It Is Florida - Where Something Weird Is Always Happening

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I thought I had seen it all when I saw a small band of monkeys skittering across the dirt road. On investigation, I found out that several small bands are about in the woods. They survived after a hurricane destroyed their habitat at the zoo several years ago.

But what I just saw, and wasn't able to get a picture of, was a medium sized bird sitting in one of my dead trees, that looked like a penguin. 

I know. I know. Penquins don't fly, and they don't live in Florida. So I am guessing that all of the storms and the flood waters we have had for so long, has these guys a little confused.

It looked just like these guys. I will keep and eye out for them and hope they drop in and stay long enough for me to get a picture next time.

2012 Razorbill invasion



Fig. 1. Unheard of prior to this year, this evocative image says it all: Razorbills with palm trees of Miami Beach in the background. Photo 15 Dec 2012 by Trey Mitchell.

https://ebird.org/news/razorbills-invade...%20jetties.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Wildlife getting more confused the longer we have these cell towers up. Not sure that has anything to do with your story, but maybe?

Reminds me of the first time I went over to the Mall and there were sea gulls flying all around the parking lot!  Sea Gulls!  Now mind you, I live a long way from the ocean, so how they ended up here is beyond me. They have remained ever since. 
Be careful not to drop a crumb on the ground or you will be attacked by birds!  

[ABNARTY]

Monkeys! Wow... At first I would think I was imagining things. 

Florida has so many non-native critters running around. I watch a YT channel where the guy hunts and eats Iguana.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Monkeys! Wow... At first I would think I was imagining things. 

Florida has so many non-native critters running around. I watch a YT channel where the guy hunts and eats Iguana.

You don't have to hunt them. They are everywhere.

They drive my critters crazy.

[ABNARTY]

You don't have to hunt them. They are everywhere.

They drive my critters crazy.

That's the weird part IMO. They "hunt" them in subdivisions, golf courses, ditches, etc. One guy makes Iguana omelets out of the eggs.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

You don't have to hunt them. They are everywhere.

They drive my critters crazy.

That's the weird part IMO. They "hunt" them in subdivisions, golf courses, ditches, etc. One guy makes Iguana omelets out of the eggs.

I have heard that people eat them, but I can assure you, not that many, and I don't see their numbers dwindling any time soon. They are still out numbered by the "Jesus" lizards. 

http://www.wildsouthflorida.com/brown.ba...izard.html

[Ninurta]

In 2002, in High Point, NC, I was guarding a facility against AQ attacks. There was some highly volatile crap there that, if it was set off, would have left a crater 60 feet deep and 600 feet in diameter right where I was standing, and would have leveled 16 square miles of High Point outside of the crater, so folks were pretty nervous that it might attract unwanted attention for AQ in those days.

About 6 AM one morning, just as the sun was coming up, I was out patrolling the perimeter, checking for intruders or breaks in the fence or anything out of the way, and suddenly I heard the damndest row of chittering and screeching and screaming in the woods along a set of railroad tracks, and that grabbed my immediate attention. Tree tops over there were swaying and shaking like a wind storm had hit them. They were only about 100 meters or so away, and I couldn't feel any wind where I was, so I figured it had to be a big flock of birds making the racket - North Carolina, ya know? Nothing there to do that other than birds, and lots of 'em.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was monkeys. Dozens of them. In North Carolina, out in the wild in the woods. It looked like it was two opposing forces of monkeys throwing a young war at each other.

In North Carolina - did I mention that?

I never told anyone about it, nor did it go into any of my reports. They'd have disarmed me and sent me home - or worse, to a shrink's office - but I know what I saw.

And it was monkeys. Dozens of 'em. in NC. In the wild, in the woods.

A few weeks later, I heard that PETA had set a bunch of monkeys loose from a research facility, "liberated" them they said. Never mind that monkeys are not native to NC, and would not survive long there without the research facility to take care of them. That was a couple hundred miles away from where I had been that morning, and I'm still not convinced of the connection, but it's the only explanation I have. The report mentioned "a few" monkeys released, rather than dozens, but "a few" IS a rather imprecise figure, so who knows?

