Flamingos and a Hurricane

During the past two weeks, over 150 American Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) have been reported in the eastern half of the United States, well north of their usual range—northern South America; Cuba, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean Islands; and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.  They are also found on the Galapagos Islands.  Prior to being extirpated by hunting during the early years of the twentieth century, American Flamingos nested in the Everglades of Florida as well.

The recent influx of these tropical vagrants into the eastern states is attributed to Hurricane Idalia, a storm that formed in the midst of flamingo territory during the final week of August.  Idalia got its start over tropical waters off Yucatan before progressing north through the Gulf of Mexico off Cuba to make landfall in the “Big Bend” area of Florida.

Track of Hurricane Idalia.  (NOAA/National Weather Service/National Hurricane Center image)

Birds of warm water seas regularly become entangled within tropical storms and hurricanes.  In most cases, it’s oceanic seabirds including petrels, shearwaters, terns, and gulls that seek refuge from turbulent conditions by remaining inside the storm’s eye or within the margins of the rotating bands.  The duration of the experience and the fitness of each individual bird may determine just how many survive such an ordeal.  As a storm makes landfall, the survivors put down on inland bodies of water, often in unexpected places hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline.  Some may linger in these far-flung areas to feed and gain strength before finding their way down rivers back to sea.

For birds like American Flamingos, which don’t spend a large portion of their lives on the wing over vast oceanic waters, becoming entangled in a tropical weather system can easily be a life-ending event.  American Flamingos, despite their size and lanky appearance, are quite agile fliers.  When necessary, some populations travel significant distances in search of new food sources.  Some closely related migratory species of flamingos have been recorded at altitudes exceeding 10,000 feet.  But becoming trapped in a hurricane for an extended period of time could easily erode the endurance of even the strongest of fliers.  And once out over open water, there’s nowhere for a flamingo to come down for a rest.

It appears probable that, during the final week of August, hundreds of American Flamingos did find themselves drawn away from their familiar tidal flats and salty lagoons to be swept into the spinning clouds and gusty downpours of Hurricane Idalia as it churned off the Yucatan coast.  Despite the dangers, more than 150 of them completed a journey within its clutches to cross the Gulf of Mexico and land in the Eastern United States.

Amy Davis in a report for the American Birding Association compiled a list of American Flamingo sightings from the days following the landfall of Hurricane Idalia.  We’ve plotted those sightings on a satellite image of the storm.

Locations of American Flamingo sightings in the days following landfall of Hurricane Idalia, August 30 through September 7, 2023.  Numbers of birds in the plotted flock are indicated.  Those flocks marked with an asterisk contained a bird ringed with a leg band marking it as a member of the Ria Largartos population in Yucatan.  Click the image to enlarge.  (NOAA/GOES-16 base image of Hurricane Idalia landfall)

The majority of the flamingos that survived this harrowing trip found a place to put down along the coast.  But as the reader will notice, a significant number of the sightings were outside the path of the storm in areas not reached by even the outermost bands of clouds.  Flamingos in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky/Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were found at inland bodies of water, most on the days immediately following the storm’s landfall.  The lone exception, the Pennsylvania birds, were discovered a week after landfall (but may have been there days longer).  How and why did these birds find their way so far inland at places so distant from the storm…and home?  And how did they get there so quickly?  The counterclockwise rotation of the hurricane wouldn’t slingshot them in that direction, would it?

Let’s have a look at the surface map showing us the weather in the states outside the direct influence of Hurricane Idalia during the storm’s landfall on August 30, 2023…

Note the pair of cold fronts along the Appalachians by 7 A.M. E.S.T. (8 A.M. E.D.T.).  In the  hours following Idalia’s landfall, these fronts had begun slowly creeping through the areas where the inland flamingos were subsequently found.  (NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Prediction-Weather Prediction Center image)

Now check out this satellite view of the storm during the hours following landfall…

"Flamingo Highway"
The blue lines mark the approximate locations of the two cold fronts, the “spoilers” that helped steer Idalia out to sea. The pink arrows mark the “flamingo highway”, strong southwest to northeast winds blowing between the cold fronts along the inland edge of Idalia.  (GOES-16 imagery from Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Click the image above to play a GIF animation of GOES-16 satellite photos showing Idalia after landfall and the strong “flamingo highway” winds between the fronts.  (It’s a big file, so give it a little time to load.)  You’ll also note the ferocious lightning associated with both Huricane Idalia and Hurricane Franklin.

