West Villages Improvement District: Rookery: Where birds are seen when people aren't heard

Larry Evans
Venice Gondolier Sun
January 2, 2019

The Venice Audubon Rookery is a remarkable pocket of natural Florida a few hundred yards off U.S. Highway 41 and just north of Walmart in South Venice.

Photographs taken at the rookery can look like they were shot deep in the Everglades, but the place - and the birds - are easily accessible.

"Photographers all over the world come there" said Brenda Bossman,, president of the the Venice Area Audubon Society.

And yet, she said, local residents gather there a little before sunset and sit in lawn chairs on the grassy lawn and along a gravel path as they sip cocktails brought from home and watch egrets, herons, and a variety of other species of birds return to the rookery as the sun goes down.

"It's a wonderful place to see birds. Wading birds. Nesting birds," she said.

And at sunset, she said, bats come out of the bat boxes and soar and dip in the air as they feast on insects.

There are a couple of alligators there too, because the rookery is essentially a pond with a small island in the middle. (Any raccoon that attempts to swim out and eat eggs can easily become dinner for a gator.)

Birds seem to appreciate that the island provides them a protected area to sleep at night and a place to build nests, lay eggs, and raise their young to self-sufficiency.

Sunset is the peak viewing time, Bossman said, and the most birds can be seen from November through April.

"The rookery is a place people can get close to birds," she said.

The Venice Area Audubon Rookery is located on Annex Road, which is on the west side of U.S. 41 behind the South County Administration Building and just north of the Jacaranda Boulevard intersection.

Hours are sunset to sunrise. There is no admission charge. An unobtrusive donation box is in an open-sided shelter at the entrance to the rookery. Picnic tales in the shelter provide cover from rain and sun. The rookery has a parking lot and a gravel path that extends around part of the pond.

The Venice Area Audubon Society has an office building on the property. Information about this organization, including meeting times and programs, can be found at VeniceAudubon.org.

Don Gettys arrived at the rookery just after sunrise on a recent Saturday morning. "I come here almost every morning around 7:30 and stay a couple of hours," said Gettys, who lives a 10-minute drive south near Warm Mineral Springs. "Some days you come her, like today, and there aren't many birds." He nodded toward the island, where there were a few herons and egrets perched in the brush.

"And then you come back the next day and there are 200 birds. I don't know why there are more birds some days than others. The number of birds does not matter to Gettys. "This is a nice place to relax," he said. "It's so quiet and pretty. And I enjoy watching the birds."

Like many visitors to the rookery, Gettys carried a camera with a long lens. Some people shoot pictures with their smart phones. There are bird-watchers who simply use binoculars. Some people just use their eyes.

Gettys and his wife moved from York, Pennsylvania, to Sarasota County last summer after he retired. They had been seasonal residents for years.

There are other regulars who show up at the rookery a few mornings a week. Getty talked to a couple of them that Saturday morning. They all kept their voices low.

The Audubon Society encourages people to visit the rookery, and volunteers work hard to make the place inviting for them.

However, as Gettys and his friends understand, the rookery is a place for birds, so people should be seen and not heard.

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate