Florida, August/September? (1 Viewer)

Plenty of reports for Florida during the spring, but anybody know what it is like in the early autumn ...thinking about a little trip the last week of August and first week of September, taking in the Everglades, Dry Tortega, etc.? I am guessing there must be good wader migration by then, first passerines and perhaps still some seabirds on the Tortega.

Late August, early Sept, it is mainly.....hurricane season. And even if the big blow doesn't hit, it is still very hot, humid and wet. And it's the peak season for unpleasant insects. You will get shorebird migration in August, otherwise better later.

Summer is also the quietest time of the year generally for birds - only 28 summer visitor species, compared to over 120 winter visitors. So, if you have any choice in the matter, wait until October.

Specific sites - the Everglades is generally a disappointment, for various reasons, partly size/inaccessibility, partly years of drought, partly being generally less birdy than assumed - since a lot of it is uniform, featureless plain and very little is actually the steamy swamp of southern Gothic that the movies would have you believe. It's not terrible, just not that special. The Dry Tortugas - only visited in the spring, opinions differ as to why. Some say there might be birds there in the autumn, others say they've gone and there's nothing there. (And Ding Darling's nothing special either.)

On the upside, autumn gets you great birding up and down the coasts and on central wetlands. Try Fort de Soto, Merritt Island, the central lake chain (including Joe Overstreet, Three Lakes, Lake Kissimmee State Park, Lake Tohopekaliga and Lake Jesup), Split Oak, Circle-b Bar Preserve, Colt Creek, Wekiva Springs and numerous similar locations.

Many thanks for this, now changed my mind, going to California instead, seems good time then, seabird and all.

Although John is correct that Everglades National Park is not very birdy, it is generally less birdy mostly because of the terrible mismanagement this ecosystem has had to endure for the past few decades. The entire ecosystem suffers from a lack of water flow at the correct times of year. The park is, admittedly, on life-support. That said, with slough, sawgrass, pine, hardwood hammock, mangrove, and coastal prairie, I would hardly say that it is uniform.

South Florida is rich in migrant bird species in the early autumn, but our early autumn isn't late August/early Sept -- most migrations are passing through in late Sept/October.

Carlos