Photo Fiona Sunquist ©

On January 3rd 2012 attorneys representing the Florida Homebuilders Association sent notice of intent to sue to the US Fish And Wildlife Service, petitioning them to follow through with their recommendation to down list the Wood stork from Endangered to threatened.

Wood stork numbers have increased across the southeastern US but many of the birds have moved from Florida to smaller colonies in Georgia and South Carolina. Wood stork nesting in Florida, in the Everglades in particular, is less encouraging. There has been no new nesting in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for four of the past five years.

In North Florida this year wood storks are easy to see in roadside ditches and retention ponds, but these are not breeding birds. These are birds in waiting for rain to fill shallow-water wetlands---waiting for nature’s cue that that it will be worth their while to nest.

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