It’s spring and it’s easy to see the wood storks nesting at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach

Spring has always meant bird’s eggs and chicks. In South Florida, those eggs can be big and those chicks can be gawky baby wood storks.

There is no better place to see them up close, with all their squawky sounds and fishy smells than Wakodahatchee Wetlands, a manmade preserve in Delray Beach that is my wonderful local birding boardwalk. I visited this week, as I do every spring, to admire the stork colony.

At Wakodahatchee, dozens of nesting wood stork pairs are visible from the boardwalk. One tree island that appears to be the hot neighborhood for young stork families is no more than 15 feet from the boardwalk and a shaded shelter with a bench. It attracts a steady crowd and many photographers with long lenses.

On my March 19, 2024 visit, there were not many stork hatchlings yet. Last year at this time, most eggs had hatched. Through at least mid-April, then, you can expect those nest to be busy as the eggs hatch and the storks fledge.

These storks are so close you can hear them (one sound they make is a tiger-like growl) and smell them as well as watch them preen, flutter, bicker and mate.

A few years ago, storks were rare visitors at Wakodahatchee. On visits in recent years, there have been more than 100 nesting pairs on the property, along with nesting anhingas, cormorants, tricolored herons, great blue herons and more.

Wood storks were once endangered species, but have thrived in Florida in the last decades. They were reclassified in 2014 as threatened, not endangered.

Storks feed on fish, frogs, crayfish and other aquatic animals by “grope-feeding” – when their bills touch or sense the prey, they snap their long beaks and eat them, sight unseen. (Storks can snap their beaks shut 13 times faster than you can blink your eye. )

Because of their feeding style, storks require specific water levels and a rich aquatic life to thrive. And they have found that, apparently, at Wakodahatchee.

You’ll routinely see a variety of other birds at Wakodahatchee – all the Florida herons and egrets, moorhen and coots. We’ve also spotted alligators and marsh rabbits.

On my recent visit, the highlight was the presence of several roseate spoonbills, the pink birds so often mistaken from afar for flamingos. Up close, their spoon-shaped bills are unmistakable. A pair of spoonies flew overhead several time and then one was actively feeding right at the boardwalk as we walked by.

We were also thrilled to see a flock of glossy ibis, colorful whistling ducks and black-necked stilts. One highlight on a past visit was a great horned owl high in a tree, which I would never had spotted had it not attracted a crowd of photographers.

That’s the beauty of the crowds Wakodahatchee draws in spring — there’s always a bird expert nearby who is identifying birds.

Once hatched, baby storks stick around for 10 to 12 weeks, becoming fully feathered around seven or eight weeks. We look forward to an entire season of stork watching!

Visiting Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach

Wakodahatchee Preserve, 13026 Jog Road, Delray Beach.

Wakodahatchee Wetland hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Wakodahatchee website.

Wakodahatchee Wetlands parking: The large parking lot fills up in spring, when 500 to 1,000 people may visit over the course of a day, and you may have to wait for a space. There is good turnover among visitors. We were eight or 10 in line of cars on a sunny weekday and we waited only 20 minutes for a space. If possible, come early! Otherwise, listen to a podcast and wait.

The boardwalk is .75 miles long and is handicapped accessible.

Wakodahatchee Wetlands admission: Free.

There is a restroom and water fountain.

The preserve is a man-made wetlands designed to treat highly treated water from a county water treatment plant, filtering the water as it seeps into the underground aquifer that is essential to South Florida’s water supply.

Note: If you visit Wakodahatchee, you are five minutes from another wonderful boardwalk through a man-made wetland. Green Cay is longer and attracts different varieties of birds. Green Cay and Wakodahatchee from Florida Rambler.

More things to do near Delray Beach:

• A guide to things to do in Delray Beach
• Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens: Feel harmony in nature
• Only minutes away: Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge for birding, hiking, kayaking and beautiful cypress-swamp boardwalk
• A great beach at MacArthur State Park
• Kayak to Munyon Island in MacArthur State Park
• Lake Trail, a bike trail on the elite island of Palm Beach
• Palm Beach Island: Full of history and manicured beauty
• Peanut Island for snorkeling and camping
• Hiking and bike trails at Grassy Waters Preserve, West Palm Beach