A Mexican flamingo, where many of those blown off course are believed to originate
Hurricane Idalia Blows Flamingos
as far as Ohio
By Graeme Baker
They're pink, they're gangly, and they're strutting their stuff in some of the unlikeliest places thanks to Hurricane Idalia. Flamingos have been spotted in the Midwest and eastern parts of the US after being blown in by the storm.
Birds thought to be from Mexico first started appearing in Florida and then made landfall as far north as Ohio. "We have never seen anything like this," said Jerry Lorenz, of the bird research group Audubon Florida.
The birds began showing up in Florida after Idalia crossed the Caribbean sea and hit the state late last month as a category-three hurricane. Reports then came flying in from Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia - roughly the storm's route as it travelled up the coast - but also inland in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Ohio.The furthest north sighting (so far) was in the picturesque Caesar Creek Park lake, near Waynesville in south-west Ohio.
Jacob Roalef told US media that he saw two of the birds - an adult and a juvenile - "just hanging out and sleeping in about a foot of water near the shore" before they were scared off by a dog.
BBC News
