Our town is being ‘discovered’. After years of being the ‘biggest secret’ in Miami-Dade County, Miami Springs is positioned to stake a claim as a great location and a wonderful place to live. If there was a pageant for America’s Best Hometown, we’d win in a heartbeat. Now, about those intrusive noises we’re experiencing.
The squawking parrots are being drowned out by the gas-powered leaf blowers. The blowers start up shortly after 7 AM which would be a convenient ‘alarm clock’ but…… we don’t choose to be awakened that way. We have been awakened and surprised by the unbelievably loud sound from the supercharged whine of a Kawasaki Ninja H2 screaming down Okeechobee Road but, good news, they are drowned out by the airport noise. Thank goodness for our bird population which helps drown out the airport noise. The train horns have been drowning out the birds. So, it seems everything is drowning everything else out, except for……
Factory Town in south Hialeah! And the echoes of the thump-thump music shall endure. When the wind blows toward the Hialeah Racetrack area, the flamingos have been seen covering their ears with their feathers. It’s a real sight, and the cacophony has stressed out the birds.
This type of bird has a physiology that lends itself to the study of stress response. They used to take part in various drug studies but found that afterward they couldn’t tell up from down. It’s like when we didn’t know which band was playing at Woodstock.
One of the aggrieved flamingos who couldn’t take the sound, had to find a lawyer. “It was difficult to find a lawyer that could understand the ‘problem’ said the bird. “We finally found one who had represented whales with a class action lawsuit against the descendants of Ahab the whaler.” The lawyer, in a letter to whoever would read it, said “The booming repetitive electronic dance music caused considerable stress for my client. Birds are people too!”
“I’d rather be chased by a predator” said a local flamingo who declined to be named, “How do these people stand that noise? If I had ears, it would have been far worse. I ducked my head under my feathers, but it was like hiding from an atomic blast. I finally had to catch two local marsh rabbits and shove their fluffy tails in my ears to get any sleep.” They didn’t go for that and hired their own law firm.
The good news here is that the report shows the flamingos were less stressed than if they heard a Yoko Ono tribute to the screech owl. A study on long-term exposure to actual humans was not in the offing as no one wanted to be around the music long enough to reach any conclusions.
