24 TH. E.-A>U. D.ULB O.N, BU sil ie 
Storks Increasing In Numbers 
ONE OF AMERICA’S more spectacular wading birds, the Wood Stork, 
is making a good comeback in Florida rookeries after several years of 
nesting failures that had ornithologists worried. 
Recent aerial surveys revealed that young Wood Storks are thriving in 
five South Florida colonies, according to Alexander Sprunt IV and Phil 
Kahl, Jr., biologists on the staff of the National Audubon Society. 
“After the drastic decline of the species during the drouth of the mid- 
1950’s, this is welcome news,” Sprunt and Kahl reported to the National 
Society. “In 1959 a good crop of young, estimated at 12,500, was raised, 
and prospects point to even better production in the ’60’s. 
“The colony in the Audubon Society’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary 
is at its highest point in recent years, with at least 4,700 pairs. Corkscrew 
contains the largest rookery. The four other colonies, two in the Everglades 
National Park and two in other parts of the Big Cypress Swamp, bring the 
nesting total to more than 7,600 pairs.” 
The Wood Stork, a tall, ungainly bird with an adult wingspread of 
five feet or more, is the only true stork that nests in the United States. It 
is all white except for a black tail, prominent black markings on the wings, 
and a dark, scaly head. It was formerly called the ‘°Wood Ibis” by many 
ornithologists. 
Only known nesting sites of the species now in the United States are 
the Florida rookeries, although the stork igs sometimes seen during late 
summer wanderings as far west as California, in the Midwest as far north 
as Illinois and Indiana and on the Atlantic Coast to New England. 
—From The National Audubon Society, New York, N. Y. 
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Our Friends the Owls 
DID YOU KNOW that owls start incubating their eggs as soon as the 
first one is laid? As a result, the young owls in a nest may vary in age 
from several days to a week. Roland C. Clement, ecologist on the staff of 
the National Audubon Society, believes this is a built-in regulator provided 
by nature to keep owl numbers in balance with their food supply. The 
younger and smaller chicks have difficulty competing with their older 
nest-mates for food brought by the parent birds. In years when mice and 
other prey species are abundant, even the runts get fed, but in lean years 
the younger birds perish. 
NATURE MADE THE best mousetraps! A pair of Great Horned Owls 
may devour and feed to their young ag many as 8,250 mice in the course of 
a year, according to biological studies made of this powerful night-flying 
hunter. 
