Beginning each February, a quiet retention pond in west Pasco County transforms into a seasonal rookery as wood storks, great egrets, white ibis, anhingas and tricolored and little blue herons gather to court, nest and raise chicks in the trees above the water.

Mixed colonies like this allow several species to breed at once, with adults building stick nests, laying two to five eggs and sharing incubation duties for about a month before chicks hatch. For the next 10 to 12 weeks, parents will tend to a routine of constant feeding trips, regurgitating fish and insects into open bills while ushering their offspring toward their first flights.

The birds nest from late winter into spring, when falling water levels concentrate fish in nearby shallow wetlands. Beneath the colony, an alligator circles the pond — part protection from land predators, but also a danger to chicks that fall from crowded nests.

By early summer, the rookery quiets again as fledglings take flight and the birds disperse across the region.

Contact Douglas R. Clifford at dclifford@tampabay.com. Follow @cliftimestweet.