A Twenty-Six Year History of Wood Stork Nesting in South Carolina i1524-4695-31-sp1-3-

Abstract

Abstract Since the first documented successful nesting of Wood Storks (Mycteria americana) in South Carolina in 1981, a total of 16,642 nesting attempts have been recorded. During the past 26 years, annual nesting has increased from eleven to a high of 2,057 nests in 2004. Storks have used 27 different colony sites, however, five sites have supported 76.3% of all nesting attempts. Mean colony size was 118 nests (range 1-547). Colony turnover rate was 0.19 overall based on annual calculations. However, 95.6% of colonies with more than 100 nests in one year were active the following year (N = 68). Only three of 27 sites are in public ownership and 21 sites are in wetlands altered or maintained by man. Production of young has been high each year (x bar = 2.08 young per successful nest) and abandonment of active colonies has been rare. This may result from the availability of varied habitats used by foraging storks. Nesting storks use palustrine habitats associated with rivers, inter-tidal wetlands, isolated ...