Flamingo Friday: Return of the Flamingelehs

Last year’s flamingelehs are already more or less adults, a fact that unnerves me as much as does the consistent, inconsiderate growth of younger people of my acquaintance, who insist on becoming taller and older each time that I see them. (Some of them even become taller than I am, which I find quite inappropriate, not to mention unfair. I blame their parents for feeding them too much: after all, what’s a little malnutrition so long as it helps maintain the status quo?) –But I digress.

A couple of months ago I saw the flamingos building their mud nesting platforms:

Later, I would often see them sitting on these elevated mud-nests—though they were careful not to let their brooding interfere with their beaky feuds.

In the intervening months I did spy eggs once or twice, and my heart leapt up with excitement. Then, just at the end of June, I heard a high-pitched twittering peeping, and I knew even before I saw it that there were new flamingelehs:

At the time I only saw this one (plus some unhatched eggs), but I’m hoping that quite soon I’ll be able to report a whole new crop of flamingelehs moseying about on their enormous feet and bridging the visual gap between “awkward and slightly ugly” and “adorable.”

P.S. If you're looking for something to do with your free time, go to the National Wildlife photo contest site, search for photos under my last name (Ambrogio), and, if you like them, vote for them! (You can vote for other people's photos, too, if you want; I'm magnanimous like that.)

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}