Florida locations April/May (1 Viewer)

My wife and I will be coming to Florida for the last week of April and the first week of May, a first- time visit. Our son is in the USA for a year, as part of his study and he'll be joining us for the second week to celebrate his 21st birthday. This, therefor is not strictly a birding trip, though I hope to visit some interesting locations. We don't want to change places too much, so I had the idea to stay in the Sanibel/ Fort Myers area, then move to Cocoa/ Merrit Island to pick up our son at Orlando and visit the Kennedy Space Centre with him, and finally move to Homestead/ Florida City, to drive to the Keys, visit Miami and perhaps the Everglades. Will staying in these three areas give me access to most of the interesting birding spots, do you think? Thanks for any suggestions, also for places to stay. I am looking forward to the trip and I'll be bringing the camera and lenses!
Peter

I recommend Merritt Island NWR and Orlando Wetlands Park while in the Central Florida area,

Also Florida has a website that may help with birding spots throughout the state: Florida birding trail


http://floridabirdingtrail.com/

Thanks for the info and the link!
Regards,
Peter

The last week of April/first week of May is an excellent time to visit in Florida for the Caribbean specialties that pour in from the south. Plus, you get all the neotropical migrants heading further north.

Sanibel/Ft Myers is good for shorebirds. Fort de Soto a bit further north is an excellent migrant trap for neotropical passerines, plus has good shorebirding on its beaches.

South of Orlando, you have Lake Kissimmee State Park and Three Lakes WMA. These two parks along with the roads between the sites are productive for some nice specialties such as Florida Scrub-Jay, Crested Caracara, Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Bachman's Sparrow, Wild Turkey, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

A visit to Everglades NP in late April/early May isn't that productive, being much better in winter. However, all of the urban migrant traps along the coast such as Bill Baggs State Park, Crandon Park Beach, and Matheson Hammock will have migrants. Birds like Gray Kingbird and Common Myna will be easy enough at any parking lot. Combined with a trip to Loop Road in Big Cypress (beautiful place, plus you should be able to see breeding Prothonotary Warbler, Northern Parula, Red-eyed Vireo, etc) and Green Cay Wakodahatchee Wetlands for wetland birds (birding so easy, you shouldn't need more than an hour at each of these wetlands to see everything), you would be able to cover your bases well with plenty of afternoon time to explore other things.

The Florida Keys are great, too. Marathon Airport (Antillean Nighthawk), Long Key State Park, Windley Key State Park, Bahia Honda are all good choices for migrants. The best of the lot is Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West.

To be honest, I would be tempted to throw out a day in Everglades NP and take a day trip to the Dry Tortugas instead!

Carlos