For the past month or so, a town a little north of where I live along the Front Range of Colorado has sheltered a migrant far from home.

A juvenile wood stork, a species that breeds along the Gulf Coast and winters in the Florida Everglades and Mexico, somehow crossed the Great Plains and landed in a pond at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Experts say that storms can blow birds off course, but sometimes juveniles just get lost. According to the Denver Post, this is the first since 1934, and only the third reported sighting of a wood stork in ever Colorado.

The best viewpoint that I could take pictures from was between two small cottonwood trees, trying to shoot between the rushes that lined the bank. When I got close enough to take a decent photo, the wood stork was moving around a bit.

But it evidently soon fell back asleep.

The first reports of the stork came in August 22, 2025. That means that it’s survived almost a month in Colorado so far. It was still at the pond as of yesterday (September 11, 2025). The weather isn’t due for a significant change — no snowstorms or even freezes — in the foreseeable future, but we’ve had storms in September before, and freezing weather could blow in at any point from here on out. And the stork has 1500 miles to fly before it’s home.

I’m hoping it’s made friends with the American White Pelicans that have been living at the same pond, and when they head south, it tags along. But chances are, we’ll never know.