Naivasha Lake - visiting hippos

Africa is so amazing that it can make an animalist out of a landscape painter. And even a bird night! During our safari, we visited several parks and each saw something new, we shot something unique. One of the funniest places was Lake Naivasha - a huge reservoir of volcanic origin, just an hour from Nairobi. A lake with insanely rich fauna - more than 450 species of birds live here! Bird-eye has a place to turn around)

Most of all here we were waiting for a meeting with the thick-toothed hippos. And yet they waited, there were so many of them that they simply did not have time to count! But first things first.

The best way to get acquainted with the fauna of the lake is to rent a boat. Almost all camps on the shore are involved in organizing excursions; in the load to the boat you will be given a local migo - driver-guide. He knows all the "fish" places and shows how to lure a local eagle-fisherman. Actually, we did not have time to sail from the shore, when we immediately saw hippos. Sleepy guys yawned in the water and did not pay attention to us.

Nevertheless, the main wealth of the lake is birds. On each branch sits a bird of different species - from cormorants and pelicans to huge marabou. Actually marabou) All marabou as if already plucked with a bald head. Strange bird. We even saw them in Nairobi, poking around in the trash.

It looks like the White-breasted Cormorant. If I'm wrong, correct me, colleagues.

And this bird with emerald feathers is a Hagedash, a magnificent ibis.

Our turquoise boat smoothly cut through the dark waters of Naivashi. A very picturesque place, with trees in the water - here it is, a landscape location! On a sunset there! But after sunset, "moto" come ashore - the locals call it hippos. And these jerks are eating grass all night. And if you come closer - trample.

Therefore, after dark, any movement on the coast is limited. We spent the night at the major Naivashi Sopa Lodge hotel. So there, if you leave the house in the evening, someone from the staff will certainly accompany you. God forbid they eat white - in the dark we can be seen from afar))

Hippos are cool. I wanted to shoot them surrounded by green aquatic plants, but there were few of them. For a long time they caught the hippo's pharynx, but this happened at a time when the boat was sailing))

Some of the most photogenic birds are pelicans. I did not recognize ducks) Pelicans among other birds look like parade commanders)

Pink Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus).

Local uti uti.

But the whole group of "moto". As it turned out, this is a group of females with young animals. At some point, we saw a bunch of splashes, a roar, some kind of generally action.

It turned out that the hippo mother was protecting her baby. Look at this bead! Such a bug-eyed miracle. Mom looked at us, and the baby rarely showed up from the water. And the fight was with dad, who sailed to kill the baby, thus removing the competition in the form of a young male. Hard animal world ...

Pelican again. All the same. We sailed back and forth, but this handsome man is still sitting there at the post ...

Local eagle fisherman. There is a fan for tourists - they throw fish into the water, drove the whistler, and the eagle flies for prey. A couple of times the eagles came across well-fed and did not pay attention to the fish, but then still there was a starving one who rushed to the fish.

Eagle-screamer (Haliaeetus vocifer).