I made one last trip to the bird rookery in north Tampa in early May. I was planning to go back again at the end of the month but never made it back. Above is a phone shot of most of the little island. I know I’ve said this many times but it feels like there are less and less birds nesting here each year. The island has not changed sizes. It hasn’t been disturbed. Are there less and less birds or is there another rookery somewhere else that they are going to now that we don’t know about?
I saw very few baby wood storks. Much less than this time last year. I did see several couples still flirting and mating. Maybe they are all just later this year.
The little blue herons hadn’t started nesting yet.
I did see several anhinga nests in the back. These guys were a little older. Anhingas usually nest early in spring.
There were a few great egret nests with babies. These were the youngest ones I saw.
This Mom was busy feeding her babies.
These babies were almost as big as Mom and were quite a handful when she was trying to feed them.
I did not see any cattle egrets at the rookery this year. While they usually nest a little later they are starting to build nests by now so it was a bummer not to see them with their bright colored breeding beaks and feathers. There were about half the glossy ibis than last year. They nest in the back of the island so those babies aren’t visible until they are much older anyway. By this time last year there were a lot of juveniles in front of the island waiting to be fed. We’ll see what next year brings.
