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Early risers catch the worm at annual waterbird count in the Great Rift Valley
Thursday April 01 2021
Summary
Baringo and Bogoria boast international ratings such as Important Bird Areas for hosting extremely large concentrations of waterbirds.
Bogoria together with lakes Elmenteita and Nakuru were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site ‘as a natural property of outstanding beauty’ under the Kenya Great Lakes.
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The count must start at the crack of dawn before the birds fly off for the day.
By 6.15am, the teams meet at the starting point of Bogoria, at the new main gate of the alkaline lake that now measures 50 square kilometres, up from 30 square kilometres since the Great Rift Valley lakes began rising phenomenally in 2011.
THE STANDARD By
Caroline Chebet |
January 24th 2021 at 00:00:00 GMT +0300
Flamingos at Lake Bogoria National Reserve in Baringo County. [Joseph Kipsang, Standard]
From afar, the sight of thousands of flamingos spread across Lake Bogoria is magical. But on taking a closer look, you notice a big problem.
Tens of flamingo carcasses dangle from branches and thorns of Prosopis juliflora, also known as Mathenge. The scene looks like mass suicide of flamingos.
“It is worrying. Tens of flamingos died after they were trapped by Prosopis while trying to either land on the shores or take off,” Lake Bogoria senior warden James Kimaru said.