South Georgia seeing fewer wood stork nests and young
The Associated Press
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Officials say south Georgia is seeing fewer wood stork nests and young this year because of a see-saw cycle of drought in early spring and heavy rains in late spring and the start of the summer.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has been doing surveys by air since the 1990s. It says surveys of the endangered birds found 1,903 nests in 19 counties in May. That’s down from 2,136 nests last year and 2,696 in 2010.
Wood storks were listed as endangered when the number of breeding pairs in the Southeast slid to about 5,000 in the late 1970s, down from as many as 20,000 in the 1930s. The decline was blamed on wetland habitat loss and alteration.
About 12,000 pairs nest in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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