By Kevin Lollar
klollar@news-press.com
Originally posted on March 16, 2006

In an explosion of feathered pink, a flock of 50 roseate spoonbills burst into the air — along with a lone white pelican — circled twice and landed gently on the mud flat from which they had risen.

All around, birds of many feathers fed, swam, rested and flew: Fulvous whistling ducks, anhingas, glossy ibis, purple gallinule, American kestrels, limpkins, lesser yellowlegs and purple martins and blue-winged teal, to name a fraction.

The scene was what the regional water district calls Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) 5, south of Clewiston, 5,120 acres of wetlands created to filter nutrients from farm-water runoff before being released into the Everglades.

Roseate spoonbills take flight at the water treatment facility.

But STA 5 has become something else: a bird watcher's paradise. So far, 99 bird species have been identified in and around STA 5, compared with 79 species in and around the Arthur R. Marshal Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

STA 5 has been open for guided birding tours since 2004, and the South Florida Water Management District will soon open the site to the public.

"It's a fantastic place," said Vincent Lucas, president of the Calusa Bird Club. "I don't know any other place — Ding Darling refuge or Corkscrew Swamp or some other more touted birding locations — where you see such large concentrations of birds at one time.

"You see things you just don't see anywhere else — black-bellied and Fulvous whistling ducks, Caspian terns, 300 American white pelicans at one time, choice birds that people want to see."

The rectangular stormwater treatment area is divided into four cells separated by levees.

Water managers keep water levels between 6 inches and 2 feet as various aquatic plants filter out nutrients.

"The primary purpose of constructed wetlands is to absorb nutrients," district recreation planner Bijaya "BJ" Kattel said. "As a byproduct, hydrilla and other vegetation attract so many migratory and resident birds. This is a big chunk of open water with good vegetation. It's remote, out in the middle of nowhere, and relatively undisturbed, though we created it."

Under a water district policy adopted in 2004, district lands should be as accessible to the public as possible without interfering with their primary purpose.

Even before the policy was adopted, the district opened STA 5 to duck hunting.

"The duck hunters claim this is the best place in the nation," Kattel said.

Water district staff conducted guided tours during the 2004-2005 migration season, and the Hendry-Glades Audubon Society is conducting tours through the 2005-2006 season.

"I tell people from the beginning that I'm a new birder — to me it's still big bird, little bird," said Margaret England, society secretary and coordinator of STA 5 tours. "Most people who come out are experienced birders with their $3,000 scopes, and they're very excited about it.

"People coming from the east coast and west coast say, 'I didn't realize you had so many birds here.' "

At this point, birders can only get into STA 5 on a tour, but in the next couple of years, the water district will let the birding public in the gate.

"That would be great if they open it up," Lucas said. "I post my results (online), and you can't imagine how many e-mails I get from people saying, 'How can I get in there?'

"And by opening it up, who knows what we'll see? We're probably just touching the tip of the iceberg as to what birds are there. It's just such a neat place to go to."

Photos by Adithya Sambamurthy/news-press.com
A purple swamphen walks along the shore of the Stormwater Treatment Area 5, south of Clewiston, which has attracted an unusual number of birds.

IF YOU GO
• What: Guided birding tours.
• When: 8:30 a.m., Saturday and April 8 and 22.
• Where: Stormwater Treatment Area 5, south of Clewiston.
• Contact: Margaret England, 863-674-0695 (home), 863-517-0202 (cell), or e-mail sta5birding@earthlink.net

TOUR INFO & TIPS
• The tour lasts as much as three hours, and participants will walk two miles.
• There is no shade, and this is South Florida, so bring water, sunscreen and appropriate clothing.
• Binoculars and telescopes are not provided.