After Katrina - The Ibis and the Egret

[Guest guest]

Forgive me if I have already told this. Just after hurricane Katrina had passed, after the winds and rain had abated somewhat, my daughter and I went out to see what was left of our neighborhood. All was in rubble. A 20 building, 160 unit condo complex to the south of us was washed away. About 1/2 mile to the south and east, a Walmart was gone, its contents scattered (for the next two summers plants and seeds from the garden center sprang up everywhere - tomatoes, petunias, marigolds among the weeds). As we were looking at all the soaked items around the Walmart, we saw a large black bird with a slender, downcurved beak staggering in the rubble. My daughter found a drink cooler in the rubble and we were able to put the stunned bird in it and take him home. Becca put him in her bathtub. The first night he stayed right there huddled. The next day Becca walked to a wetland near our house and caught him several tiny frogs and put them in the tub with him. A couple of hours later the frogs were gone and the ibis was out of the tub walking around the bathroom, and turning it into a guano mess. The next morning we had decided to leave, and knowing there was no possibility of getting to the wildlife rehab facility or if it was even there (it was not) we decided that the bird was probably going to be as well off as anywhere in our backyard which was full of downed trees, and our neighbor's backyard was underwater, and we knew would be full of baby frogs in a few days. We believed that he had damaged wings as he had not been holding them tightly against his body but sort of drooping them. We released him into the backyard just before we pulled out of the driveway, and lo... he flew. An omen of hope if there ever was one. He flew into a tree in the backyard, king of all he surveyed, and we like to think, regained strength and went to live a full and happy bird life. Later research revealed that our visitor was a glossy ibis, a relative of the better known and more spectacular scarlet ibis.

We went off to a mountaintop in North Carolina for six weeks and when we returned, wondered if, perhaps, we would see our ibis. We did not, but when we pulled up to our house, a huge white waterbird, we believe one of the larger types of egret flew out of the downed trees giving a call and look as if we had tresspassed on his property. We never saw him again. Guess he did not care to share.

W