The Flamingo is The Phoenix?🔥🦩

One of my motivating symbols to take an overseas trip over the last year and a bit has been the Flamingo.

It was more to motivate me to go to Singapore than America, but last year it became a personal symbol to me to visit both countries and see live ones, albeit in captivity rather the in the wild.

Since it was announced that my NRL footy club The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks would be playing The Penrith Panthers in the first round of the NRL in Las Vegas in 2025.

To my knowledge Australia doesn't have any in captivity anymore, since the oldest one in captivity Chile the Chilean flamingo died in the Adelaide Zoo years ago, as I wrote in this old post -

Pink Flamingos, Signs, Books and Synchromysticism?

Just Flamin' Go?🔥🦩

I never thought I would see my first live flamingo at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and it would be of the Chilean variety.

Watching a few documentaries about flamingos I learned that the legend of The Phoenix is based on the flamingo.

The Crimson Wing: Mystery
of the Flamingos (2008)

The Long Flight of the Phoenix

The Long Flight of the Phoenix

I watched 'The Long Flight of the Phoenix' for free on You Tube and there were 67 likes at the time.

1967 is the year The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and The Penrith Panthers entered the national Rugby League competition:-)

Our original plan was to fly to Florida and try and see the flamingos there, but my son informed me that there wouldn't be any to see there and that the Denver Zoo would be our best bet to see live flamingos in America ironically.

So, we cancelled the planned visit to Florida, so I would be able to visit Seattle instead and do a tour of the Seahawks stadium.

Denver was where we were heading to for 4 days after we left Vegas, but ironically, we never saw any flamingos there, because they closed the zoo to do some work on the zoo for the only 2 days we had a window to go to the zoo there.

We flew into Vegas from San Francisco with Frontier Airlines and on the tail of the plane was a picture of a hummingbird.

I didn't realize at the time that each plane had a different animal on its tail and that the airline's mascot was not the hummingbird exclusively.

Hummingbirds and the Horizons of Planetary Culture

I never thought that I would also see my first live hummingbird in Vegas, but I did and also at the Flamingo Hotel.

2025 is for the Birds?🦩🐦🦅🦉

See it flying where the flat rock on the left is?

I couldn't believe how small and fast these birds were, as about the smallest live birds I had seen in my life until then were blue fairy wrens -

The Fairy Wren stepping out
to greet me at Port Arthur

Hit Me with Your Best Shot

I had been standing near the bird feeders trying to see a hummingbird for some time and had given up and was taking a picture of a big koi fish I saw swimming in the stream when two hummingbirds flew out of the bush chasing one another. 

So, who said you can't get lucky in Vegas?-)

A Weekend in Vegas at The Luxor? 🎲🎰