Flamingos scattered from Florida home after Hurricane Ida have been sighted in Terrebonne
A flamboyance of pink, feathery, Floridian refugees has apparently made a home on a Terrebonne Parish island.
Biologists say Hurricane Ida blew Floridian flamingos along the Gulf coast as far as Texas, and they aren't sure if they'll be staying. Captain John Pellegrin of Top Water Charter has been spotting a flock of four flamingos eating off the coast of Whiskey Island for just over two weeks. He spots the birds between 8 and 11 a.m. while on fishing trips with customers in his boat, Gotta Fish. He said he stays about 100 yards from the birds.
"It looks like they took up residence to me," he said. "They looked like they were just sitting there eating on some snails or crawfish there in the water."
The captain of 40-years said he's never seen flamingos in the wild, only a few times at the zoo, but the customers seem to like it when they're out fishing for red snappers and speckled sea trout.
Delaina LeBlanc is an avian biologist with the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program who said flamingos usually hang out in Florida, but there have been sightings across the Gulf since Hurricane Ida in E Bird and iNaturalist. Reports this year on E Bird set flamingos in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, but not Louisiana.
"I hadn't heard any reports of them being on the islands, so that's really, really cool," LeBlanc said.
She said her husband, Jed Pitre, a retired biologist, traveled last year to see a flamingo that was hanging out between Chalmet and Slidel. The two get excited by all things avian, and Pitre's students nicknamed him "birdman" for his passion.
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LeBlanc does not specialize in flamingos, but she said as long as there's plentiful food for them, the birds should do OK. Flamingos get their pink color from the carotene in their diets. When there isn't enough, their feathers go white.
"As long as there's food for them, they very well could adapt," she said. Asked about the color, LeBlanc said, "Their lookin' pretty good."
She said due to the changing weather patterns from climate change, birds are shifting where they live to adjust. It's unclear if these flamingos are responding to that, or if it's just a random occurrence. Similarly, it's too early to tell if the flamingos are just passing through or if they will settle in and become permanent residents. Only time will tell.
"It could be something that's just a one-time thing, and these birds could disappear and then this never happens again - at least in our lifetime," she said. "Or it could be something that shifts in, like the limpkins where they move into our state. We don't know. This is just a wait-and-see thing."
Whiskey Island is part of a wildlife refugee and requires special permitting to access. Boat traffic is allowed nearby in the open waters. See here for more details: https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/isle-dernieres-barrier-islands-refuge, or contact Vaughan McDonald at (337) 735-8733 or vmcdonald@wlf.la.gov.
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Flamingos sighted in Terrebonne, caught on camera by charter captain
