Where to go in Nov/USA? TX? FL? AZ? NC? (1 Viewer)

I have some vacation to use up by the end of the year and am looking for input based on people's experience.
Things to consider

-I figure 2 days travel, 4, days to bird
-I am not a lister and have no particular tgt bird, but of course new to me and
hard to birds are always good (I live in Ohio)
-I enjoy driving around, stopping, looking around, a little walking, auto drive
tours, water locales
-Not into crowds, but don't need to be somewhere totally isolated
-Not a very good planner, procrastinate a lot
-Soon it will be a long grey winter here, would like to stock up on some
sunlight, heat not a plus tho
- Be nice if its not too expensive to fly to from Dayton OH

TX
The Rio Grande Festival starts the 9th. I have missed registration and all the good talks are filled. Still might be good place and time to go..just drive to places on my own vs. taking the vans...anyone know how crazy it is in terms of people? I enjoy some people around to exchange with but fighting for parking, full boardwalks etc. are a negative. Anyone been?

Port Aransas - I could just home base around Corpus? I have no idea. Would I get sick on one of the whooping crane boats?

AZ - lots of wildfires, not sure of the impact. Isn't south of Tucson supposed to be good?

NC - Wings over Water, coming up fast, not sure how big, sold out, etc.

Open to other suggestions

Thanks,

Mary

With regards to the Whooping Cranes: the boats are quite big and (when I was there) there was not much in the way of waves (and most of the time you are not on the open sea anyway – you should be fine. I spent the night in Port Aransas because it is still quite a way from Corpus Christi.
Can't help you with your other queries...

I would suggest either South Texas or South Florida. Both should expand your list, are warm, and have a variety of habitats. I have never birded South Texas during November, but at other times of year there are usually birders around, but not to the point that jostling for room/parking is an issue. If everything is all booked up for the conference, you might go the week afterward. Less crowds, plus likely that the festival will turn up a few rare birds you might be interested in.

The Port Aransas/Corpus Christi area isn't bad, although depending on the time you go it might be a little too early for the wintering birds and probably too late for migrants. If you are concerned about getting sea sick, you can see the Whooping Cranes without a boat ride. Last Spring a family wintered just outside Goose Island State Park, and they are often seen from one of the towers at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Florida Birding

One of my favorite birding places is Merritt Island NWR in Florida. It has walking trails & driving trails. It's good for shore birds, marsh birds, and wintering passerines. There's a good chance of seeing Spoonbills, American White Ibis, Glossy Ibis which are probably not very likely in Ohio. You might get lucky & see a Limpet (Florida is the only place it is resident north of Mexico). Of course you'll see both Black & Turkey Vultures, Osprey & Boat-tailed Grackles.

November is a slack(ish) season at the theme parks in Orlando, so you should be able to get good air fares & hotel rates. Merritt Island is just east of Titusville which is about an hour's drive east from the Orlando airport.

BYW, Disney World is a pretty good birding place too. It's 47 sq. mi. of protected land; probably less than 25% developed.

Mariettabirder, I spent a good part of the day at Merritt once and its very nice. I would also recommend it to anyone. I've seen so few places though I think I ought to strike out somewhere else. I've never been to the Keys. Or the Ding Darling area. Or actually anywhere but Merritt that one day

The Keys are interesting, but a lot of the specialities birds (Antillean Nighthawk, Gray Kingbird, Black-whiskered Vireo) should have migrated south.

I am planning on hitting up the Miami area/Everglades around Thanksgiving. Hitting key spots you should be able to pick up Limpkin, Purple Gallinule, Snail Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Great White Heron, and a range of wintering warblers. If you decide to hit up Miami, you can also pick up exotics. I think I estimated 14 lifers for me, having never been to Florida but having birded widely in other parts of the states.

Mysticete said:

The Keys are interesting, but a lot of the specialities birds (Antillean Nighthawk, Gray Kingbird, Black-whiskered Vireo) should have migrated south.

I am planning on hitting up the Miami area/Everglades around Thanksgiving. Hitting key spots you should be able to pick up Limpkin, Purple Gallinule, Snail Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Great White Heron, and a range of wintering warblers. If you decide to hit up Miami, you can also pick up exotics. I think I estimated 14 lifers for me, having never been to Florida but having birded widely in other parts of the states.

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Watch out for the deer eating pythons.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...ptured-in-everglades-20111028,0,7671733.story

Hope to be there soon as well.

As mentioned, specific rarities are nice to see but its not what I base a decision on. I'm more looking for the entire experience of a place and lots of birds in general in a natural environment vs. specific birds. So I don't see myself birding Miami. The Everglades maybe as both a natural experience and something to see in an of itself as well as birds, but that's such a big area I'd have no idea where to start.

I completely agree with the Merritt Island recommedation. I picked a several lifers there last year and will be going back this winter at least a couple of times. My fav. bird there last year was a Painted Bunting. We also saw Gopher Tortoise which was a lifer reptile. Also go to Canaveral National Seashore, that's where we saw Spoonbills and Reddish Egrets. They are almost the same place.

Marys1000 said:

Mariettabirder, I spent a good part of the day at Merritt once and its very nice. I would also recommend it to anyone. I've seen so few places though I think I ought to strike out somewhere else. I've never been to the Keys. Or the Ding Darling area. Or actually anywhere but Merritt that one day

Click to expand...

I've also gone to the Disney Wilderness Preserve (owned by the Nature Conservancy, land donated by Disney, see:http://www.nature.org/ourinitiative...sweprotect/the-disney-wilderness-preserve.xml). Didn't see nearly as many birds there. They have a couple of trails thru the scrub palmetto and a nice welcome center.

I went to Hatbill Park to see if I could see a snail kite, but only saw Osprey & a Northern Harrier. It's not much of a park, but primarily a boat landing.

When you went to Merritt Island, did you drive Biolab Road? If not, it's worth the return trip. Some of the best birding WAS on L Pond Rd. but it is probably still closed to vehicles. It got severe damage when all the hurricanes went thru central FL a few years ago.

As I said, Disney World itself is pretty good birding, but there are no specific trails or areas. We were told by a cast member at the aviary in the Animal Kingdom that they will be doing an annual census of the birds on propery.

Unless you really want to see a greater variety of sparrows and waterfowl, Central Florida has nothing over South Florida, which has all the same birds plus an assortment of wintering warblers, Short-tailed Hawk, Purple Gallinule, Snail Kite, Limpkin, White-crowned Pigeon, and all the exotics (over a dozen species of parrots/parakeets, Spot-breasted Oriole, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Common Myna, Hill Myna, etc). Everglades National Park, if you know where to go, is a fantastic winter birding spot with over a hundred species possible in a single day.

Culturally, you also get to experience something a little different -- there is no other city in the USA like Miami, with a Caribbean and South American flare...which is very eye opening to those people who are accustomed to connecting "Hispanic" only with Mexican culture.

The Florida Keys are also highly unique -- the only true "tropics" in the country.

Carlos