Help needed - Florida Feb 2006 Birding Sites? (1 Viewer)

DearAll

I am looking for any help / advice / websites of Birding sites/reserves in Florida where i can take millions of pictures with my Digiscoping setup, and was wondering whether we have local birders in Florida on BF who can help or i can meet up with? or any others who have visited recently with upto date information?

Also i am looking for any environmental-friendly opportuntities where i can swim with dolphins, are there areas where there are wild dolphins? this is what i would really like to do rather than a theme park, its been a childhood ambition of mine, again any help would be appreciated

Best Regards

Paul

Paul Hackett said:

DearAll

I am looking for any help / advice / websites of Birding sites/reserves in Florida where i can take millions of pictures with my Digiscoping setup, and was wondering whether we have local birders in Florida on BF who can help or i can meet up with? or any others who have visited recently with upto date information?

Also i am looking for any environmental-friendly opportuntities where i can swim with dolphins, are there areas where there are wild dolphins? this is what i would really like to do rather than a theme park, its been a childhood ambition of mine, again any help would be appreciated

Best Regards

Paul

Click to expand...

Hi Paul hope you are well. I am living over here now in Tallahassee, North Florida. I can recommend oodles of sites mate for digiscoping you will have the time of your life. because

a) 75% of the birds dont fly off into the distance when approached
b) the light is incredible for photography, its not called the sunshine state for nowt!
c) the birds are mega and there is loads of em

Where do I start. Firstly you are more than welcome to come stay up here with my wife and I we have plenty of room and we have several really good sites in this area with some really good birding. I'll start from there.

North Florida
Tallahassee area

St Marks NWR - I led a group two days ago and we got 82 spp without going mad and there are lots of ducks, wading birds and shorebirds. Highlights at the moment include A Golden Plover, Am Avocet, Reddish Egret, Henslow's Sparrow, Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, 15-18 duck sp.

Miccosukee road park - A nice park with lots of common birds, highlights - Scissor-tailed Fly (male), Yellow-breasted Chat, lots of Eastern Bluebirds.

Springhill sewage plant - a bit whiffy but a great sot. Highlights - Vesper Sparrow, Stilt Sand, lots of very approachable ducks such as Bufflehead.

Tall Timbers Research station - a good mixed woodland with lots of common birds especially Red-headed Woodpeckers and Brown-headed and White-breasted Nuthatches.

Apalachicola NF - largest population of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Bachmans Sparrow, in the town of Apalachicola there is a Tropical Kingbird at the mo.

Bald Point State Park - Piping Plover, American Oycs, gulls, terns, loons, scoters. Lots of jetties with very obliging birds sitting still and the shorebirds are almost tame!

Gainesville/Ocala AreaPaynes Prairie - lots of sparrows and spectacular Sandhill Crane roost

Ocala NF - Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Florida Scrub-jays

Central Florida Atlantic Coast

Merritt Island NWR - great birding with scrub-jays and lots of wintering ducks etc. Good for Roseate Spoonbills, Reddish Egrets.

Central Florida Gulf Coast

Honeymoon Island - plover heaven

Fort De Soto CP - great for shorebirds and wading birds very tame here.

South Florida Gulf Coast

Fort Myers area - Ding Darling NWR a must for photography its mega

beaches in this area are great for very tame shorebirds

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - great and has a feeding station with very tame Painted Buntings usually plus some wintering warblers. Limpkin, gallinule, Barred Owl

Micosukee Rest Area, North Everglades -big Snail Kite roost here plus back roads between Everglades and Lake Okeechobee worth exploring for many kingbirds (Western mostly) and flycatchers (Vermillion, Scissor-tailed). You might connect with an early Swallow-tailed Kite.

Everglades NP - awesome lots of birds, sometimes there are 20+ warbler species in winter. Best Trails = Anhinga, Gumbo Limbo, Mahogany Hammock, West Lake, Snake Bight, Rowdy Bend and Eco Pond.

Thats about it me old mucker but if you need more detailed info just email me

limeybirder(AT)comcast.net

all the best

Andy Wraithmell

you can see lots of dolphins but I dont know where you can go swimming with them. Bit reluctant to try uo here as I always start thinking about sharks and stuff!!! There are probably some touristy places in the keys.

Paul

Get a copy of "A Birders Guide To Florida" (Bill Pranty).

The fifth edition was published late 2005, so is very much up to date.

It is readily available from reserves in Florida, but I ordered mine from the ABA website.

