This past Saturday was a new orientation for me as Mary was attending a women's retreat with the ladies from Quisqueya Chapel for the weekend. Ad de Blaeij took me to Plateau Central to a small lake - Trou Cayman. It is a shallow lake of about one metre. The area here is very dry but a spring provides the people water for both drinking and for irrigating gardens. This is the boat Ad and I, a boy for bailing the water and a man with a pole for pushing the boat along the lake used to see the flamingos.



The flamingos are year round at this fresh water lake, however that does not mean they are the same birds all the time. The flamingos are not making nests near the lake. Probably, their colony are at more quiet places like the uninhabited islands of the Bahamas. There are also colonies in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Each time we were within range to take a few photos, the flamingos took flight and landed at a different part of the lake, until we arrived again.




The lake was formed as the result of a hurricane according to the town's people. Since its formation, it has dried up several times, the last one being in 2003. Since it is a shallow lake, it is great for the flamingos to find the mollusks, which live in the mud of the lake bottom. God created these birds with special bills that are uniquely designed for the task of scooping up and sieving these snails from the mud.

The sight of the flying flamingos is impressive! They make a goose-like noise when they are uncomfortable, and while flying.