Tag Archives: tampa rookery

Nesting season in full swing.

Posted on by
1

It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow and these birds are about to be very busy moms.

There were a few babies in the far back of the wood stork rookery in north Tampa in late March. You can barely make out the fuzz in the back nest. I was a little early for babies but was in the area so I stopped by for a quick visit.

Many of the wood storks were still fighting over nesting spots.

Many were still bringing in sticks to add to the nest.

A few great egrets were also looking for sticks.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Moms out there.

Watching baby egrets growing up.

Posted on by
3

Baby egrets at varies ages all trying to learn how to use their wings. It’s cool how you can really see the outline of their wings and the pin feathers when they are that young.

Older baby egrets were attacking mom when she came back to the nest to feed them. Mom regurgitates the fish back up into the baby’s beak. The babies don’t have much patience to wait their turn and they all attack her at the same time. It’s amazing an eye doesn’t get poked.

Dirty beaks

Posted on by
1

DSC_2258 DSC_2295 DSC_2377 DSC_2184

Flying back and forth from the nest, the wood stork parents stay busy keeping the nests neat and bringing in food.

DSC_2163

DSC_2167

DSC_2173

DSC_2176

DSC_2274

DSC_2301

The parents of these triplets were busy feeding them. All three of the babies looked healthy. I did notice they all had dirty beaks.

More from the wood stork rookery in north Tampa during my stop in early June.

Linking to Saturday’s Critters

A face only a mother could love.

Posted on by
1

DSC_2224 DSC_2263 DSC_2312 DSC_2420 DSC_2425 DSC_2432 DSC_2233 DSC_2245 DSC_2247 DSC_2257 DSC_2315 DSC_2436

These are all wood stork babies at various ages.  All were born this spring or into summer. There’s a small mangrove island in the middle of a small pond in north Tampa that gets a lot of wood storks, cormorants and other water birds nesting every spring. I didn’t get up there until mid June and I thought most of the babies would have already grown up but there were still a few young ones there.