The [wood stork](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Stork “Wikipedia Article”), an ungainly duckling among the Everglades’ elegant wading birds, has been breeding in numbers unseen in decades.

Rain in the last crucial month of nesting season took a toll, leaving half the weakened fledglings prey for waiting gators. But even with that loss, preliminary surveys estimate that 3,500 will leave South Florida nests this year.

Contrast that to the survivors last year: zero.

The location of many nests this year is just as exciting as the number of them. Nearly half, said Powell, were south of Alligator Alley in the historic Everglades. Some birds even nested in coastal mangrove rookeries that had been nearly silent for decades.

”We haven’t seen this kind of nesting efforts and eggs laid since the 1930s,” said Dean Powell, director of watershed management for the South Florida Water Management District, which compiles an annual population assessment of wading birds.

Because of its feeding method, the stork is particularly vulnerable to water conditions. It hunts in pools no more than 18 inches deep, feeding by feel as it wades.

[Read](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1109340.html “Read the Article”) (Miami Herald)