Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge, Townsend, GA April 30, 2019

A Wood Stork is not a Puffin!

I shouldn’t say wood storks are ugly – but they are just not as cute as puffins. Tell the grandkids you have pictures of puffins and they’re excited. Real excited! Tell them you have pictures of wood storks and they aren’t excited. Really not excited. Instead they say, “Pop Pop. You’re weird!”

But wood stocks are fascinating birds! The Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge is the perfect place to become acquainted with them. The Woody Pond has been designed, built, and managed to support the survival of wood storks. Here’s kind of a mini-behavioral guide.

Words fail me here.

It would be cruel to put an image of a puffin next to an image of a wood stork. But these storks wouldn’t care. They love shallow water where they can wade and fish. Wood storks blind fish – feeling in the water and snapping their extremely sensitive beaks shut in milliseconds when a small fish happens to swim too close.

The Woody Pond is their perfect place for wading and fishing. A far corner of the pond looks like this.

The wood stork looks ungainly and awkward like a teenage boy who has grown too fast. But watch the control as one positions itself with its wings.

Watch as it precisely positions its feet.

Watch as it sees the landing spot – a rough jumble of sticks and twigs loosely fitted into the branches of a tree. Its home for this breeding season.

Watch – the landing is precise and perfect! Wow! But all this is for naught if the male stork cannot find a mate. Wood storks appear to find a new mate each year. So the male begins building a nest to attract a mate.

Bloggers note – there is disagreement about the exact behavioral patterns of a wood stork. So I’m choosing the pattern that seems reasonable – and of course, the pattern makes the best story!

Wood Storks nest in a communal rockery with dozens of other wood storks – and a variety of other wetland birds. Look at them all. In this rookery, the male stork will begin a nest hoping to attract a female …

This male begins building the nest. He needs sticks and twigs. He’s off …

(Click on the first image of the gallery. Once the first picture is up, you can watch the action by clicking (tapping) on the arrow that appears on the right edge. Click through the image set. Move forward and backward. Then you can click on the small [X] in the upper right corner to return to the main line blog.)

Our male grabs a likely twig in this beak. He’ll use his wings to tug and pull until he frees it from the branches. Then he flies to the rockery and begins to construct his nest.

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But as a wood stork builds his nest, he has competition! Another lonely wood stork will try to invade the nest. The intruder will try to take it over. At the least he’ll try to steal sticks and twigs. In the gallery below, watch as a solitary wood stork attempts to land in another stork’s nest – but gets booted before he is successful!

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This nest isn’t a work of art! In fact, I see no way it could attract a discerning female. You’d hardly think the guy below has much to offer!

But we’d be wrong! Again, click through the gallery below. I swear, it looks like love is in the air!

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The courtship is amazing! A couple of teenagers!

The happy couple will now begin work on their nest together!

While I believe the male may take most of the trips to bring twigs back to the nest and the female will now do more of the actual nest building – I don’t really know. I still love this picture as the new couple begins nest building together.

I liked watching and photographing the activities. Because now the work gets serious!

As the time for egg laying nears, the nesting materials change. Now the nest is to be lined with greenery! The greens hold the heat and probably make the nest more comfortable.

The trips become more frequent and each brings back new pieces of greenery.

Flight after flight – each piece of greenery carefully placed to line the bottom of the nest. After a lot of trips, the nest is lined and is ready.

When I was there only one wood stork pair was early – stork chicks have white, hairy heads! One adult will now remain with the chicks in the nest while the other now starts new trips. The chicks constant need for food will require weeks of trips!

At this point I must head home. Next year I’ll try to be back to continue this story – lots and lots of wood stork chicks!