Odd Duck

This guy landed in my neighbor's tree a few days ago

Ok, it isn’t a duck, but it does hang out in a pond.  It’s always a great day when you glance out the window and spot an endangered species hanging around. It must mean I am doing something right in my beautiful wildlife garden. In my case, the endangered one is of the avian variety, the Wood Stork (Mycteria americana).

Here's one soaring through the air last June

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, it shows as “Least Concerned” because there is no immediate fear that the Wood Stork will become extinct. I expect that is because IUCN issues global designations and the birds apparently have a healthy population in South America. It is the U.S. Breeding Population of Wood Storks that has endangered status as listed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

That bird is wayyyyyyyyyyy up there.

These majestic birds, which some think of as a little on the ugly side, are the largest native wading bird and the only stork that breeds in the U.S. They have featherless heads and long pointy bills which may explain why some people find their looks a little off-putting. Wood Storks use wetlands habitat, nesting in cypress and mangrove swamps. They feed in marshes, narrow tidal creeks or flooded tidal pools…oh, and in my retention pond.

A face only a mother could love

According to USFWS,

“Wood storks have a unique feeding technique and require higher prey concentrations than other wading birds. Optimal water regimes for the wood stork involve periods of flooding, during which prey (fish) populations increase, alternating with dryer periods, during which receding water levels concentrate fish at higher densities coinciding with the stork’s nesting season.”

I think they are adorable

This sums up my pond perfectly. It comes out over its banks throughout the summer rainy season and then slowly the water level gets lower and lower during the dry season, reaching the lowest level in January/February which approximates breeding season in Central Florida. Wood Storks prefer shallow waters, feeling with their long bill for fish and crustaceans. Wood storks use thermals to soar as far as 80 miles to feeding areas, so I’m not out looking for nests of these guys in my neighborhood.

Developers are always trying to get this species’ classification changed from Endangered to Threatened so they don’t have to follow building guidelines designed to save our threatened wildlife. Luckily they have been unsuccessful thus far. While many years will produce adequate numbers of young Wood Storks that fledge, there are too many years when that is not the case:

“Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, north east of Naples, is the nation’s largest Wood stork nesting site. The nesting record for this site, set in 1962, is 6,000 nesting pairs with 17,000 young fledged. Sadly, the past few years at Corkscrew have not been as good. Though 300 or so pairs nested in 2005, no chicks fledged. Six hundred pairs nested in 2006 and managed to fledge 1,428 young, but there were no nests or young in 2007.”

Those are pretty scary statistics.

Here's the two taking flight. Come back again, please! and next time fly closer together for the photo

 Surprisingly my small piece of the world can provide for these creatures. While your yard or garden may not have a pond large enough for these beauties, you certainly can provide for our smaller avian friends with a water source, no matter how small. It is so rewarding to look out to see a Wood Stork. Even better was that a second one flew in shortly after, but his shadow attracted the attention of Tanner, the English setter who raced full steam back to the pond. The two birds quietly took flight while a third flew in behind to join them, probably headed over to my neighbor’s pond. Maybe one day they WILL be able to come off the endangered list.

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