Haste Makes Waste.

Around the beginning of May, a flamingo was reported near Grand Chenier by a nearby resident. On May 2, Curt Sorrells and Phillip Wallace went looking for the bird during a weekend of birding the SW parishes. That morning, I decided to bird alone on the other side of the Calcasieu so I could take my time and work on photos of common birds without slowing anyone down. I especially wanted to go slowly down Holly Beach toward Peveto Woods, making sure I accounted for every bird there.

Before arriving at the beach, I got a call from Phillip. They had found the flamingo. It was banded, and I joked that it was probably an escapee from Audubon Zoo. I went on with my plans, but decided to head over to see the flamingo after I finished my route. I drove down the beach at a crawl, checking everything, photographing, videotaping, enjoying a relaxing day.

A little way down the beach, I ran into Mike Musumeche. He had seen the flamingo and taken some nice photos. I started to wonder if maybe I shouldn't head over there sooner rather than later. But, nah, it was probably just an escape from Audubon Zoo. I got back to my beach detail.

Not long afterward, as I was parked checking out a group of gulls, another vehicle pulled up behind me. I recognized the Sorrells mobile, and got out to visit with Curt and Phillip. As we talked, they mentioned how close they had been to the flamingos.

Wait, flamingos? Plural?

Yes, they told me, these were the very same flamingos that had been reported two years ago from Cameron. One was a banded American Flamingo from Mexico, the other an imported flamingo from Africa that had escaped from a zoo in Wichita, Kansas. The American Flamingo was a truly wild bird, a genuine vagrant that had first been reported in Texas. When they were seen in Cameron two years ago, they had been reported, photographed, and then returned to Texas before birders got a chance to see them.

Would I miss my chance this time? Would I go on my way, take my time to get there, and find them gone? Or should I turn around and zip there as fast as I could, and then return to bird Holly Beach and Peveto? I decided to quickly drive to Peveto, bird there, go across the Calcasieu to see the flamingos...and then come back and resume my leisurely drive down Holly Beach.

I let Curt and Phillip know my plans, then zipped on ahead down the beach highway. Still, when I saw a flock of gulls to my left, I couldn't resist. I slammed on the brakes a little past the main flock, then turned back to look at them. From my vantage point, I couldn't see anything unusual, but in my rearview I could see Phillip getting out of Curt's SUV with his videocamera. I looked to see what he was watching, but the angle was bad. He started to walk back to the car, so I drove back to check. He asked if I had seen the Great Black-backed Gull. Me? No, I was in too much of a hurry. He pointed it out, flying back to the east. We all headed out in pursuit.

Great Black-backed Gulls are rare birds in Louisiana, especially in SW Louisiana, where I can only remember seeing two over the years. It would be important to document it. We raced to where it had landed, and started filming and photographing. We got out, and I approached it. It began to get nervous, then flew east, giving good views of its wings and tail to our cameras.

It flew down to at least Holly Beach, possibly disappearing into the large gull flock on the beach there. And I drove on to Peveto, then to the flamingo spot, where I waited in vain until the sun went down for the flamingo. I wouldn't see it until noon the next day.

End of story? No, actually just a beginning.

A few days ago I finally got around to submitting a report on the Great Black-backed Gull. I looked at the photos for the first time, and was surprised. It looked much more like a Slaty-backed Gull, an Asian gull that seems to have been turning up in odd, scattered places lately, but never yet in Louisiana. In short, a really great bird. In the field, I had just looked past it. The pictures are pretty good, but they might not prove whatever it is, or eliminate whatever it isn't. If not, it just goes to show that when watching birds, it pays to concentrate on the bird at hand and not look too far ahead. A bird in the hand, you know.

Reports and photos at: http://www.losbird.org/lbrc/viewreport9.html