The 2018 wading bird nesting season was one of the largest on record, that’s according to the annual South Florida Wading Bird Report released last week by the South Florida Water Management District, and prepared along with Audubon Florida.
Between December 2017 and July 2018 there were nearly 140-thousand wading bird nests in South Florida, and about 122-thousand of those were in the Everglades. This was by far the largest number of nests found in the Everglades in decades, and biologists say it compares to some of the largest nesting events ever recorded back in the 1930s.
Nesting activity for birds like the roseate spoonbill, wood stork and white ibis far exceeded their averages for the past 10 years. We'll discuss the report, and its implications for ongoing Everglades restoration efforts, with Dr. Shawn Clem, she is Research Director for Audubon Florida at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary; and Brad Cornell is Big Cypress Ecosystem Policy Associate with Audubon of the Western Everglades.
