Florida (Miami area) and Texas (Rio Grande) (1 Viewer)

[bittern]

I'm planning to spend a few days in the Miami area next March before meeting up with friends to go birding in Belize. After leaving them on the way back I will go and spend about a week in the Lower Rio Grande of Texas.

Would welcome any ideas of a place to stay not to far from Miami on the way out and in the Rio Grande area on the return trip. My arrival airport in Texas is Houston. I'll rent a car at both locations.

Mike

 

[erizzo]

In florida you should go to Everglades NP and if you can you should stay in Fort Myers for a couple of days to check out Corkscrew sanctuary and Ding Darling NWR

 

[Dave B Smith]

For Florida birding this winter / next spring Miami shoud be a good area. Further north we had some pretty devasting hurricanes and I'm not sure how Ding Darling will have bounced back yet.

Check out the Florida Birding Trails (do a web search for these) and also some posts here by Janine13 under Florida Locations.

Good luck

 

[finfoot]

Florida is great location for birding .

The best book I know of is: A birder's Guide To Florida by Bill Pranty. All the specialty sites are detailed in his book. Many of which have been productive for me. Notably the Red Cockaded Site NW of Everglades Park (near a prison complex). Florida Scrub Jay is also easy near this site.

I've been to the everglades a few times and have generally found birding fairly sparse in many parts, (Flamingo the exception)however if you only have time to go to the visitor centre (royal palm) - a fairly tame barred owl used to roost conspicuously in the carpark


Good Birding

 

[KC Foggin]

You owe yourself a trip to Loop Road in the Everglades. I was able to get down into the water within 15 feet of the tricolored herons. Well yeah.... alligators too but if you keep a wary eye out, you will be okay.

Here's a link for you to check out.

http://www.ckfoto.com/Loop%20Road.htm

 

[HelenB]

Would welcome any ideas of a place to stay not to far from Miami on the way out and in the Rio Grande area on the return trip. My arrival airport in Texas is Houston. I'll rent a car at both locations.

Mike

There are many centres to stay in the Rio Grande Valley. The 2 most popular are probably Harlingen and Brownsville, but there are so many birding hotspots quite close to each other throughout the area. Here are a few websites for you to look at:

http://www.worldbirdingcenter.org/sites/harlingen/index.phtml

http://www.harlingen.com/Visitors/birding.asp

http://worldbirdingcenter.org/sites/brownsville/index.phtml

http://www.brownsville.org/BirdingButterfly.asp

 

[Steve Gross]

There are scads of chain motels along US 83 in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, so finding a place to stay shouldn't be a problem. The Alamo Inn, near Santa Ana NWR, caters to birders and is just minutes away from the refuge.

Hopefully, the birds that have attracted so many birders to the Valley will still be around during your late March trip. Good luck. Please contact me if you have any other questions. I live in Houston and can give you information about that area as well.

Steve in Houston