Across much of Georgia now, herons, egrets, ibises, anhingas and other water birds are nesting and rearing their young in spectacular tree-top colonies along rivers, lakes and ponds. Many of the colonies, or rookeries, are composed of hundreds of birds from several species.
With scores of babies clamoring for food and their parents fussing over them, the rookeries are noisy and busy places -- and a bit smelly.
The largest and most spectacular of all of Georgia’s water bird rookeries is where I was last week -- at Woody Pond in the 2,800-acre Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in coastal McIntosh County, about 50 miles south of Savannah. Thousands of water birds from at least seven species congregate here each spring to lay their eggs in big, loose nests of sticks and other material.
Last week, nearly every tree and shrub around the 50-acre pond and on its small islands was crowded with nesting water birds. Many of the nests held newly hatched, downy babies.
“It’s an amazing sight; I could sit here all day and watch it,” refuge manager Kimberly Hayes said as we stood on Woody Pond’s earthen dike and admired the awe-inspiring spectacle.
The bird getting the most attention by far was the wood stork, a federally endangered species. With more than 400 pairs of nesting storks, Woody Pond is Georgia’s largest inland wood stork rookery and one of the most important in the Southeast.
The mostly white-plumaged bird is North America's only stork species. Standing about 3 feet tall, the lanky, bald-headed bird feeds by wading with its long, opened beak partially submerged, snapping it shut when it touches a small fish or other prey. It often shuffles its feet and flashes its beautiful black-and-white wings to stir up potential prey, which are then captured. Though it is gawky-looking on land, the bird is a graceful flier with its neck and long legs stretched straight out.
As is the case with Woody Pond, wood storks and many other water bird species tend to nest near ponds with alligators. The gators cruise the water beneath the tree-borne nests, waiting to snatch any hapless chick that tumbles from a nest. The gators, though, also keep predators such as raccoons at bay, providing security for the nesting birds.
A major reason that wood storks are endangered is because many of the wetlands where they nest and forage have been ditched and drained for development, agriculture or pine plantations.
In the sky: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower, visible through Tuesday night, peaks Saturday night with about 20 meteors per hour, said David Dundee, a Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Look to the southeast from about midnight until dawn.
The moon will be full Saturday night -- the “Planting Moon” as the Cherokee peoples called May‘s full moon. It will appear as the largest full moon of the year because the moon is now closest to the Earth in its orbit, 223,000 miles.
Mercury is low in the east just before dawn. Bright-shining Venus is very low in the west at dusk. Mars and Saturn rise out of the east at dusk. Jupiter is too close to the sun for easy observation.
If you go
Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge
The 2,800-acre refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was created by Congress in 1962 from the Harris Neck Army Airfield that was deactivated after World War II. The refuge consists of salt marsh, freshwater impoundments, mixed deciduous woods and open fields -- havens for migratory songbirds and grassland birds such as bobwhite quail and several sparrow species. The freshwater impoundments are important for water birds such as wood storks; great and snowy egrets; tricolored, green-back, little blue, great blue and black-crowned night herons; anhingas; and white ibises. Also a good place for ducks in winter. A paved wildlife viewing drive and several hiking trails run through the refuge.
Free and open to public. Open sunrise to sunset seven days a week. Restroom facilities at visitor center. Portions of refuge may be temporarily closed for wildlife management.
Directions: Exit 67 off I-95; head south on U.S. 17 approximately 1 mile to Harris Neck Road, Ga. 131. Go east on that road about 7 miles and follow signs to refuge entrance.
5000 Wildlife Drive N.E., Townsend, Ga., 31331
More information: 912-832-4608. www.fws.gov/harrisneck.
