The Flamingoes Goes

January 25th 2007

The rain came down and down and down. So there really was not much diving to be done. But this meant that the inland lakes were hopefully filling up. A few of us took a quick walk into the village to wake up one of our local staff members, Thomas, and ask him to show us to the lakes. Of course he was more than happy to oblige (all our local staff are fantastic). We walked and walked and passed lake after lake, getting hotter and hotter, the umbrellas went up, but still nothing! Please, not a long walk in the 35 degree heat of the day to see a couple of Zebuis (the local cows with a hump) in the newly greened grass.

'One last lake!' came the call and then suddenly we walked into a flock of flamingoes. Hoorah! Of course they were pretty far away in the lake but as these are only occasional lakes, and are really just depressions in the ground, we could just roll up our shorts and wade through the mud and slime to get a closer look. It was pretty slippy but we made it to the next clump of grass with cameras intact. It didn't look as if we could get any closer, so we decided not to go much further as there was not much added benefit and we were able to watch from there as the pink mass of birds moved around. A few others trudged on and thankfully they disturbed the birds so that they flocked and flew and flew all around and swirled and then landed. A truly amazing and wild sight.

The flamingoes are only found here in Madagascar at this precise time of year, and we went on a walk to find them and we were successful and located them on the lake.

Of course when we returned to site those who had not gone to find them saw a small flock of flamingoes fly by. But that isn't quite the same. We had made the effort and we were rewarded by seeing them in their natural habitat on the lake. Excellent!