Photo by Robert O’Toole

The rookery is gearing up for chaos as we move into April!

Roseate spoonbills began nesting early this year. Three nests have already fledged out and 4 more pairs are either incubating or have recently hatched chicks. The spoonbills are following the staggered nesting pattern of previous years.

The Great egrets were the second to arrive and hatch out. So far we have multiple nests with chicks and the remainder are hatching out daily. This species still carries their exotic egrette plumage and continues to display.

The Wood storks are right behind the Great egrets. There are now 55 nests, though pairs are still building and have yet to lay. No chicks have been spotted yet but the first nests are due to hatch any day now.

The smaller species (Cattle egret, Snowy egret, Tri-colored heron and Little Blue heron) have finally begun to arrive. The Snowys build and lay quickly, while the other species are taking their time making their nest just right.

Last to arrive are the Green herons. They have begun to call throughout the rest of the zoo and are currently looking for the perfect nest site.

If you are still wondering if now is the time to visit, YES it is!

Photo by Eric Zsolczai

Mid February – The first pair of Great egrets arrive around Valentine’s Day.  More are close behind and begin nest building.  Roseate spoonbills stagger their nests, arriving as early as January 18^th!

Late February- Great egret pairs continue to arrive, along with some Wood storks. The Greats start to lay eggs. Spoonbill chicks possible.

Early March – Great egrets and Wood storks continue to flock in.

Mid March – Most Great egrets are incubating eggs.  The Wood storks begin to lay.

Late March – Great egrets chicks start hatching out.  Most storks incubating eggs.  A few of the Snowy egrets, Little blue herons, and Tri-colored herons start arriving.  The Snowys waste no time and immediately lay eggs.  Roseate spoonbills are nest building.

Early April – Wood stork chicks start hatching.   Great egret chicks are starting to get to a good size.  Snowys, Little blues, and Tri-coloreds are laying eggs.  Cattle egrets start showing up.

Mid April –. The Green herons start nesting within the park (not the rookery).  Still lots of displaying birds of every species.

Late April – Rookery is mass chaos.  Snowy chicks start hatching. Wood stork chicks are screaming constantly.  Great egret chicks are pretty big.  All of the smaller species have arrived.

Early May – There are chicks of every species in the rookery at this time, but still displaying from all species with the exception of the wood storks.  Green heron chicks hatching out within the park.

Mid May – The Great egret and stork chicks are giant.  There are chicks of every size from every species.  Many species still continuing to display.

Early June – Nothing has even fledged yet.  The displaying has started winding down but there are still birds on eggs.  Chicks everywhere. Latest observed hatching of spoonbill eggs.

July – Fledglings are everywhere.  Displaying is over.  Still a few nests with smaller chicks.

August- Season is over and we prepare for hurricanes.

Yellow-crowned night heron by Tim Rucci

By Megan Mello, Intern

Common roosters, the Yellow-crowned (Nyctanassa violacea) and the Black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) are at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s rookery. These species is commonly found around the rookery during the winter and early spring months, normally arriving to Florida in late fall.

Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned night herons can be found throughout the United States, southern parts of Canada, and parts of Central and South America. They inhabit wetlands such as; marshes, swamps, lagoon, estuaries, mudflats, and mad-made wetlands. Night herons have also been known to live in residential neighborhoods and parks that are close to water.

Hunting for prey occurs when wading through shallow waters and mudflats at low tides, normally hunting for small fish and crustaceans.

Even though these species have the same common name; only separated by color, their appearance is different. Yellow-crowned are a medium sized bird with a slim body and an elongated neck. Their body is a gray-blue color with a black and white patterned head that has a distinctive yellow crown.

Yellow-crowned night heron by Paul Pagano

Black-crowned have a shorter stockier body that starts white at the neck then fades to gray with a black back, mantle and crown.

Black-crowned night heron by Nancy Wagle

In both species during breeding season the legs will turn from a yellowish-green to a pinkish-red color, and both species grow a long white plum from the back for their crown.  Nesting normally occurs in trees or shrubs that are near or over water. Nests are shallow in shape and courtship is initiated by the male who selects a territory, then attracts the female with a “stretching display”. Once together both parents will build the nest.

Both of these beautiful herons are considered a species of Least Concern (IUCN) and are a welcome winter addition around the rookery.  Once the other wading bird species begin to arrive in greater numbers, the night herons depart north for their nesting grounds.

Photo by Maxis Gamez

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm is pleased to announce Maxis Gamez as our judge for the zoo’s 20th Annual Photo Contest!

