For me, no trip to the nation’s oldest city would be complete without a visit to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
On our long weekend in St. Augustine earlier this month, I spent one morning at the Alligator Farm’s rookery area.
Here’s how the attraction describes the rookery: “The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park provides unique nesting sites for native coastal, wading birds who use our zoo as a safe haven. The birds have an incredible relationship with the 150 alligators who live in the Swamp habitat at the park. The alligators act as a built-in security system for the birds so that predators, such as racoons and snakes, aren’t as inclined to climb up the tree trunks and prey upon the eggs and/or new hatchlings. The many bird species also feel safer nesting in large groups so that they aren’t a target for other predators, such as birds of prey.”
January was way too early to start seeing the birds nesting there, and not all have even arrived at the area yet. But I did see to see a lot of Roseate Spoonbills (including a banded one) and some other birds, too. Plus, of course, alligators.
