Sunday 15 July 2007

Lake Natron

alkaline lake
shimmers caustic heat -
flamingoes nest


Lake Natron , a soda lake in East Africa, is probably the most important breeding ground for the lesser flamingo. The flamingoes can tolerate the seeming inhospitable lake and they are safe from predators as nothing else can tolerate the conditions. However industrial soda ash mining is threatening the future of this most spectacular bird. Read more here.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that link to ARKive.org (via the flamingos), I hadn't been there before; I've got it bookmarked now.

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing info on lake natron we need to save it

Anonymous said...

i hadnt really thought about how hot that must be to the flamingos.
I had posted a flamingo photo the other day; did a search - and there are a lot of people talking about flamingos these days!

spacedlaw said...

That lake sounds toxic.
Poor flamingoes.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Spacedlaw - the flamingoes actually prefer it that way, it keeps them safe from predators!

Desert rat - glad you liked the link!

Epson Ink - thanks

Ascender - I saw your post, flamingoes are popular just now - let s hope that can protect them!

Tumblewords: said...

Nice haiku. Thanks for the link - lots of information there.

Anonymous said...

nice image. i like how the words "shimmers" and "caustic heat" give a feeling of malice, endangerment.

Roswila said...

Adding my thanks to the others for the info!

Anonymous said...

Profound environmentally. How can we remain healthy when our waters are not?

Anonymous said...

Exceptional, thanks.

Heartful said...

I really love the way this sounds, the haiku reminded me of the other side of nature, beyond the beautiful, that we don't always like to dwell on.

Plain Foolish said...

Beautiful birds - and who else wants to live in alkaline lakes?

I hope something is being done to protect them.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Plain Foolish - well nothing else bigger than microbes can live there. The flamingoes are perfectly happy until greedy industrialists want to mine their homes. There is a campaign going on to stop the establishment of more mines.

The Heartful blogger - yes there is another side to nature.

Mike - thanks.

Quiet Paths - we need to care for our waters, that's very true.

Katie - caustic lakes - malice to all but the flamingoes.

Tumblewords, roswila - yes its a useful link - glad you appreciated!

Annie Jeffries said...

Many thanks for the link. Even when life seems beautiful, it is rarely so.

Patois42 said...

I join others in thanks for the ARKive link. Not a bird person typically, I only have positive feelings about flamingoes. It's nice to find out that they are "smart" enough to be able to stand the conditions their predators cannot.

Mimey said...

I can feel the shimmer of caustic heat. And while I like it, there's pain too.