I'd be willing to bet they were "relocated" by the storms. There is a small, nonbreeding flock of wild flamingoes in the Everglades, around Snake Bight; and there is a semi-feral flock at Hialeah racetrack in Miami area. There are various types of flamingoes in outdoor exhibits at zoos and animal parks throughout the state, as well. Any of them could be carried along on the storm for quite a distance, though the wild ones in the 'glades would be the most likely candidates. (I'm assuming that the pink birds were actually flamingoes and not roseate spoonbills, which are spread throughout the state and do breed here.) Just guessing here, but I think that's what the most likely cause of flamingoes in your area would be. Lots of birds are blown off course in tropical storms and hurricanes. Marcia

Gldno, great photo; what kind of camera are you using? Count me in as another birdwatcher/birdfeeder, though like Mimi, I don't set the table year round. At Thanksgiving I start putting out black oil sunflower seeds in several tube feeders and will also hang suet or tallow if it's really cold. I take them up by St Patrick's. We have many mature trees and several shrubs around the house as well as a number of boxes and birdhouses and I've noticed that fighting over the feeders interferes with nest building. So, I'm happy to help out in the winter, but once it's spring, they're on their own. I only feed BOSS; the Finches like it as well as the considerably more expensive Thistle, and I figure if the birds are just hankering for corn, they can (and do) flit down among the chickens for a little scratch. Our Grandson usually makes a couple of peanut butter pine cone bird feeders each year for Christmas too. Have you done Cornell's Great Backyard Bird Count? It's a four day, nationwide event that consists of individuals simply looking out their window and counting how many birds (and what species) are hanging around. You don't have to count from your home; anywhere you see birds is good. You can spend as little as 15 minutes on one afternoon, or several hours each day if you have the time. You fill in a different report for each day which is why there are two reports for Bowlegs, although I was the only person participating. I'd like to change that this year, and get the local school science class or at least the 4H group involved. We live on a farm with a good pond, surrounded by open fields and woods that sits at least a half mile from the nearest house, so we have a nice diversity of native birds all winter, everything from Roadrunner and Turkey Vultures to Juncos and Goldfinch. When you add in all the domestic chickens underfoot, it's pretty lively out there. :^) Here is a link that might be useful: Great Backyard Bird Count FAQ

Before I go any futher, do ya know iof there are there any Snow Trillium blooming in your area? I know of some places toward southern Ohio, and I'm tryin' to track down the nearest location to Columbus... As for gettin' around, yeah, it's a consequence of midlife crisis: my wife and I are gypsy innkeepers, travelin' around the country innkeeping. We are in between gigs in columbus, stayin' with my wife's mother... My travels have allowed me to see so much; I had no idea there was so much incredible botany going on out there. Just the past Feb, on the way here through the deserts of AZ, two lupine species, encelia species (they have sinflower-like flowers), a mallow species, and some owl's clover were abundant along the interstate. Last summer I got to see mountain meadows in Washington and Oregon ... I've seen stuff all over the southern half of California ... the Gulf coast of MS ... I had no idea all this was out there. THis is one of the reasons I started the list, to share and to encourage others to share... So anyway ... wildflowers across the country ... I think it's a great idea for a list, from the early spring stuff in this area to Texas and the SW and CA where there is an embarrasment of colorful riches in bloom... When we lived in Ohio, myt wife and I had a pretty enthralling garden with native species as well as herbs and veggies and cutflowers and fruit ... a real labor of love. And have ya been up to Lake Erie in May to see the Lakeside Daisy? It's an endangered species, which blooms in May, and that is the only time the nature preserve is open to the public... And nice photos at your website. You clearly love nature... Hope to see ya at me wildflower list... Gregg

