This past December, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) released their annual South Florida Wading Bird Report, showing that wading bird nesting was dangerously low in 2010 due to extreme weather patterns that disrupted normal nesting behavior. The unusually cold and rainy conditions of Spring 2010 made foraging difficult for wading birds and their growing nestlings, resulting in that most wading birds did not try to nest last year. In Lake Okeechobee, water levels increased almost two feet between March and May. This fluctuation caused the birds to mostly abandon the great lake during the breeding period, waiting until next season to try again. This type of behavior is an infrequent, but normal adaptation to weather extremes.

Although wading birds can survive occasional "naturally bad" years like 2010, human activities create even more bad years, and the birds have suffered greatly. Audubon scientists and research teams are actively recommending and designing solutions to mitigate the man-made factors that contribute to the decline in wading bird nesting.

This year, for example, much water was dumped from Lake Okeechobee to protect the Hoover Dike from high water, which was appropriate for human health and safety.  However, it has left the lake much lower than desired.  Barring very wet weather, the very low levels now will prevent wading birds from being able to nest on the lake. Aggravating this condition, the SFWMD intends to pump the lake as low as needed to supply irrigation water, which could create a Minimum Level violation on the Lake and possibly ruin it for Snail Kite use for years.  The irrigation demand lowers the lake about a foot and a half more than would be “natural,” and can be the difference between Okeechobee’s ecosystems being merely dinged or really wrecked.

The Everglades and the Water Conservation Areas south of Lake Okeechobee face the same conditions.  They too are perilously low for wading bird breeding, had much water dumped this summer to “prevent flooding,” and will be further drained for human consumption in the coming months.

These adverse water conditions harm not only birds and fish, but put great strain on our cities and farms.  But the solution to the whip-saw water fluctuations that harm people and wildlife is the same--build more capacity to store (rather than dump) water during wet periods, that can be used during dry.  This capacity will come from projects included in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the Northern Everglades Plan, and similar Audubon-endorsed projects. The success of these programs will greatly affect the success of future wading bird nesting seasons.

Simply put, until water storage capacity is safely increased, these types of nesting problems will persist.  Human discomfort is buffered by bank accounts and government programs, but Audubon is concerned that some species, like Roseate Spoonbills and Snail Kites, who do not have back-up options and whose populations have been recently crashing, may not persist much longer without help.

Although weather patterns may be out of our control, there are many other contributing factors in which humans can make an immediate difference for wading birds. In all urgency, Audubon echoes the Governor’s call, “Let’s get to work.”