One of the icons of the Everglades ecosystem is the wading birds. Visitors flock to Anhinga Trail, Shark Valley, Eco Pond and other locations to see these large graceful birds up close in large numbers. These birds have called people to the region for well over a century. Unlike today, when visitors come to view and photograph these elegant birds, in the second half of the 19th century men came to the Everglades to hunt and kill these birds. The birds’ beautiful feathers were then turned into the fashion craze of the day, hats for upper class women. Over the years, these birds were nearly hunted to extinction. There were so few birds towards the end of the plume hunting period that the plumes were worth more than twice their weight in gold. Fortunately for the birds, a fledgling organization, the Audubon Society, began to advocate for their protection and a new shorter hairstyle emerged in the upper class which led to the decline of hats. Between the Audubon Society’s lobbying and the new hairstyle the birds’ populations were able to recover.

By the time of World War I, the wading birds had mounted a full recovery. Total nesting populations were estimated to reach almost a quarter of a million birds. Then came the development boom of the mid twentieth century and the draining of the Everglades. By the early 1980s, wading bird populations had experienced another dramatic decline, this time amounting to approximate 90% of the population. In fifty years nest counts went from approximately 250,000 nests to only 22,000. Wood Storks were placed on the endangered species list with only 750 birds nesting during the middle of the 1980s.

Fast forward two decades to today. After extensive research by a number of different universities, government agencies, and other organizations, the Everglades are undergoing another change. This time instead of being drained and developed, attempts are being made to restore the ecosystem to what it once was. Scientists now keep careful watch on the population dynamics of the wading birds and a number of different species throughout the region. Water levels are now controlled with better knowledge of the consequences of water management on the system. Because of this careful research and new protection and management methods, in 2002 the wading bird nesting populations resembled the populations of the 1940s.

This enormous increase in wading birds, doubling the averages number of nests from the previous decade has been a huge accomplishment. In 2004, one rookery alone held nearly 20,000 nests, almost the same amount of nests in the entire region in the early 1980s. This single rookery, Alley North, is located in Water Conservation Area 3 and I wanted to see it for myself. The following is my experience when I had the opportunity to accompany six researchers from the University of Florida as they worked in the rookery one late March morning.