Success!

Today I decided to ditch my healthy exercise routine of swimming a mile and go birdwatching instead.  Best of all I rode the motorcycle.  My jacket and vest are loose enough to wear my binoculars underneath.  I left from work and headed east on 109th.  Where 109th meets 35W it bends north and turns into Sunshine Street. I took that north to Hwy. 14 and headed east to Hugo. Traffic wasn't too bad.  A rock flew up and hit me in the face shield of my helmet.  Wow, it cracked hard and loud only an inch from my eyeball.  I think it had the potential to crack a windshield.  This is why I wear a helmet with a face guard. The bike was running a little rough.  At the intersection of Hwy. 14 and Lake Drive it died just as the light turned green.  Crap!  This bike has a small gas tank and sometimes I need to turn it to reserve when there is a full gallon left in there.  I pulled over and turned the gas lever to reserve and started up again.  I bought gas in Centerville.  In Hugo I went north and turned east on Washington County Road 4.  At Manning Trail North I turned north.  I stopped at the first pond I saw and searched for the stork.  I turned off the bike and unzipped my coat.  I removed my gloves and sunglasses and held the binoculars up to my eyes.  I scanned the pond and the dead trees around it.  I didn't see any birds there.  I moved north to the Big Marine Park Reserve. I thought if they had a park office I could ask about the stork.  Washington County expects you to pay to use their parks so I didn't bother going in.  I headed south on Manning Trail North and checked out all the spots where egrets or wood storks might hang out.  I glanced at all the ponds and in the trees as best I could at 55 mph.  If the traffic was lighter I could have gone slower. I drove south all the way to some railroad tracks.  No sign of the stork or any egrets.  I know it takes time to see these rare birds.  I had to look for 20 or more minutes to see the ibis this spring.  I decided to give the area north of County Road 4 one more try.  I went by the first pond again.  Nothing there.  I kept going. On my left I saw a shallow pond in a cattle lot.  The water was green and the area around it was nasty and full of cow prints and cow pies.  Wait now, did I see a bird in there?  I turned around and came back so I was on the side of the road nearest the pond.  I parked.  Yes, there were some Canadian geese in the green pond, about 20 in all.  At the near shore was a killdeer.  As long as I was here I might as well scan closely with the binoculars.  Wow - what is that bird over on the left standing perfectly still?  It wasn't a great blue heron.  And although this bird was heron shaped it didn't have the posture of a heron.  This bird looks dark but it's hard to see looking into the sun like I was.  And it hasn't moved at all.  Not a single feather has moved.  I keep looking until my eyes go buggy and then I look some more.  This bird does not move!  Has some farmer made a cardboard cutout of a stork and is he or she looking out the kitchen window and laughing at me?  This bird still doesn't move.  It's tail is in the green scummy water. You would think the bird would look up or down or left or right even if it doesn't move it's body.  I put the binoculars down and move the bike up ten feet to be closer.  I look again.  This bird hasn't moved.  It has a long beak though - longer than a heron beak.  Could it be the wood stork?  Aren't they supposed to be lighter in color? I kept watching with the binoculars because I wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a cardboard cut out.  Gradually I noticed that the tail moved upwards and out of the green water.  This WASN'T a cardboard cut out.  It was a real bird.  Could it be a green heron?  No, it was too tall and it's beak was too long.  I've never seen this bird before.  The color seemed too dark for a stork.  But the shape, the long beak, and the fact that it was unusual and in the exact cattle pond mentioned by other bird watchers makes me think it might be a wood stork.  I decide to look it up when I get home.  I open my copy of Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America.  The book says "A lethargic resident of swamps where it feeds in the open where it is conspicuous.  That description plus the picture seals the deal.  I saw a wood stork.  It takes me an hour to get home making this bike ride 2.5 hours long.  This was much more fun than swimming a mile and totally worth it.  Wood storks don't normally come to Minnesota.  I'm glad I got a chance to see one.