The ShoreXplorers: An Unexpected Rookery – St. Augustine FL [April 29, 2016]

Roseate Spoonbill chicks

Sometimes you find unexpected beauty in ugly places, and the rookery of wading birds at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is one such place. Serious birders that we met in Titusville had told us about this rookery. Wild roseate spoonbills, snowy and great egrets, herons and wood storks come to this alligator farm every year to build nests and hatch their young. They are not encouraged or fed by the folks at the alligator farm. We were told to arrive around 5 o'clock, about a half hour before the farm closes, when the birds return from feeding in the nearby wetlands. The farm lets photographers with permits stay to take photos for a while after closing, and you can blend in with them. So we did.

A tree full of egrets, wood storks and roseate spoonbills

Their alligator guardians

We had learned in South Carolina that wading birds like to build nests near alligators because the alligators eat the animals that might prey upon the bird's eggs. The hundreds of birds in this rookery are roosting in fewer than 10 trees around a pond with easily 30 alligators in it. For protection of their eggs, the birds have chosen well. The nests have been built in the crevices formed where palm fronds fell off of the trunks of the palm trees. In the trees with branches, the nests are layered with the smaller egrets and herons in the lower branches, the roseate spoonbills and larger egrets in the mid-level branches, and the wood storks are on the top.

Every tree is loaded with birds

It is a noisy, busy place. Birds are calling to each other, the spoonbills are clacking their bills, and the snowy egrets are making their gobble-like mating calls. Mama birds are sitting on their nests, or standing up and gently nudging their eggs. We saw baby spoonbills that were little pink balls of fluffs, and older babies still in the nest with bright pink feathers. We saw mama storks feeding really large babies that still had feathers on their heads (they eventually lose the head feathers). We saw tiny baby egrets flopping around in the nest crying to be fed.

Wood Stork with chicks

Newly hatched Great Egret chick

You view this splendor from a boardwalk above and across a pond full of alligators. The height above ground puts you at eye level with many of these nests. Some are close enough to almost touch. The boardwalk was jammed with serious bird photographers with very expensive cameras and long, large telephoto lens. Toward the end of our time, everyone was crowding into areas of shade. Everyone tries to stay out of everyone else's shot.