Everglades Bird Count Up, But Scientists Don't Know Why

Everglades National Park, mired in politics as Floridians try to figure out how best to preserve the marshy landscape, is experiencing a boom in wading birds. And scientists don't know why.
During the past six years, the number of nesting white ibis, snowy egrets, great egrets, wood storks and tricolored herons in and around the park has at least quadrupled from the numbers tallied in the 1980s and 1990s.
The latest annual survey, according to a recent story in the Miami Herald, says there are at least 55,000 nests in the Everglades, a number more typical of the counts taken in the 1940s. In fact, officials say that number is conservative, that the total might actually approach 70,000.
It's an interesting occurrence, one that hopefully will continue.