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Nesting wood storks return to southwest Florida

Posted at 3:39 PM, Jan 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-13 15:39:38-05

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Wildlife officials say they've spotted wood storks spotted in the bald cypress trees at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for the first time since 2014.

They're hopeful it's a good sign for the declining population of wood storks in southwest Florida.

This week, a crew in a survey plane spotted 40 to 50 active nests.

The News-Press (http://newspr.es/2jf2SKY ) reports Corkscrew has been in the midst of the longest wood stork nesting drought since record-keeping began in 1958. Then, the storks built as many as 6,000 nests per year. But they've only nested at Corkscrew only two other times in the past 11 years.

Officials say wood storks - which were moved off the endangered list in 2014 but retain their status as threatened - shifted their range to other Southern states, including Georgia and South Carolina.

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Information from: The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, http://www.news-press.com

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