First time visit to Florida for photography late January (1 Viewer)

Hi there, I am hoping to take a trip to Florida for the first time with the intention of taking bird photos, 3rd or 4th week of January most likely.

Would like to know a good city to land in to just rent a car and stay in a hotel near a good area, don't mind driving awhile to get there.. hoping to find an area where i'd see birds more unique to Florida or down south that I wouldn't necessarily see up here in Canada, and ones that are easy to get in sight of with nice boardwalks/walkways/blinds, also bonus would be a good area to see birds from inside a car. Safety is also a concern.

Florida is a bit intimidating with the amount of options and some advice from good experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

It's a great place to visit for birds....some real crackers will give you good shows.
I'd suggest you get a good current guide book as there really are great places to see but I've not been for a few years now so my information may be out of date.
There's so much water that birds are everyhwere.
The last trip I made was with a guide book that directed me to Carracara, Burrowing Owl, Bald Eagle, Snail Kite, Limpkin to name a few so worth researching the current versions.



have a great trip.

Florida is a great place for winter birding. Although it has been more than 20 years since I lived there, I grew up on the east coast, just south of the space center.

Your best bet may be the Space Coast Birding Festival in Titusville from Jan. 23 to 28th. It is a very well organized event with lots of field trips with expert birders. Titusville is just over an hour from Orlando, which is probably your best location to fly into.

The festival website http://spacecoastbirdingandwildlifefestival.org/index.php

If the solo trip is more your speed, there is a lot of good information on the Great Florida Birding Trail website, including trip planning: http://floridabirdingtrail.com/index.php

Regardless, Orlando usually has the easiest and cheapest flights and is very centrally located. I would for sure look at Merritt Island and Viera if you fly into Orlando.

Another option is Miami and the Everglades and Keys. Also great birding, but can be a little harder to work out logistically.

Good luck!

Dave8888 said:

Hi there, I am hoping to take a trip to Florida for the first time with the intention of taking bird photos, 3rd or 4th week of January most likely.

Would like to know a good city to land in to just rent a car and stay in a hotel near a good area, don't mind driving awhile to get there.. hoping to find an area where i'd see birds more unique to Florida or down south that I wouldn't necessarily see up here in Canada, and ones that are easy to get in sight of with nice boardwalks/walkways/blinds, also bonus would be a good area to see birds from inside a car. Safety is also a concern.

Florida is a bit intimidating with the amount of options and some advice from good experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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Hi Dave

thanks for visiting Florida, I hope you have a great time. You are really spoilt for choice with sites to visits. Check out this guide for birding the Orlando area. There are several sites within the guide that provide excellent photograph opportunities and the birding is great. Namely Merritt Island NWR. Blackpoint Wildlife Drive is a 7-mile self-guided loop that is worshipped by many bird and wildlife photographers. The birds are very use to people so getting great close-up pictures is not that difficult.

Here is a link to the guide, which is free.
http://myfwc.com/media/2345471/RSGOrlando.pdf

you are more than welcome to email me and I will send you the print version of the guide as well.

andy.wraithmellATmyfwc.com

you can also visit my website
www.limeybirder.com which has a link for information on birding in Florida

the Great Florida Birding & Wildlife Trail is also an excellent free resource provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
www.floridabirdingtrail.com

please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Providing birders and wildlife viewers with info on Florida is my job!

Cheers and stay warm :t:

I'll throw in a recommendation for some down-south birding too, in my part of the state. Southeast Florida has a plethora of easy-access bird sites, chock full of birds with good boardwalks and levees, and close proximity, with lots of nesting spots, local birds, and winter visitors as well. If you flew into Ft. Lauderdale airport, it puts you farther north than Miami, which actually can be good for hitting more of the birding spots up this way. Everglades is awesome, but it's huge and it's a bit separated from other spots - so visiting that is pretty much a multi-day thing and probably wouldn't leave you in good range of other easy spots. The legendary Wakodahatchee Wetlands and Green Cay Wetlands both in southern Palm Beach county would be must-sees, as you'll likely count more species between those two parks than half-a-dozen others put together...and it's hard to beat them for proximity - you can shoot closeups of some birds' faces with a 35mm lens. Add in Arthur Marshall National Refuge and Wellington Wetlands and you've got a nice choice of parks within 30 minutes drive between them all. Smaller parks also abound - Peaceful Waters, Tall Cypress, Pond Hawk, Daggerwing, Ann Kolb, Secret Woods, Okeeheelee, Brian Piccolo, and so on, each with good boardwalks or with specific birds worth spotting there. All of those could be reached within 1 hour drive. Stretch a bit, and you can get to the more northern sites mentioned above, such as Merritt Island, Viera Wetlands, etc - if you stay in the northern Broward or Southern Palm Beach county areas you are no more than 2 hours from the northern sites, no more than 2 hours from the Everglades and southern Keys, and about 2 hours to the west coast of Florida for access to some sites that way like Ding Darling in Sanibel or Corkscrew Swamp. You're quite nicely situated to branch out in any direction, to parts north, south, or west...and when you're not birding, you're in the heart of some of the finest beaches, restaurants, clubs, hotels, etc. with Ft. Lauderdale Beach, South Beach and Miami, and the more quiet retreats of Boca Raton and Delray Beach. Hotels galore, plenty to do...and lots of birding sites all around.

Zackiedawg said:

stuff.

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Thanks for some great advice, I was already thinking ft lauderdale after reading the big thread about green cay and also because my grandparents used to live there in the winter and I visited once when I was 5 or 6 years old.

Leaning towards going to that area for sure.. thanks for suggestions guys.

Some good spots around Tampa area also. Right now I don't think you can go wrong with most any area around the state. Ft lauderdale/Miami is good spot If your gonna be in Tampa Bay Area at any time on a weekend let me know will be glad to take you around to some spots. (And we have better beaches) Just send me a pm Also check list server birdbrains for recent sighting info

Randy