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John Hollenhorst reporting Utah's most famous bird, the state's only wild Pink –Flamingo, finally has some company.
Sort of.
Last night, something strange turned up near Pink Floyd's habitat at the Great Salt Lake.
Look out on the fringe of the Great Salt Lake and you may think your eyes are playing tricks. But there they are: a flock of pink flamingoes.
Pink artwork anyway. It mysteriously appeared Tuesday night. And if Jim Platte knows who put it there, he's not saying.
Jim Platte / Friends for Floyd: "The artist prefers to remain anonymous."
Platte loves flamingoes. Maybe he's obsessed with them. Check out his kite. A pink flamingo.
But here's the real deal. The bird closest to Jim Platte's heart. Pink Floyd. He escaped from Tracy Aviary 16 years ago.
He spends his winters here and his summers in Montana. For 16 years he's been dining on brine shrimp, and he's been thrilling visitors by flying along the shoreline near Saltair.
Jim Platte Friends for Floyd: "I like to think that some kind-hearted soul aided his escape."
Platte hopes someday to bring in a real flock of friends for Floyd.
Jim Platte Friends for Floyd: "Well, he could have a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Nobody knows for sure if he's a boy or a girl."
If you want to see Pink Floyd up close, sometimes he doesn't make that so easy. You have to slog for miles and miles through the muck
We found Floyd enjoying his usual diet of brine shrimp. It was worth all the trouble and all the mud to find him.
Especially when he spread his pink wings and showed his true colors.
Jim Platte Friends for Floyd: "He's tough as a buzzard and pretty as a sunset."
Platte wants to import 25 flamingoes from Argentina. State officials won't approve it because it may alter the ecosystem.
Platte believes flamingoes were here thousands of years ago. And if Floyd is at home in Utah, why not make him happy
Platte, is going to try and make Pink Flamingoes, an issue ... in the Governor's race. And, there's a rumor more Pink Flamingoes, at least the plastic variety, will start turning up around town in the next few days.
