(September 29, 2008)—Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have evidently knocked some of the millions of migratory birds headed out over the Gulf of Mexico off track.
Veteran birdwatcher John Porter at Dauphin Island, Ala. said this season's hurricanes brought in a few unexpected exotic species.
The sight of flamingos including one in Pass Christian, Miss., and another at Opal Beach at Navarre, Fla., caused a stir among birdwatchers, who swap e-mails about post-storm sightings, he said.
Botanist Howard Horne of Mobile, Ala. said he believes the flamingos, which were possibly swept in from Cuba, were the first in this area since one was spotted in the Florida Panhandle in 1998 after Hurricane Georges.
Bird experts say many pelagic species that live offshore including jaegers, shearwaters, petrels and others, get "trapped" in the eye of a storm and are carried well inland to unfamiliar habitats.
Naturally, they turn around and head back to the coast, according to birdwatcher Jim Stevenson of Galveston.
Stevenson, in an e-mail, said these birds often fly along the coastline after the storm has passed, giving birders a chance to see species near land that are not normally spotted there.
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