Flying with nests in your hair

I just felt the need to re-post this!

A while back, two dear sistergirlfriends and I went to a Wood Stork preserve. These birds are indigenous to Florida and come to South Carolina in the summer due to the destruction of the Everglades where they used to nest.

These are magnificent birds. The adult is a large bird 33-45 inches tall and has a wingspan of 58-71 inches. Males typically weigh 5.5-7.3 lbs and females weigh 4.4-6.2 lbs. The larger ones can weigh 10 lbs.


We watched them fly, feed their young, and build their nests. The nests are huge. They can be as large as 48 inches in diameter. The favorite place to build a nest is a tall tree, usually the Cypress or the Mangrove tree. The number of nests in one tree can count up to 20. Moss, twigs, and similar materials are used to build a nest.

I was thinking about the wood stork nests when I read this quote:

"You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair."

Chinese proverb

It brought to mind an image of a woman with a tall beehive hairdo running away from the wood storks and their 48 inch nests! Forty-eight inches would cover her entire head! Yours, too! It makes me smile. Too many times have I not only allowed the birds of sorrow to build nests in my hair, I have let them raise their families there!

A 48 inch nest is a huge thing to carry around even on a good day and having 20 of them would ruin a good do! Then imagine a few 10 pound birds in the nests. You get the picture. So, today, shake the nests out of your hair (even if they are smaller than 48 inches) and do not allow more to be built there ever again. You deserve better.