Keys Breeze

One For The Birds

Ever wonder what happens to some of the wildlife during Hurricane Season? Here’s an interesting story about birds in the Bahamas. I have also included some great first hand Rasta knowledge that my buddy Doug Hendrix shared in response to my recent post about the new Reggae Museum in Jamaica. Cool Runnings Mon!

Patrick

Ó Brien

 

Bahamian flamingos gone missing?
Hurricane Ike slammed the Bahamian island of Great Inagua’s in September causing millions of dollars in damage and apparently displaced much of the native Flamingo population.

It seems most of the flamingos took off in advance of Ike and have not been seen since according to officials in charge of the islands’ national parks. The parrots returned after the storm, but so far most of the flamingos have not come back. “Some of the flamingos are now reappearing, but it could be one or two years before they get back to their regular nesting pattern,” said Lynn Gape, also of the National Trust. She said wardens had only reported sightings of “several hundred” compared to the thousands there before.

So where did they go?  Possibly to the US. Bird watchers in the southern U.S. states have been reporting unprecedented flamingo sightings, from beach town of Destin in the Florida Panhandle, to as far away as Mississippi in late August, after Tropical Storm Fay. “This is the first documented record for flamingos for Mississippi. They are subtropical birds and just don’t fly this way,” said Mark LaSalle, director of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point, Mississippi. “It has certainly gotten people’s attention.”

But Bahamas officials did not think those birds were from the Bahamas. “Whenever they seek a safe haven they fly south to Bonaire, Venezuela or Cuba,” they said. They are hoping the flamingos will return when the breeding season begins in January.

From Jamaican Correspondent Doug Hendrix  - I Checked out your new posting and it is good to hear that the Jamaican government has decided to promote a Reggae museum in honor of all the artists. After visiting the Negril area last year and touring the back country up through Gange Hill and back to Nine Mile we were really disappointed in how Bob’s homeland was developed and commercialized. It really seemed like a let down ounce you got there.

I did a lot of asking of questions with the locals and cab drivers we spent time with. they were much more talkative about artists like Gregory Isaacs and Bunny Wailer. When I asked more I found they really liked the influence that , get this: Johnny Cash had on the island. Johnny owned a big estate between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios and donated tons to the local schools and community. Turns out that Rita and the Marley family like to pocket all those nice dollars coming in from the estate and don’t like to funnel back into the schools, economy and poverty that seems to engulf the back country.

Bob’s family just hasn’t done enough for the people that made them famous was the general feeling. What a disappointment, maybe the government can bridge the gap between the Marley’s and the people of Jamaica. Because flat out I don’t remember to many Johnny Cash tunes that put me in the Island mood, like Bob does.  

I Walk The Line, although not very straight, down the beach. Ya Mon, Doug