pink/tropical inspiration

 roseate skimmer, 25 sept 2010, downtown lafayette, la.

 photo by George Forest

     Before i get to part II of 'On est parti au Grand Texas', hows about a mild detour into the world of local pink organisms? Good then..............actually, this post was inspired by a recent photo (above) supplied by George Forest, life-long lafayette-saints-streets native; plus, it's breast cancer awareness month.

     Back in April 1982, Lydia and I finally moved back to Acadiana -- where we truly belong, y'know -- to the self-same spot where we live today. The first organism i remember seeing at our place was a pink dragonfly, a roseate skimmer. That near-neon visage, against that spring-green backdrop, remains one of only a few dozen indelibly-burned images in my brain today.

     A pink dragonfly! I had never seen one before.

     The roseate skimmer belongs to a genus (Orthemis) of tropical dragonflies. It is the only species of the genus that has managed to expand its range as far north as the U.S.  Presently, its U.S. range map shows it occurring as far north as southern Kansas in the continental interior; and, hugging tightly to the Atlantic Coast, it's been recorded as far north as Delaware, i believe.

     Interestingly, the roseate skimmer was first recorded in the U.S. only recently, around 1875, from the Florida Keys. It spent 60 years establishing itself there before radiating north and west. I have no idea as to when it finally reached Louisiana; but i certainly do not remember it from my childhood days (1950s-1960s) in southern Evangeline parish. Perhaps it was restricted to our coastal zone at that time; but, for real, i have no idea. Today, it seems fairly common throughout south-central Louisiana -- particularly so in the Atchafalaya Basin. Yet another example of a tropical species' northward march in (probable) response to climatic warming trends.

     While we're on the subjects of 'pink' and 'tropical' . . .

 roseate spoonbill, 16 march 2005, Lake Martin (St. Martin parish, LA)

     . . . hows about this pink thing? Yeah. The "Cajun Flamingo," more properly known as the roseate spoonbill. Like the roseate skimmer, the roseate spoonbill is primarily a tropical species. Actually there are only 6 spoonbill species in the world, five of which are confined to the Old World (eastern hemisphere) tropics. The roseate spoonbill is the only New World spoonbill, restricted mostly to South and Central America, and only nudging its way northward into the U.S. Gulf Rim (coastal Texas, Louisiana, and south Florida).

     Prior to the Lacey Act of 1919 (prohibiting the practice of plume-hunting), the wings of roseate spoonbills were in high demand as fans for "fashionable" ladies, restulting in this species near-total extirpation from what little of the U.S. it had managed to establish itself in. As late as the 1950s, Louisiana ornithologist George Lowery declared it "very rare" in our state, confined almost entirely to a couple of very isolated rookeries in Cameron parish. Fortunately, it has made a strong comeback, and now breeds as far north as Miller's Lake in Evangeline parish (south-central Louisiana), and seems to be slowly spreading eastward into Terrebonne parish.

     Even through the 1980s it was sufficiently rare as to be consistently mistaken for a flamingo, by southwestern Louisiana rice farmers, as it gradually edged its way northward into that part of the state. During that time, at the Acadiana Park Nature Station in Lafayette, we received a fairly steady stream of "flamingo" phone reports from farmers and/or farmers wives -- thus the nickname, "Cajun Flamingo."

     That said, I'll hasten to add that several bona fide greater flamingo reports exist for Louisiana, all of them from the coastal zone, the most recent of which occurred only a year ago in Cameron parish. So be on the look out . . . keep your eyes peeled, as my dad used to say . . . and keep your cameras at the ready. . .