JUVENILE WOOD STORK

The wood stork is a signature Florida wading bird.  This is a juvenile wood stork because it has feathers on its head and has a yellowish beak.  (Adults have bare heads and necks and a black beak.) They prefer shallow wetlands to stir up prey with their awkward pink feet.  Home to this youngster is La Chua Trail near Gainesville, FL .  Unfortunately, a lot of the preserve is closed because the swamp is still extremely flooded from Hurricane Irma last fall, so this wood stork is having to search for food in much deeper waters.  We were disappointed that we weren’t able to go on the nature trails where we understand the wildlife is fantastic, but we thoroughly enjoyed the time we had on the raised boardwalk.  (Little to no sunshine, and it started to rain as we were leaving.  Not the best day to try this!!)