Hurricanes can do all sorts of unusual things. They can spawn tornadoes and water spouts, they can have an amazingly calm center, and of course, they can wreak havoc on everyone and everything in their way. Sometimes they also bring in new and unusual wildlife. By now, I’m sure many of you have heard that one thing Hurricane Idalia did was blow some flamingos off course and into central Florida. There was a pretty large group right after the storm in Fort DeSoto State Park in the St. Petersburg area. Many of them have since left again, but several, including one female with a tracker named Peaches, have stuck around. There’s also rumors of some of them in the St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge up in the panhandle. Wild flamingos are common in south Florida around Miami and the Florida Keys, but to have them in central Florida is unheard of. I had been giving some serious consideration to heading down to Ft. DeSoto this week when I heard that there is also a group out in Cedar Key. Since Cedar Key is considerably closer I decided to go out there instead. Besides, even if I didn’t get to see flamingos, Cedar Key is always a great day of birding, so I knew my time wouldn’t be wasted.

As you can see, my efforts were not in vain and I did get to see the flamingos. Unfortunately, they were quite a ways away (probably more than half a mile. They were tiny pink spots to the naked eye), so I was really pushing beyond the limits of even my telephoto lens. These images are far from great, but I was really pleased to see them at all, so I’m not complaining. And of course, I also saw and photographed a bunch of other birds, a really cool spider, and a gorgeous new plant as well that I will be presenting in future posts (as I said, a trip to Cedar Key is never a waste of time). Who knows how long the flamingos will stay. I read an article about a flock of some type of South American parakeets that were blown into Cedar Key by a storm in the 1960s. Apparently they stayed for about two years and then they all migrated away. If the flamingos stick around for a bit longer I may very likely make another trip out to see them and hope for better photo luck this time.