Maybe it is my technical training but in this topic and so many others what I notice first is a failure to look at the big picture. A few observations: Many posters have said that the cat should have been trapped and turned over to an animal shelter. Lets get one thing straight. This already happens with countless cats, who frequently get euthanized because no one claims or adopts them. Yes there is a system in place to capture and place stray cats but like every other system devised by man it has its limits and unfortunately due to the fecundity of cats and the irresponsibility of many so called pet owners there are more cats than can be dealt with. The existence of shelters does not mean the cats won't die. The only thing that has any realistic hope of ensuring the safety of a domestic cat in the US is a comitted and competent owner who shelters and feeds the cat, provides medical care including spaying or neutering, and doesn't ever let the cat roam outside or reproduce at will. Consistancy is important. Logic doesn't work without it. If animal shelters could handle the feral cat population then there would be no argument for Trap, Neuter, and Release (TNR) programs that maintain feral cat colonies. The hypothesis is that if you removed the existing feral cats they would only be replaced by other feral cats moving in so it is better to maintain sterile cats in these available urban niches. The logic of this is totally lost on me because if there are other feral cats out there in the shadows, then THEY are starving and pushed around by the comparatively well fed and healthy TNR colony cats. If on the other hand there aren't that many feral cats out there on the fringes then it would be better to trap them, find homes for all that you can, and do what needs to be done with the rest. As for the fools who suggest "relocating" cats, you mean dumping them on someone else? Where they have to violently reestablish their place in the pecking order all over again, in an environment that all groups agree is overcrouded? Would any of us like to be "relocated"? Perhaps to some of the more colorful areas of LA, NY City, Detroit? Who thinks it would be any better for a cat? The people on the front lines know there aren't enough beds in the shelters. As much as I think the TNR programs are dodging the issue, I don't think they are making things worse as long as they do what they claim, sterilize the cats and feed them. Feeding them makes them somewhat less likely to hunt and makes them able to out compete the non-sterile cats. Not what cat lovers would like to hear, I'm sure. People should obey gun laws. Did this guy break any gun laws? Probably. It is hard to shoot a gun these days without breaking a law. Was he 500 feet from the nearest road? No. His target was under a road. Prosecute him for that. Did he break any wildlife laws? One post said it was legal to shoot cats at that time. Don't prosecute him for that. The guard claimed ownership of the cat, which was completely outside of his control. The moment the guard claimed ownership he should have been nailed for cruelty to animals, letting his cat live like that, and for property damage done by the feral cats in that area including his cat. I say his cat although that is a joke, but he claims it is true. Personally I don't see any difference between cats and rats. My brother's kids have some pet rats and they are sweet little things, totally unlike wild rats. Same with cats. This unfortunately is almost entirely a battle for hearts and minds without any logic to it. If cat lovers really want to secure the high ground they should be the ones insisting that that guard be prosecuted. People are the greatest invasive species, depending on your point of view. I personally want to have adequate food, water, shelter, safety, etc. If any other organism threatens to interfere with that it is in my opinion a pest. Here's where it gets complicated. According to this definition most of the "pests" in the world are other people. I can not justify defining other people as pests. If you want to be consistant and logical you just can't call people pests, in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it would be a load off of the world if half the population died. Who? Half my family, determined by lottery? Or perhaps we could decide by skin color or religion, like the Nazis did? You see where I am going. Don't waste any time talkng about how people are the problem, even though they are. There is nowhere useful to go with this argument. Now that that is off the table, understand that while habitat preservation is desireable, it is linked to population. Personally I think we ultimately need to talk about population but not in a polite forum like this. That belongs in a knock down drag out forum on doomsday scenarios, which this isn't. If we go there we would be talking about poisoning feral animals wholesale like we do rats. I have read alot about the pressure that feral cats put on bird populations. I think that it may be true that they prey more on rodents than birds because rodents can't fly and are easier prey. I imagine that some birds are much more vulnerable than others. To do this right we would have to evaluate each prey species individually. I'll bet that the seabirds that the ornithologist was allegedly protecting are among the more vulnerable species. My take is that I can see why a sane person would do what this ornithologist did. He had a vested interest in the welfare of these particular birds just as a farmer does in his livestock He would have understood the particular threat that feral cats would pose to a threatened population. He would understand population dynamics. He would have seen that the population of feral cats was doomed to remain at dangerously high levels due to the inability of society to come to grips with the problem, as is shown by how many posters naiively propose ineffective alternatives even as overwhelmed local health authorities throw up their hands and cave in to assorted cat fanatics who were feeding the cats anyway. Prosecute the guy for any gun violations if you must, but to do any more is fiddling while Rome burns.