Pinky has visitors? Flamingo family arrives at St. Mark's Wildlife Refuge

Pinky, Tallahassee's favorite flamingo, may have some new friends.

Local birders visiting the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday spotted a family of flamingos that arrived after Hurricane Idalia.

"Imagine my surprise while checking out the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to find a flamboyance of flamingos," Lisa Lazarus Brown said in an email after returning from the refuge with photos. A group of flamingos is known as a “flamboyance.”

"Pinky was busy and tucked away at Stoney Bayou," Brown said. "The new group of three adults and adults juveniles looked a little confused and hesitant as they slowly walked back and forth in the Lighthouse Pool. The adults did a little stomping for food while the juveniles looked on. In a few instances, the adults nipped at the youngsters as if to tell them, go find some food."

This week flamingos showed up in unusual spots around Florida as dozens of the birds were reported along the west coast — just as Hurricane Idalia chugged northward through the Gulf of Mexico. One sighting was at the Sanibel Causeway.

Pinky abides: Pinky, the St. Marks refuge's celebrity flamingo, has rock star appeal for birders

It was the first time a flamingo had ever been documented in places like Alachua County.

One scientist thinks the birds are from the Yucatan, that they were traveling from Mexico to Cuba, and that Idalia simply blew them off course.

"I guess the question is: where are these flamingos going, and whatever happened to Pinky," said Keith Laakkonen, director of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples, on Wednesday. “They’ve been seen at three different places today, the Sanibel Causeway, in Punta Gorda and Tarpon Springs.” (Tallahassee folks know that as of this week Pinky abides and is still calling the St. Marks Refuge home.)

No one knows exactly how many of the great omnivores are in Florida right now, but some ornithologists have speculated on social media that there may be as many as 70 of the pink-and-gray birds that were blown off course.

Reports and photos of flocks of flamingos came from Bunche Beach, Blind Pass, Charlotte Harbor, Stump Pass, Punta Gorda and north all the way to Clearwater, and now St. Marks.

And they came here with Hurricane Idalia.

Storm birds: Florida Audubon scientist: 'Where are these flamingos going, and whatever happened to Pinky?'

“There’s no way they’re not storm birds,” Laakonen said. “The question is: where did they come from? Was it Mexico or Cuba? There are good populations in the Yucatan, and several of the birds that were seen were juveniles. So, these birds are from a breeding population.”

As Brown wondered on Thursday, "Will they find Pinky? Will Pinky find them? There was a little honking going on during the time I was there."

Then on Thursday evening a new report came in from refuge observer Matt Johnstone.

"At 6 p.m. the 6 flamingos flew out the SW corner of Lighthouse Pool. They dropped low behind the trees and my last glimpse through the trees had them flying across or perhaps even up the St Marks River," Johnstone said in an email.

"The way I see it, the new theme song for the whole flamboyance is, "Do I stay or do I go?" We'll see what happens! I know everyone will be watching," Brown said.

Chad Gillis of the Fort Myers News-Press contributed to this report. Contact Martha Gruender at mgruender@tallahassee.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Flamingos land at Florida's St. Marks Wildlife Refuge after Idalia