American Flamingo – Jeremy Meyer Photography

On Friday, around 11:20am I received a message in the Milwaukee RBA chat that there were 5 American Flamingos in Port Washington. Obviously, everyone went nuts on the group chat trying to figure out if this was real or not. Meanwhile, I was at work, so I immediately started cleaning up my tools and locked everything up for the day. I figured worst case; I would just turn around if it wasn’t real. About 40 messages later, several texts to friends, and 20 or so minutes, I was able to confirm it! 5 American Flamingos at South Beach in Port Washington, WOW!!! I was already halfway through Milwaukee when I received confirmation, so I’m glad I left right away. When I arrived, around 12:20pm, the parking lot was already full and there were at least 50 people on the beach, half of which were just local residents, who were in awe as well. Everyone there couldn’t believe what they were seeing! There was 3 adults (pink) and 2 hatch year (gray) birds. They were only about 40′ offshore which was even more crazy! They were so close and did not mind all the people. While I was there, they were mostly resting. They would occasionally lift their heads and walk around but that was about it. I had heard that they were eating some kind of food, but I’m not sure what it was though. They also took baths and preened. Then at 5:12pm, they took flight and have not been seen since. These birds were blown into the US from hurricane Idalia and made their way up to us through the south winds this past week. What an epic day in the bird world of Wisconsin! The photos below were taken on Friday 9/22. Enjoy!

I was in Florida for 5 weeks this winter and it was amazing! This wasn’t just a bird vacation, rather a relaxing, enjoying the daily sun and not being in Wisconsin for winter type of vacation. I think I did less bird things than I would normally do, but I still ended up with over 150 species and 12 life birds. I tried to focus on a few birds that I had not seen before and without spending too much time driving for them. Snail Kite was a top priority, which I made a separate post about earlier this week. I also saw that Vermilion Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird and Tricolored Munia (ABA bird) were being seen at Torry Island. I made several trips there but was unsuccessful with the Tricolored Munia. I found the other two, along with a Blue Grosbeak and several Painted Buntings. There was also an Indigo x Painted Bunting seen occasionally and I found that as well. Another spot I focused on was Three Lakes WMA. I saw that Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman’s Sparrow were seen among others. I had seen all three before, but I wanted to spend more time with photos on them. I did the Lake Apopka Wildlife Dr, which is only open on the weekends, and is an 11-mile one way drive. It’s basically water or marsh on both sides of the road and is incredible for photography. Another awesome place was St Marks NWR, which has been hosting an American Flamingo (ABA bird) for over a year. This time I was able to go and see it, among many other things. All in all, it was a very enjoyable time spent in Florida. I took over 15,000 photos and edited over 400, while down there! This is a very large photo gallery post, so please take your time going through it. If you have any questions or would like more info on any of the places I visited, feel free to contact me. Enjoy!