Maxis Gamez is a self-taught professional nature photographer residing in Sarasota, Florida. He started photography as a hobby, but has now decided to devote his passion, time and energy full time toward the craft. With photography, Maxis discovered a medium that enables him to express his creativity and use his abilities to teach and educate other photographers. Viewing the world from a different perspective, he is capable of capturing wonderful images. These images have been featured in local parks, galleries, published in magazines like Audubon, Shutterbug, Outdoor Photography Magazine, Nature Photographers Magazine and now published by National Geographic in the Bird Coloration book and Birds of North America Pocket Guide.

Maxis offers a Mentorship Program and field instructional photography workshops to anyone who is interested in learning the tips and techniques he has learn over the years.

To learn more about Maxis, please visit his website at www.gvisions.org

Photo by Ardith Bondi

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm is a proud participant of the Wood Stork Monitoring and Research Working Group.  This is directly from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Virtual News Room:

Wood storks in the Southeastern United States no longer face imminent danger of extinction

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to upgrade the status of the U. S. breeding population of wood storks from Endangered to Threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The proposal follows a comprehensive review, conducted by Service biologists, of the best available scientific and commercial information about the species’ status.

“The proposed reclassification of the wood stork demonstrates that the Endangered Species Act works,” said Dan Ashe, Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “This is a good day for the wood stork, and a good day for conservation. Thanks to great efforts from our conservation partners, the species is making real progress toward recovery.”

The wood stork is the only true species of stork nesting in the United States. Since its original ESA listing as endangered in 1984 the U.S. breeding population has shown substantial improvement in the numbers of nesting pairs as a whole and the expansion of its breeding range. The three-year averages during the past 10 years (2001 – 2010) range from 7,086 to 8,996 nesting pairs, all above the 6,000 nesting pair benchmark average established for reclassifying the species as Threatened, but well below the five-year average of 10,000 nesting pairs needed for delisting.

“Although some habitat loss continues, current population data clearly indicate that the wood stork is benefiting from the work of private landowners and several strong partnership efforts,” said Cindy Dohner, the Service’s Southeast Regional Director. “The wood stork is expanding its breeding range using a wide variety of wetlands to forage, roost, and breed, including man-made and restored wetlands.”

The proposed reclassification would not change any conservation or protection measures for the wood stork under the ESA. Rather it would recognize the stork’s ongoing recovery and the positive impact that collaborative conservation efforts over the last two decades have had on breeding populations. With a continuing trend, the species could become suitable for de-listing from the ESA. Therefore, addressing the threats associated with habitat loss, including the protection of natural wetlands through partnerships and the focused management of public lands, remains a conservation priority for the Service.

When the Service originally listed the Southeastern U.S. portion of the population, the wood stork’s range included Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama and breeding was primarily in central and south Florida. Historically the Florida Everglades and the Big Cypress National Preserve once supported large breeding colonies. Today its range includes portions of North Carolina and Mississippi with significant nesting in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Biologists believe man-made changes in the Everglades and Big Cypress ecosystems have contributed to the bird’s expanded breeding range.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Wetlands Reserve Program has restored over 200,000 acres of wetlands in Florida and more than 115,000 acres in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina during the past 18 years. Thousands of acres of wetlands are also being protected on private lands to assist in habitat and wildlife protection through restoration in conjunction with establishing conservation easements. Wetland losses are being avoided, minimized, and mitigated through project consultations and the regulatory process.

“The wood stork has shown a fascinating ability to respond to changes in hydrology by broadening its breeding range beyond central Florida, the Everglades, and Big Cypress ecosystems,” said Dave Hankla, Field Supervisor for the Service’s North Florida Ecological Services Office in Jacksonville. “However, this does not reduce the importance restoration of the stork’s historical breeding area has for recovery. Nor does it diminish the significant role South Florida’s ecosystems play for wood storks and other wildlife.”

