Mar 23: Tropical Toons

Have you ever seen a cartoon come alive? I did this past weekend. You may have experienced the odd sensation of cartoonishness at least briefly in daily life, if you think about it. You know, the guy walking down the street who looks strangely like Popeye or the woman who resembles Wilma Flintstone or something. But on rare occasions, this reaches a whole new level. Sometimes you feel like you're actually in a cartoon yourself. Kinda like the bewildered detective in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" who finds himself walking around inside Toontown. I revisited Flamingo Gardens on Sunday, a wildlife sanctuary for animals that would have died in the wild. I just can't get past the feeling that the aviary here is like a tropical version of Toontown. Funny, charming, bizarre, even sad - and definitely worth a trip.

At Flamingo Gardens, the aviary really is the centerpiece of any visit. It's an enormous screen-enclosed area inhabited by dozens and dozens of different wounded birds. Most of them seem quite lively now, I assure you. Yes, you do see many old injuries. That's the sad part. But you quickly realize that these birds have adjusted to their disabilities - and that they're well cared for. This is when the comedy kicks in.

My girlfriend, Gwendolyn, and I were wandering down the sidewalk when a huge pelican began waddling beside us. The three of us just kinda strolling along together. That's part of what makes the aviary so cartoonish. Most of the birds are walking. Ducks are flopping their big feet across dry land in between pond swims. Roseate spoonbills, pink waders with strange flat beaks, go stalking about like oddities that came straight from an artist's imagination. Black anhingas stand within your arm's reach, wings spread wide as possible to dry in the breeze. It all soon seems very funny. Remember, these are creatures that never would have survived otherwise. Inside the aviary, they seem to have a fairly decent life. But darned amusing to people. Over here a crane is slurping up a pan of small fish, dropping about every other one, which of course sets off a mad rush by the birds nearby. Over there a seagull walks up to you, stops dead on the sidewalk and looks up at you right in the eye. Sorta like he's wondering exactly whose sidewalk this really is this. Many of these birds can't fly now but some do, which adds to the comic chaos. You're looking down at a blue heron when a pair of white ibis wings suddenly flaps inches from your ear. Plan on at least a couple of hours at Flamingo Gardens with plenty of time for the aviary especially. We actually walked through it twice on Sunday. Hey, why not? I always did like cartoons.