Snowbirds

Snow Bird Drawing a Crowd in Fla.
Associated Press, December, 1998

Snowbirds of the two-legged variety have some winged company in Florida these days. The South Polar skua, a bird that typically frequents the frigid waters off Antarctica, has spent the last five weeks hunting, resting and drawing crowds at a beach known for surfing. Bird watchers by the hundreds have flocked to this stretch of beach, just south of Boynton Inlet Park on Florida's east coast to see the bird. It is the first confirmed sighting of the large predatory species in southern Florida. Environmentalist Kim Jones first reported seeing the bird on Nov. 11. "It's really doing better over the past three days. It's feathers have grown back on the one side where they were gone,'' Ms. Jones said. She believes the bird may have been blown off course by Hurricane Mitch - a likely scenario, according to birders from the Florida Audubon Society. Birders also have spotted skuas in the Jacksonville area and off the coast of Georgia.