patiently wait. So when those bloody plans to a open a soda factory there, one doesn't need to be a rocket scentist to foresee disaster looming.

Ok I cheated a bit, this a serious enlargement and cropped picture. I couldn't decently fly low and scare them off.

flamingoes nesting on lake Natron, aerials

 

some time ago, there were news that flamingoes might come to lake Natron and breed…BBC Nature mentioned that rare feat and asked us at Flying Medical Service, amongst other pilots, to keep an eye open. Which we did and this Friday, on my way to Loliondo I spotted the hundreds of nests near the south but quite center on the lake on a large salt pan, isolated from predators by acidic waters.

I dropped a few thousands feet, did 2 circles and here are some of the shots. Those grey dots are the nests.

 

Then I realised we had missed the nest building period. Here are the flamingo chicks in grey with a few adults.

 

 

 

 

Notice that some nests still contain an egg.

 

 

 

sad news is that next day, the whole salt pan was submerged! The lake is flat, at 3 meter deep at most, so it fills up very fast in case of serious rains. And these days it’s all about serious thunderstorms and showers all day long. I‘ve just had 3 flooded airstrips these last 3 days of flying… so the adult flamingoes most likely took off but the chicks at that stage don’t fly yet and they must have drowned. I couldn’t see those chicks around but anyway I can’t imagine they’ve had time to walk to safety10 or 20 km away.

I’ve seen once nests disappear within one rainy day but at a much earlier stage I think since I hadn’t spotted any eggs and later did not notice any youngsters…