Did the inland flamingos catch a ride on these stiff “flamingo highway” winds?  If not, they may have had a little help from a high pressure ridge that became established over the southern Appalachians as Idalia crept out to sea.  The clockwise rotation of this ridge kept a similar flow over the “flamingo highway” for much of the four days that followed.

An American Flamingo circling to land in a farm pond near St. Thomas, Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
An American Flamingo circling to land in a farm pond near St. Thomas, Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
American Flamingo in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, following Hurricane Idalia.
Its a long way from Yucatan to central Pennsylvania.  The survivors of the storm were largely at the mercy of the winds that carried them.  The good news for this bird…not a single flight is feather missing.
An American Flamingo at the foot of the Appalachians.
An American Flamingo at the foot of the Appalachians in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
An American Flamingo on a farm pond near St. Thomas, Franklin County, Pennsylvania.  This bird is just one of at least 150 that arrived in the Eastern United States courtesy of Hurricane Idalia.
American Flamingo in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
In deep water, American Flamingos feed by shuffling their feet to stir up benthic invertebrates, plankton, algae, and plant matter.  The flamingo that was accompanying this bird apparently shuffled its feet into a Snapping Turtle, which promptly latched onto its leg and injured tendons and other tissue.  Following surgery earlier today, the bird remains in hospital.
American Flamingo feeding.
To retrieve their fare from the bottom, flamingos roll their bill upside down, then swish it back-and-forth.
Finally, they raise their heads and upright their bills to expel water and debris while simultaneously filtering out the morsels of edibles for consumption.
American Flamingo in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
To conserve body heat while under the shade of clouds, this American Flamingo in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, would stop feeding,…
American Flamingo in Pennsylvania conserving heat under cloud cover.
…then it would tuck its head between its wings.  Flamingos will also retain heat by standing on one leg while raising the other into the insulating cover of their belly feathers.

For vagrant birds including those carried away to distant lands by hurricanes and other storms, the challenges of finding food and avoiding hazards including disease, unfamiliar predators, and extreme weather can be a matter of life and death.  For American Flamingos now loafing and feeding in the Eastern United States outside Florida, the hardest part of their journey is yet to come. They need to find their way back south to suitable tropical habitat before cold weather sets in.  The perils are many.  Theirs is not an enviable predicament.

Sorry Pinky, but you can’t stay on the farm forever.

Emergence of the Turtles

Along the lower Susquehanna, an unseasonably mild day in early spring can provide an observer with the opportunity to witness an annual spectacle seldom seen by the average visitor to the river—concentrations of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of turtles as they emerge from their winter slumber to bathe in the year’s first surge of warm air and sunshine.

Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Snapping Turtle
Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) spend the winter buried in mud along the river shoreline and in nearby Alluvial Terrace Wetlands.  We photographed this one just as it was digging its way out.
Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Snapping Turtle
A cold and stiff Snapping Turtle crawls away from the shade toward sun-drenched shallows where it will have a chance to limber up.
Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Snapping Turtle
A cruise in open water loosens up the muscles and gets rid of some of the accumulations of sticky mud and muck.
Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Painted Turtles
Freshly emerged Painted Turtles clamber onto a log to bask in the cloud-filtered sun.
Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Painted Turtle atop a Snapping Turtle
A Painted Turtle looking for a place to get out of the chilly water soon discovered the obvious solution.
It’s catching on, more Painted Turtles atop a Snapping Turtle in an Alluvial Terrace Wetland.
Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Red-eared Slider and Common Map Turtle
The Common Map Turtle (right) is the turtle most frequently observed basking on rocks and logs along the main stem of the Susquehanna.  To the left is a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), an increasingly numerous invasive species.  The first Red-eared Sliders arrived in the river as, you guessed it, unwanted pets.  Editor’s Note: Special thanks to the local North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) for trimming the trees and providing a clear shot for this photograph!
Reptiles of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed: Red-eared Slider and Painted Turtles
And now, a quick quiz.  Name the things that don’t belong in this picture?  Here’s a hint: a non-native Red-eared Slider (left) joins indigenous Painted Turtles atop a discarded tire in an Alluvial Terrace Wetland in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.