SCENES FROM THE BREEDING SEASON IN A SOUTH FLORIDA WETLAND, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Wood storks at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Florida.

My friend Karen Minkowski, a world traveler and excellent photographer, especially of birds, reports on the birds of South Florida that she observed last spring.

A prolonged stay in Delray Beach, Florida allowed me to observe most of the breeding season of many of Florida’s wading and water birds. From February through July, I watched moments of feeding, courtship, mate attraction rituals, nest construction, incubation, and chick-rearing at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, previously a wastewater utility property. Boardwalks lead the visitor over the ponds and through the marshes, giving access to much of the site.

Wakodahatchee Wetlands.

Wood Storks, North America’s only native stork species, nest in colonies at the tops of woody trees and were the most easily observed of Wakodahatchee’s birds. Their courtship was interactive and intimate. Members of a pair frequently preened each other and hung out together. Sometimes they clattered their bills by repeatedly opening and snapping them shut, the only sound I ever heard from adult storks, except for the whooshing of their wings as they took flight.

Wood storks.

To attract a mate, herons display by pointing their bills straight up while sometimes also stretching their long necks upwards. Here is a Tricolored Heron displaying in breeding plumage. 

Tri-colored heron.

This male Great Blue Heron displayed while uttering a low-volume, moaning sound.

Great blue heron.

I watched a Great Blue Heron mortally injure and ultimately eat a Florida Banded Water Snake.

Great blue heron.

The heron pierced the snake several times, and the innards could be seen emerging from its body. The bird struggled to maneuver the snake head first into its mouth. After more than ten minutes, the snake either died or was too weak to resist the Great Blue Heron, who walked out of sight with the bird securely in its mouth.

Great blue heron.

An elegant Great Egret pair, in breeding plumage, relaxes after copulating.

Great egrets.

As the birds pair off, nest-building begins in earnest. The Green Heron on the left had just returned to the nest with a broken-off branch, and the pair seemed to be figuring out where best to place it.

Green herons.

Herons, egrets and Wood Storks in Wakodahatchee build their nests amidst dense branches. Wood Storks are colonial breeders, and their nests are often very closely spaced.

Wood stork.

Predominantly male storks fly from the nest site in search of suitable dead branches to make a platform. The stork below was breaking off a twig with soft leaves to line the nest. Wood Storks continue to repair the nest throughout the period of chick-rearing.

Wood stork.

Tricolored Herons, significantly smaller than Wood Storks, nest amidst thick foliage. Just to the right of the heron’s bill, and peeking above a leaf, lies a pale blue egg.

Tri-colored heron.

These Great Blue Heron chicks were the first nestlings I saw, in late February. The parent looked exhausted from the constant demands of its rapidly growing nestlings. (The Cattle Egret in front was not part of this nest.)

Great blue heron with two chicks and a cattle egret.

These Great Egret chicks were visually tracking their parent’s flight path as it flew overhead on its return to the nesting area.

Great egret chicks.

Wood Storks chicks in a colony can be irritatingly noisy as they insistently announce their hunger. To my eye, the parents remained impassive, but I wondered if one was ever moved to push a chick out of the nest in utter exasperation!

Wood stork and chicks.

Anhingas, Glossy Ibis, Boat-tailed Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, among others, were also nesting in the Wakodahatchee wetlands.

Tri-colored herons.

Already fledged, these immature Tricolored Herons were “sparring”.

Wood stork.

Wood Storks find food by feel rather than visually, using their bill and foot to stir up the water. This immature stork is learning the art of foraging.

Yellow-crowned night heron.

A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron waits for a crustacean to appear in the watery marsh.

When the breeding season had passed its peak, I started visiting the nearby Green Cay Wetlands. A former pepper farm, Green Cay was converted into a wetland that comprises a beautiful mosaic of open water, marshes, patches of cypress forests and tree islands, accessible by boardwalks, as in Wakodahatchee. 

Pied-billed grebes.

Though widely distributed in North America, the Pied-billed Grebe is somewhat secretive, and I rarely saw them.

Red-winged blackbird chicks.

In their well-concealed nest just two feet above the water, two Red-winged Blackbird chicks quietly waited for their parent to return with a meal. Suddenly they opened their mouths wide and began to chirp for food, though I was the only adult in sight. I finally realized that my camera lens, pointing down at them from twelve feet away, may have stimulated their begging response, so I moved away.

Least bittern.

On one of my last visits to the wetlands, I saw the beautiful Least Bittern, a first for me.