36

 J. Ogden's (pers. comm.) observations of Wood Stork -

nesting colonies in Everglades National Park suggest that

the length of the breeding season, particularly the period

of raising nestlings, may vary according to the

availability of food. Nestlings may survive but grow at a

slower rate at suboptimal levels of food availability. J.

Ogden (pers. comm.) also noted that mortality was high

during the first year of life (from fledging to age 1) for

fledglings leaving the nest under conditions of poor food

availability near the rookery. First year mortality is

normally believed to be about 40% for this species (Allen

et al.,' 1958), but it may be 90% or higher during marginal

years (J. Ogden, pers. comm.).

 Wood Storks lay as many as five eggs (Palmer, 1962),

but three eggs are usual. Howell (1941) inspected 200

nests in an Everglades mangrove rookery in December 1933

and found that "most" nests had four eggs and five nests

had five eggs each. Kahl (1963) found an average of 3..3

eggs per nest in a rookery in central Florida in 1960.

 According to Kahl (1963) the average number of young

fledged per successful nest was much more variable than the

average number of eggs laid per nest. The mean number of

young fledged in the rookeries he studied during the years

1958-1961, varied from 1.34 per nest (based on 140 nests)

at Micanopy in northcentral Florida in 1959 to 2.92 per

nest (based on 100 nests) at Corkscrew in 1960. Kahl

(1962) said that the difference in fledgling production