"There are stranger things in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio..."

.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

In 2002, in High Point, NC, I was guarding a facility against AQ attacks. There was some highly volatile crap there that, if it was set off, would have left a crater 60 feet deep and 600 feet in diameter right where I was standing, and would have leveled 16 square miles of High Point outside of the crater, so folks were pretty nervous that it might attract unwanted attention for AQ in those days.

About 6 AM one morning, just as the sun was coming up, I was out patrolling the perimeter, checking for intruders or breaks in the fence or anything out of the way, and suddenly I heard the damndest row of chittering and screeching and screaming in the woods along a set of railroad tracks, and that grabbed my immediate attention. Tree tops over there were swaying and shaking like a wind storm had hit them. They were only about 100 meters or so away, and I couldn't feel any wind where I was, so I figured it had to be a big flock of birds making the racket - North Carolina, ya know? Nothing there to do that other than birds, and lots of 'em.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was monkeys. Dozens of them. In North Carolina, out in the wild in the woods. It looked like it was two opposing forces of monkeys throwing a young war at each other.

In North Carolina - did I mention that?

I never told anyone about it, nor did it go into any of my reports. They'd have disarmed me and sent me home - or worse, to a shrink's office - but I know what I saw.

And it was monkeys. Dozens of 'em. in NC. In the wild, in the woods.

A few weeks later, I heard that PETA had set a bunch of monkeys loose from a research facility, "liberated" them they said. Never mind that monkeys are not native to NC, and would not survive long there without the research facility to take care of them. That was a couple hundred miles away from where I had been that morning, and I'm still not convinced of the connection, but it's the only explanation I have. The report mentioned "a few" monkeys released, rather than dozens, but "a few" IS a rather imprecise figure, so who knows?

"There are stranger things in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio..."

.

Monkeys are resilient, clever, and survivors. 

They have quite a few feral monkeys in South Carolina, so I would expect a group or two have moved a little further north.

When I am out in the woods, I am sometimes reminded why the woods is the setting for so many horror movies.  

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

I have had some fairly strange experiences in Florida, though none of them animal related. Because of all the hurricanes and tropical storms and the damages they cause animals are loosed from zoos, pet shops, private owners and even from dealers in the illegal animal trades- not to mention people just turning loose animals that they can no longer handle in the Everglades and other regions.

I remember several years back a guy who was installing cable at an apartment complex in Florida got bitten by a green mamba! He survived but the story just gave me another reason why I'll never move there! I didn't sign up for having to watch out for African snakes in the USA!  

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I have had some fairly strange experiences in Florida, though none of them animal related. Because of all the hurricanes and tropical storms and the damages they cause animals are loosed from zoos, pet shops, private owners and even from dealers in the illegal animal trades- not to mention people just turning loose animals that they can no longer handle in the Everglades and other regions.

I remember several years back a guy who was installing cable at an apartment complex in Florida got bitten by a green mamba! He survived but the story just gave me another reason why I'll never move there! I didn't sign up for having to watch out for African snakes in the USA!  

It is Florida. Where something weird is always going on.

One man's nuisance is another man's bounty.    

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

I have had some fairly strange experiences in Florida, though none of them animal related. Because of all the hurricanes and tropical storms and the damages they cause animals are loosed from zoos, pet shops, private owners and even from dealers in the illegal animal trades- not to mention people just turning loose animals that they can no longer handle in the Everglades and other regions.

I remember several years back a guy who was installing cable at an apartment complex in Florida got bitten by a green mamba! He survived but the story just gave me another reason why I'll never move there! I didn't sign up for having to watch out for African snakes in the USA!  

It is Florida. Where something weird is always going on.

One man's nuisance is another man's bounty.    

They could pay $800 per hour and I still wouldn't take that job- unless they agreed to issue me a grenade launcher for the task! 

[Ninurta]

It is Florida. Where something weird is always going on.

One man's nuisance is another man's bounty.    

"Florida Man" strikes again!

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