A Zoo Visitor's Views

Whenever I visit the National Zoo, in Washington DC, I go first to the outside bird exhibit area, to see my favorite inhabitant of the zoo, a marabou stork. And he is always there, standing a few feet from the fence, as if he has been waiting for me.

For more than ten years, I have especially looked forward to visiting in autumn, to see him spread and flap his wings whenever flocks of migrating birds fly overhead. I have always hoped that all he wanted to do was to fly up and chase the flocks of geese away because he didn't want to share his wonderful habitat with them.



But my Old Faithful is becoming Older Faithful, and his zoo flock has dwindled down to two, so I know one of these years, I will approach his exhibit area and see that he is no longer there.

When that happens, I won't want to be sad. So then I will just imagine that he has finally found a way to spread his wings and take flight, and that he has decided to join a flock of Canada geese as they fly south.