Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Storks, Spoonbills and more

From the Tishomingo NWR's Goose Pen Pond this weekend.  
The Wood Stork is the only stork breeding in the United States. Wood storks capture their prey by a specialized technique (funny, we here in the South call this noodling , only we use our hands) known as grope-feeding or tacto-location ( this description from the internet). Feeding often occurs in water 6 to 10 inches deep, where a stork probes with the bill partly open. When a fish touches the bill it quickly snaps shut. The average response time of this reflex is 25 milliseconds, making it one of the fastest reflexes known in vertebrates. This stork visit an unusual Event....