The famous nesting birds of Seahorse Key in Florida went suddenly missing over a month ago and are now feared dead.
For weeks, naturalists have been investigating the 150-acre crime scene of broken eggs, dead hatchlings, and abandoned nests for clues as to what befell the thousands of winged inhabitants who are supposed to be there breeding and raising their young right now.
But so far the experts are unable to solve this vexing mystery.
Normally the massive mangrove is the meet-up and mate-up grounds for herons, spoonbills, egrets, pelicans, and a myriad of other fine-feathered cavorters whose annual -- and rather raucous -- presence attracts not only researchers but tourists.
Today, there’s an eerie silence in their stead, confirms biologist Vic Doig of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who also noted that the missing birds don’t appear to have relocated someplace else.
"It's a dead zone now," says Doig. "This is where the largest bird colony on the gulf coast of Florida used to be."
The dunes of Seahorse Key have been part of a protected wildlife refuge since 1929, but, as far back as anyone can remember, they’ve never been vacant. So it’s important now to learn why the famous rookery of some of our planet’s most alluring birds is now completely emptied.
Tests on a number of avian carcasses and abandoned eggs produced no evidence of disease or toxins, and traps set so conservationists could monitor predators and their population numbers proved these weren’t the culprits either.
Still, “there had to be some intense event that would drive all these birds away,” insists Janell Brush, a career researcher from Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; although, whether this unknown cataclysmic occurrence was manmade or perhaps subtly triggered by climate-change, is anybody’s guess at this point in the investigation.
Birds do occasionally abandon their nests, points out University of Florida wildlife biologist Peter Frederick. “But,” he ominously adds, “in this case what's puzzling is that all of the species did it all at once."
