Birds of Confusion

In all the time I've lived in this house -- nearly eleven years -- I've never had a wood stork come into my yard. Until today. I guess the birds are trying to figure things out and get back to normal too, and it must be hard with water being in places it usually isn't, and trees (or at least parts of trees) being where they normally aren't. Wood storks are really cool looking, as you'll see below, but I have heard that they can peck a person to death with those crazy-pointy long beaks. I have seen them spear fish with those beaks, but I've never seen them get a person.

You'll also notice in the picture just a small portion of the debris at the curb. Our debris pick-up day is usually Thursday, but I think the trucks might be busy removing larger items from more-traveled roads. I thought about the wood stork as I was on my way home from work. Would he still be standing in my yard when I got home, waiting right where he'd been when I left five hours earlier? What brought him to mind was the workers along my commute route. Our electric company is still working to restore power, and crews are still cleaning up the sides of roads. I'm pretty sure those guys and gals have been at it non-stop since the storm, and my immediate area certainly didn't get the worst of it. Below, I've put a short video of our hurricane day -- just in case you've wondered what it's like to peak out and see if your yard and road are still there! [Darn! Blogger won't let me attach it, says the file is too big. Maybe another time.]