Orlando, FL recommendations - end of August (1 Viewer)

[khustochka]

Hi all!

I will be visiting Orlando, FL in the end of August. Will be busy most of the time, but I will have one afternoon and one full day free, and I am going to rent a car. I'd like to do some birding on the sea shore, and also some inland.

My preliminary plan is below, but I am afraid it may be a bit unrealistic, especially because I do not exactly know the local conditions. I also hope that I may be able to see the most common of the local specialties in the city itself, and dedicate the free time I have to something more unusual.

So my questions are as follows:

1. Any city parks good for birding, that are accessible via public transport, or near common tourist places?
2. For the free afternoon I was thinking of going to Three Lakes WMA, but I have doubts, maybe this is not enough time? Maybe I'd better go to Lake Apopka?
3. For the sea shore birding I am thinking Playalinda Beach. One thing I am worried about is, how busy is it? How is parking, especially on the weekend? (Of course I will try to arrive as early as possible)

Will appreciate any advice, thanks!

 

[foresttwitcher]

Possibly a bit out of date but I stayed in Kissimmee (just south of Orlando) in mid-August 2011 and birded the following sites - some a bit further afield - but it may give you some ideas if you check the current websites / locations:

Day 1: Sunset Ranch Trail, Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, Joe Overstreet Road / Landing, East Lake Tohopekaliga;
Day 2: Moss Park, Split Oak Mitigation Park;
Day 3: Orlando Wetlands, Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area;
Day 4: Parrish Park, Titusville, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge;
Day 5: MINWR, Canaveral National Seashore;
Day 6: Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Lake Okeechobee.

I got the site information by downloading and printing a paper guide of 'The Great Florida Birding Trail' from floridsbirdingtrail.com.

 

[Owene]

I was there at that time of year last year. Birds are pretty quiet and heat means you have to get up really early. It was a family theme park holiday but I found that the small water features around the hotels would get all the various heron/ibis/etc species if you gave them a Quick Look each day. The botanic gardens in ‘old’ Orlando was pretty good. Had boardwalks and if you manage to catch any other birders had well known owl spots. I didn’t but enjoyed birding there.

My only real dedicated birding day was in the ocala national forest. Amazing place but again hard birding in August. Heard bachmans sparrow but they weren’t responding to tape. Did well for woodpeckers.

We did one of the tourist manatee boats and I got quite a few decent birds from it

Your itinerary looks good. Like I said we were almost exclusively theme parks so would have gone to a lot of your sites if we’d been wildlife holidaying

 

[khustochka]

foresttwitcher, Owene, thank you for your input!

For posterity I'd like to report how it went. In general my plan worked fine. My main worries were unfounded: I had enough time to bird the Three Lakes WMA and also visited Joe Overstreet Road and Landing (although I was able to leave earlier than I planned, before noon), and the parking on Playalinda beach was very far from full, even during the day.

I saw a bunch of good birds, but unfortunately missed the most sought for, like Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Snail Kite and Florida Scrub-Jay. Probably the season and the time of day were the reason. Although I arrived at Merritt Island WMA and Canaveral National Seashore rather early, there are many locations to explore there, so there is only one or two you can cover while it is still "early". I went to the beach first, because I expected abundance of sea birds there (did not really materialize, although I saw some that I expected), and also was worried about parking availability (which turned out to be a non-issue). If I knew this beforehand I would focus on the potential Scrub-Jay habitat first.

I did not have time to visit any urban parks, but most of the water birds I wanted (White Ibis, Limpkin, Wood Stork, Anhinga) were easily found on the ponds in the hotels area (also lots of herons and egrets, but those were not new for me), and I was happy to find a lifer Yellow-throated Warbler there too.

Anyway, it was a great experience!

 

[Owene]

We were too late for snail kite too. I was also struck by the lack of waders and sea birds compared to at home. Sounds like you got some great birds though

 

[foresttwitcher]

Thanks for the update khustochka, sounds like you had a good trip. I too missed out on the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and am very jealous of the Limpkin.