Thursday 24 May 2012

Rare baby wood storks are guests at Beach shelter


ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH — A quartet of fluffy white wood stork babies are squawking away — even between bites of delicious cut up fish — at their new home at Noah’s Ark, a bird sanctuary on Mizell Road.
Wood storks are endangered and are the only storks that breed in North America.
These chicks were born at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.
Zoo scientist Tirzah Nichols, who cares for rhinos, big cats and African hoof stock, said these four babies had fallen out of their nests at the Zoo’s wood stork rookery.
“Sometimes it’s not possible to get them back into the nest,” Nichols said. “Some parents don’t want them back. When that happens, we help get them out to someone who will care for them.”
On Monday, an older baby wood stork was sent to another rehab center.
“Water birds are expensive to raise because of the cost of fish,” Nichols said. “Our last resort is having a human raising the babies.”
According to Karen Lynch, head of Noah’s Ark, said storks love “soft-bodied fish high in fat and not too bony.”

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