Record number of wading bird nests is sign of hope for Everglades
An extraordinary increase in wading bird nests in the Everglades last year has produced bird numbers not seen since the 1940s, state environmental officials announced this month.
An estimated 138,834 nests of white ibises, wood storks, roseate spoonbills and the other long-legged inhabitants of the South Florida marshes appeared last year, in what officials called an encouraging sign that the restoration work in the Everglades will produce results.
“If you love the Everglades and you love birds, it is fantastic news,” said Drew Bartlett, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, which prepared the wading bird report along with Audubon Florida.
At one “supercolony” near Interstate 75 in western Broward County, an astonishing 59,120 nests were established, a number not seen since the 1930s, when what would become the megalopolis of South Florida was just a strip of coastal towns.
“This year it was unbelievable,” said Mark Cook, bird biologist with the water management district, speaking at a news conference at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in West Delray. “It was literally dripping with white ibises.”
Although water management officials said their own decisions played a role, they said most of the credit belonged to a favorable pattern of rainfall that produced dense concentrations of the
fish and crayfish on which the birds depend for food.
Hurricane Irma and other storms dumped high amounts of rain on South Florida in 2017 and 2018, producing extensive seasonal habitat for fish. Then a dry spell arrived, concentrating these fish in the remaining pools of water, providing the birds with what Cook called an “amazing buffet.”
In addition to the rain, the birds benefited from a decision to route more water around the west Broward supercolony. Located on a teardrop-shaped tree-island more than a mile long, the colony has historically suffered from reduced nesting when its surroundings become dry enough to invite visits from nest predators such as raccoons. But the water management district directed sufficient water around the island that season to discourage these
predators, making it a more attractive nesting spot for birds.
Officials acknowledged that the nesting increase resulted largely from chance events of weather that could easily reverse in future years. And they said it’s already clear that this year will be far less successful for wading birds than last year. But they said the swift increase in bird populations in 2018 showed how the Everglades will respond once restoration work succeeds in restoring more favorable patterns to the flow of water through South Florida’s wetlands.
“By a freak of weather we ended up with the right amount of water at the right places,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Aububon Florida. “And the birds responded.”
The restoration of the Everglades is intended to undo some of the effects of the past century, when canals, levees and pumps across the Everglades created a water-control system for the benefit of cities and farms. The project, which is well behind schedule and over budget, calls for restoring some of the natural flow of water south by filling in canals, removing levees and creating structures for storing and distributing water in a manner that would take into account the requirements of nature, in addition to those of people.
Once that takes place — and real improvements are years off — officials say the wading birds and other wildlife should respond quickly, as shown by the quick increase in nesting in response to the favorable rain patterns of 2018.
“It highlights the resiliency of the Everglades,” Cook said. “If we get the water right — the right amount at the right time — we can recover these species quickly.”