Large-scale restoration projects such as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (CERP), Kissimmee River Restoration Project, and St. Johns River Headwaters Restoration Project are significant conservation efforts that continue to greatly benefit wood stork recovery. Florida nesting pairs totaled more than 5,000 in 2011. Here are some examples from other states:

• Alabama:  Ongoing wetlands restoration projects, such as those undertaken in several U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges (Eufaula and Choctaw NWRs) and the State of Alabama’s Wildlife Management Areas (Demopolis WMA and Upper Delta WMA), are providing excellent foraging habitat for post-breeding wood storks dispersing following the nesting season.
• Georgia:  Through public and private partnerships with NRCS, nearly 20,000 acres of key wetlands are restored and/or being managed for the benefit of a wide variety of wildlife, including nesting wood storks. In 2011, Georgia had 2,160 nesting pairs.
• Mississippi: Along the eastern part of the state, wetlands associated with federal lands (including the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, with its moist-soil waterfowl management, and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway) attract feeding wood storks, as well as other long-legged wading birds and wildlife.
• North Carolina:  Wood storks were first observed nesting in North Carolina in 2005, with the two known colonies occurring on private lands. While the wood storks nest on private lands, the birds are routinely observed foraging on a broad range of federal and state protected wetlands throughout southeastern North Carolina. In 2011 the nesting survey found 96 nesting pairs bringing the State’s three-year average to 141 pairs.
• South Carolina:  Public and private partnerships, such as the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto (ACE) Basin Task Force protect and manage coastal estuaries and are contributing to a growing number of wood stork nesting colonies. In 2011, South Carolina’s three-year average was 2,031 nesting pairs.

Photo by Jill Carney

This year’s rookery season started out strong after a mild winter.  The Great egrets, always the first to arrive, made their initial appearance almost two weeks early. The season was off to a good start and the possibility of our biggest rookery season yet seemed probable.  The arrivals of Tropical Storm Beryl on May 27th and Debby on June 27th dampened our hopes and the rookery’s mood.

The Little Blue herons, Roseate spoonbills, and Wood storks were most affected by the storms since their chicks were young and these species are extra-sensitive to environmental conditions.  Little Blues and Roseates are both listed as Species of Special Concern in Florida; Wood storks are federally listed as Endangered. The storms disturbed their foraging and breeding sites, degraded feeding habitats, and reduced prey availability.  These issues were significant enough for these three species, but not for the remaining of the wading birds.

The Great egret chicks also appear to have been affected in the chart below, but most of their chicks were large enough and had begun to fledge.  Overall, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s rookery had a good season and we look forward to 2013!

BEST IN SHOW

Roseate Spoonbill in Flight

Photo by Robert Van Mierop

Palm Coast, FL

Great Egret Chicks

Photo by George Cathcart

Bluffton, SC

Wood Stork Pair

Photo by Ardith Bondi

New York, NY

Roseate Spoonbill in Flight

Photo by Lorraine Thomas

Coral Gables, FL

Great Egret Family

Photo by Jill Carney

West Palm Beach, FL

Tambora, Komodo Dragon

Photo by Charles Twine

Durham, NC

Great Egret Dinosaur

Photo by Jim Rettker

Crown Point, IN

Cattle Egret Feeding Chick

Photo by Alana Hodgson

St. Augustine, FL

American Alligator

Photo by Douglas Heimstead

Vadnais Heights, MN

Roseate Spoonbill Chicks

Photo by Steven Grogger

Peyton, CO

Tri-colored Heron

Photo by Lou Kellenberger

Tallahassee, FL

Photo by Michael Barrett

Friday, July 20th is the quickly approaching deadline for our 19th Annual Photography Contest! The last day for early entry into the park is the previous Sunday, July 15th.  Photo contest rules and entry forms can be downloaded from our website:  http://www.alligatorfarm.com/photography.html. Photographers are encouraged to submit not only rookery shots, but also of zoo animals.

Please send all entry submissions to:

St. Augustine Alligator Farm
c/o Molly Ebersold
999 Anastasia Blvd.
St. Augustine, FL 32080

We look forward to all of your submissions!  Many thanks in advance to this year’s judge, David Moynahan.

How quickly things can change!  One of the blog’s more recent posts detailed the extreme drought conditions affecting Northeast Florida.  Thank you everyone for your prayers and rain dances, but please focus your attention on other drought-stricken regions for awhile.  Tropical Storm Debby brought St. Augustine an additional 11.2 inches of rain bringing June’s monthly total to just under 18 inches.  At least for the moment, this area is offically not undergoing drought conditions on any level.

Amazingly, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s rookery once again weathered the storm! Most of the wading birds left are the smaller species. Cattle egrets are the most abundant, with some adults still on eggs and chicks of all sizes everywhere. There are Snowy egrets and Tri-colored herons on eggs after reclutching post Tropical Storm Beryl.  A couple pairs of Little Blue herons have also layed another clutch.  The larger, gangly Wood stork fledglings are practicing their flight manuevers by attempting short flights around the rookery.  Roseate spoonbills are done nesting for the season, but both adults and juveniles can be observed roosting in the trees.