I used it in early Jan 06 - very precise data for sites and Sp. (Street level for Burrowing Owl!)

Good luck

John

Hi Paul

We spent some time chatting at the bird fair last year where you let me try your contax set up. We also met very briefly the other week at Poolsbrook Country Park where you gave me a couple of tips to get a better shot of an Iceland Gull (lowering the tripod etc). I spent most of the time with the group of birders by the building (I was helping to lead a Sheffield Bird Study Group fieldtrip) and it was only after you left that I smacked my forehead and realised who you were! The big jacket and hood disguised you well.

So many thanks for the advice on both occasions and apologies for not spending the time to chat at Poolsbrook.

As far as Florida sites go, I have been the to the Fort Myers area three times and JN Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel is excellent as are the beaches on Sanibel and Captiva - try blind pass beach early morning. Osprey photo opps are everywhere and the herons and egrets at Ding Darling are a piece of p....

The other main site in the area is Corkscrew Swamp which is also first class for photo opps. The only thing to watch for here is the long boardwalk which vibrates a lot as people walk along it. But, I found you could get fast enough shutter speeds to compensate and could also choose the moments when no one is walking past. As a previous post said, painted bunting is easy here and it is a good spot for wintering birds - warblers, flycatchers and vireos etc.

Fort Myers Beach is another great spot although the roads are busy with tourists.

I really can't recommend Sanibel and Captiva highly enough - lovely places with excellent birds and fantastic photo opps. All the American birds in my gallery were taken there. Not up to your standard but I think not bad at all.

Any way, buy a copy of the birders guide to Florida. It is an excellent guide and will tell you all you need to know.

As for dolphins, the only place in Florida that I know of, where you can swim with dolphins is hawk's cay resort on Duck Key. You'll find it in a Virgin Brochure or on t'internet without any trouble.

hope this helps.

Matthew

Hi Paul, I'm not long back from the Gulf Coast, no probs at all with tourist traffic this time of year and the Estero Beach is a must as is Tigertail Beach, here you can get Burrowing Owl dead easy as they are almost next to the entrance.

Can you narrow down the enquiry, where are you headed?

CB

Hi Paul

One other source of information of course is the great Florida birding trail http://floridabirdingtrail.com/ . Here you will find loads of information on appropriate sites in Florida.

Whilst many people recommend places on the coast don't forget that there are many opportunities a little inland too. I'm not sure what the access situation is like at the various water treatment sites (terrorists you know) but they gave great confiding views of all of the heron species when I last was there. also consider such places as Lake Woodruff http://www.fws.gov/lakewoodruff/index.html where you would be likely to find yourself all alone with a host of confiding alligators.

HTH

Only just seen this, but some good advice given already.

I'm currently living in Central Florida and would be pleased to help if I can.

Let me know your itinerary and I'll see what I can suggest.

Grousemore said:

Only just seen this, but some good advice given already.

I'm currently living in Central Florida and would be pleased to help if I can.

Let me know your itinerary and I'll see what I can suggest.

Click to expand...

Grousemore, Andy, John, Matthew, Chris and Alf

Many many thanks for all this info, trying to wade through it all and match distances with hours of driving/ time!! Any Good spots specifially for woodpeckers and raptors guys? or Feeding stations?

Once again thanks, BF members comes up trumps again!!

Paul

Hummers

Andy,

Keep flying the red flag (I'm a scouser born & bred who moved south) -

not sure what time of year your sitings were made in, but I'm interested in possibility of seeing hummers in late July. What are the chances and are there any sites which are a "cert" ?

cheers

Paul, seeing how you posted this thread back in January, I was wondering if you have made your trip yet or are still anticipating it.

The Tamiami Trail (Everglades, Miccosukee Indian Restaurant, Shark Valley, etc.) were excellent when we were down there, Swallow-tailed Kite, Snail Kite, Short-tailed Hawk.

Corkscrew Swamp is a must see place with the boardwalk which yields just about all the "what we call" waders, viz. ibis, heron, egret, etc. Many of the bird species can be found here.

Paul, I just did a search through the fora/threads using your name & Florida and see that you already have done your trip through that state. I will be looking at your posts concerning that trip to see what all you were able to observe in the birding communities while you were there.

Good Birding!

Wow, I really am behind my times!

I see that your trip was in 2006. Well, at any rate, I am glad you had a good time and saw a lot of US birds!

My wife and I certainly enjoyed Florida when we were down there.