The storks have found ideal habitat in the mill ponds and swamps of southeastern North Carolina. Johnson notes, “The species nests in hardwood trees, especially cypress, surrounded by shallow water where they can find fishes, invertebrates, and amphibians to eat and feed their chicks. According to Wildlife Commission biologist, Carmen Johnson, Wood Stork numbers are on the rise in coastal North Carolina with more than 350 nests tallied in 2019 and more than 690 nests in 2021. Wildlife Resources Commission biologists discovered the first Wood Stork colony in the Tar Heel State in 2005 while conducting aerial surveys for Bald Eagle nests. The Wood Stork, North America’s only native stork, is a relative newcomer to North Carolina with its primary range being Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. This designation is due to the age and near pristine bottomland hardwood and cypress-gum forest as well as the known nesting colony of Wood Storks there. This forest includes a portion of Steep Run Swamp, a site identified as “ecologically significant” by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program. Rare bats, like Rafinesque’s big-eared bat and Southeastern bat, forage for insects over the open waters of the Cape Fear and utilize the large trees in the swamp for roosting. The backwaters and sloughs of the floodplain serve as nursery areas for a multitude of fish species including anadromous fish like striped bass, American and hickory shad, and possibly the federally threatened Atlantic sturgeon. It is an area rich in wildlife providing nesting habitat for wading birds like the Great Egret and federally threatened Wood Stork waterfowl like Wood Duck and Hooded Merganser as well as bottomland hardwood dependent songbirds such as Prothonotary Warbler and Swainson’s Warbler. The property, located in the small town of East Arcadia just north of Riegelwood, hosts mature floodplain forest and upland hardwood ravines. Coastal Land Trust completed the purchase of 265 acres along 1.1 miles of the Cape Fear River in Bladen County.
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