Irene Wanner wrote:

"Now, I could swear I saw a flamingo yesterday...."

Hi folks,

My favorite flamingo story was from Malheur Natl. Wildlife Refuge, down in SE Oregon in 1983.
I was working for something slightly better than minimum wage as the Refuge bio-tech, being
forced to wade through the marsh and mosquitos counting birds, etc.

A few of the 'kids' over at the Malheur Environmental Field Station had been censusing cranes,
or some such, down in the Blitzen Valley. One evening right before Memorial Day (the prime
weekend for birding the refuge...), probably associated with some cold beer and copious
amounts of mosquito repellent, there was established a 1966 lawn-variety flamingo at the far end
of the Buena Vista ponds. It disappeared sometime the following week, probably picked up by
the refuge maintenance crew.

About the middle of July, the Refuge Manager received a grainy photograph of a flamingo far
across a mud flat and tule marsh, taken through a high-power lens, accompanying a terse letter
from a 'prominent' California birder. The message read: "What is this? Some kind of a joke?"

The letter and photo, of course, were posted at the Greasewood Room at the MEFS.

Score: Biology Interns - 1, Pompous Self-Important Birders - 0

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net