Where Have All the Bahamian Flamingos Gone?
BAHAMAS: September 15, 2008
NASSAU - The southern Bahamian island of Great Inagua is known for two
things -- its old salt plant and a 60,000-strong flamingo flock.
Now some Bahamians wonder if they might end up losing both after Hurricane
Ike ripped across the island last week causing millions of dollars in
damage.
Most of the flamingos, which attract bird-watchers from all over the world,
took off before Ike arrived and have not been seen since, according to
officials in charge of the islands' national parks.
Left behind were 30 dead birds, thought to have been entangled in trees as
they tried to flee, and a few hundred live ones that might have taken
shelter in the mangroves.
Glenn Bannister, president of the Bahamas National Trust, said all of the
island's birds -- including Bahama parrots and White Crown pigeons --
vanished before the storm hit.
The parrots returned after the storm, desperately seeking food among the
storm-blasted trees and plant life. But for now, most of the flamingos have
not come back and Bannister has no idea where they've gone.
"Some of the flamingos are now reappearing, but it could be one or two years
before they get back to their regular nesting pattern," said Lynn Gape, also
of the National Trust. She said wardens had only reported sightings of
"several hundred" compared to the thousands there before.
"There's no doubt many left, but it's possible others sought protection in
the mangroves," said Gape, adding that flamingos are sensitive to barometric
pressure and they fly off or take cover when a major storm approaches.
With leaves and berries blown away by the wind, life is likely to be hard
for Great Inagua's bird population until buds begin to appear, said
Bannister.
"In a few months, this place is going to look like spring," he said. "But
the birds are in trouble for the time being."
Meanwhile, bird watchers in the southern US states have reported
unprecedented flamingo sightings, like the one spotted in the beach town of
Destin in the Florida Panhandle.
"His feathers are beat up and he looks like he has been through a
hurricane," said Donald Ware, bird count coordinator of the Choctawhatchee
Audubon in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Wild flamingos are occasionally sighted in Florida's southern tip but that
was the group's first recorded sighting in Okaloosa County in the northern
part of the state.
There have also been flamingo sightings in Mississippi in late August, after
Tropical Storm Fay swept through parts of the Caribbean and Florida, and in
early September.
"This is the first documented record for flamingos for Mississippi. They are
subtropical birds and just don't fly this way," said Mark LaSalle, director
of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point, Mississippi. "It has
certainly gotten people's attention."
But Bannister did not think those birds were from the Bahamas. "Whenever
they seek a safe haven they fly south to Bonaire, Venezuela or Cuba," he
said.
Bannister is hoping the flamingos will return when the breeding season
begins in January.
Meanwhile, islanders are pondering another possible loss.
Owners of Morton Salt, which employs 60 percent of the workforce on Inagua
and is the only industry on the island of 1,000 people, have cast doubt on
the salt plant's future.
The company said it "cannot say with 100 percent certainty" that the badly
damaged plant will continue operating. (Additional reporting by Verna Gates
in Birmingham, Alabama; editing by Jane Sutton)
Story by John Marquis
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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