Tropical birds flock to the Lake Michigan shoreline. Flamingos in Wisconsin?

— 5 flamingos that confirmed up in Wisconsin to wade alongside a Lake Michigan seaside attracted an enormous crowd of onlookers desirous to see the weird guests venturing removed from their regular tropical setting.

The American flamingos noticed Friday in Port Washington, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, marked the primary sighting of the species in Wisconsin state historical past, mentioned Mark Korducki, a member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

How to identify adults and young people.

The birds stood quietly 25 ft (7.6 meters) off Lake Michigan’s western shoreline as waves lapped towards their skinny legs. Three had been adults, identifiable by their pink plumage, and two had been juveniles clad in grey.

Jim Edelhuber of Waukesha was amongst a crowd of about 75 hen lovers drawn to town’s South Seashore after phrase unfold on social media concerning the flamingos’ look there.

“That is big. That is unbelievable,” mentioned Edelhuber, an avid hen watcher and photographer.

The sighting was surprising however not a complete shock due to latest stories of flamingos in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania, mentioned Ryan Brady, conservation biologist with the Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets.

Where are they from ?

Wildlife biologists hypothesized that the flamingos had been pushed north in late August by the sturdy winds of Hurricane Idalia, the Journal Sentinel reported.

The everyday vary of the American flamingo is Florida and different Gulf Coast states in addition to the Caribbean and northern South America.

Debbie Gasper of Port Washington made the quick journey to the lakefront together with her husband, Mark. She mentioned that earlier than Friday the one flamingos she has seen have been on the couple’s journeys to Aruba.

Gasper mentioned she was going to ship pictures of the birds to family members in Georgia who “aren’t going to imagine it.”