Snake Key Rookery Update from Vic Doig, Refuge Biologist

Who is Nesting on Snake Key this Season?

The mixed species wading bird rookery at Snake Key is thriving this year.  The numbers of birds are beginning to approximate the "glory days" of nesting at the recently abandoned Seahorse Key colony.  Refuge staff and volunteers completed the annual wading bird flight line surveys for the Snake Key rookery in May.  White Ibis have returned to nest in the area in huge numbers, with an estimated 2,500 - 3,000 nesting pairs.  Also nesting in large numbers are Tri-colored Herons (est. 500 nests), Snowy Egrets (est. 400 nests), Great Egrets (est. 120 nests), Brown Pelicans (est. 100 nests), and Double Crested Cormorants (est. 200 nests).  Other notables include an estimated 60 Roseate Spoonbill nests and 3-4 Reddish Egret nesting pairs.  We also recently completed drone flights over the colony in an effort to count and validate nesting data, but have not yet completed digital post-processing to begin analyzing that information. 

photo by Larry Woodward

photo by Ed DeHaan

photo by Richard Herman

Speaking of Babies – An Aside

Project Engineer Josh Havird - formerly of Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, now posted at St Mark's NWR is a brand new proud papa of a baby girl. Mom and little Emily are both doing great.  Josh is taking some family leave to be with them.

Closure Limits Nesting Disturbances at Snake Key

This is the first season with an official island closure during the nesting period at Snake Key. Refuge staff installed the signage back in February. Despite a few violations, most folks seem to be respecting the 300' buffer around the island in an effort to limit disturbance to this critically important wildlife area.

Largest Wading Bird Rookery

The Seahorse / Snake Key rookery is the largest wading bird rookery on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and with nesting numbers reduced in the Everglades this year, the importance of our own colony cannot be understated. 

Do Different Bird Colonies have Unique Sounds?

As mentioned in an April post, Rookery Audio Project, collaborative efforts are underway to collect mating and nesting sounds from the Snake Key rookery. In the future, we will broadcast the audio back on Seahorse Key, using the sounds in conjunction with bird decoys to attempt to lure some nesting back to Seahorse Key. The much smaller Snake Key landmass is filled almost to capacity.

What Happened to the Seahorse Key Rookery?

Most folks will recall that the large Seahorse Key rookery was suddenly abandoned during the nesting season back in April of 2015.  Popular interest was so high that the national media covered "Our Bird Mystery" extensively.  We still cannot definitively say why all the birds left their nests during that event, although disturbance was likely a factor.