Another look at the rookery

Posted on July 29, 2023 by dinajohnston

The wood storks were coming over to the bank to get a drink of water. In late April the water was really low.

This wood stork was collecting a stick. Were they still nesting at this point or maybe he was replenishing the one he has.

The babies are always hungry.

A snowy egret showing off.

There were several cattle egrets in full breeding colors. They were just starting to nest.

The little blue herons were also starting to nest.

The fully grown baby cormorants were still being fed by the parents. This one was reaching deep down to get that regurgitated fish.

A boat tailed grackle showing his blue and purple feathers.

More from the bird rookery in late March

Posted on June 17, 2023 by dinajohnston

There were several glossy ibis flying over the rookery in late March. I’m not sure if they were nesting yet since they nest in the far back hidden part of the rookery. The color of their feathers really popped against the sun as they flew by.

Tricolored herons were still flirting. They nest later than the great egrets and wood storks.

A great egret showing off.

Yes, that’s an almost grown cormorant with his entire face down his Dad’s throat. He was trying to get the fish that Dad was regurgitating for him. I think he still wanted more.

A wood stork showing off his underneath green feathers.

There were so many wood stork babies here.

That fish was way to big for the baby to swallow. The parent realized that pretty quickly and didn’t want it to go to waste so down the hatch it went.

Back at the nursery

Posted on July 23, 2021 by dinajohnston

I stopped in again at the wood stork rookery in north Tampa in mid-May. The small island in the middle of a medium pond was still packed with birds nesting. Wood storks were busy flying in back to the nest.

Most of the babies were almost grown at this point. They have pretty faint yellow and pink beaks when they are young.

Many of them were practicing their wing flapping. Getting ready for that first flight.

“Whadda you want?”

I saw a lady get out of her car near the end of the pond and I thought maybe she was taking pictures from farther away but then I realized she had dumped bread on the bank to feed the birds. She dumped and drove off. I would loved to have been able to tell her that old bread is bad for the birds. They should be eating bugs and fish. By the time I walked over to the area the bread had been snatched up by the wood storks.

Why the storks bring the babies!

Posted on May 15, 2021 by dinajohnston

I think this was the youngest baby at the rookery. You could just barely make out the baby’s head at the bottom of mom’s beak.

Most of the other nests had babies that were pretty grown up. For some reason these guys were wet and dirty. Dad must have brought back some wet dirty moss to replensh the nest.

Moms were busy tending to the nests and babies all over the tiny island in the middle of this neighborhood pond.

Looks like this Mom had only one baby. Some had two or three.

Zooming in, these guys were all white and fluffy.

Growing old quickly

Posted on August 1, 2020 by dinajohnston

The young wood storks have such interesting faces. They lose that hint of blue and pink in their beaks when they get older. It’s a shame they look so old so fast. There were a lot of young ones at the rookery in north Tampa back in early June. Many were practicing their wing flaps.

This young one was eating something gunky. That orange gunk doesn’t look like regurgitated fish.

The adults were busy going about their day. The one in the bottom picture looks like he has paint across his back. Maybe he brushed up against something. He seemed okay.

A face only a mother could love

Posted on June 27, 2020 by dinajohnston

Woods storks are listed as an uncommon bird on the All About Birds page and are listed as federally threatened. They are fairly common here in the Tampa bay area. I see them pretty regularly at most of the parks that I visit. There is a rookery in Tampa that has a large population of them nesting. I love going to see them in the late spring and watch them raising their babies. The babies are just as homely as the parents. These were taken in late April.