Florida is one of the few states in the US where birds are found in astonishing abundance. With this great influx of birds, the birders and photographers follow. They come for a plentitude of native and migratory birds passing through or residing in areas of Florida year round. The variety of species is unsurpassed, with a number of birds on critical watch, federally threatened or endangered.
The best time to go birding in Florida is during spring and fall when migrating species pass through. This is the same schedule in my northern US area as well, but just a but later and far more sporadic, hence why I travel to places like Florida. In the Western New York region, we get warblers, wading birds, songbirds, water fowl, a world renown amount of gulls, and a variety of various raptors. But Florida gets this and more, acquiring the mother load of birds, especially in late March and early late March and early April 2022 when I visited.
Parts of Florida are located on the Atlantic Flyway, a major bird migration corridor. It is a key resting stop for many migratory bird species. I visited a few of these hot spots for migrating, breeding, and nesting birds. Every year more than 500 recorded species of birds stop in Florida for at least part of their long, arduous migration, some nesting and breeding. The second reason of bird numbers attributes to careful conservation and maintenance of sensitive habitat in Florida. The coastal areas and estuaries attract shorebirds, waders, terns and gulls. While the interior locales offer warblers and native sparrows to name a few, I started my journey south to St Augustine, Florida in late March to the land of the American alligators.
Zoological Park – St. Augustine
First stop was north Florida. There is a wonderful bird rookery at the Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in St. Augustine Florida that every birder and photographer should experience. Just across the bridge from downtown St. Augustine lies this zoo full of colorful, noisy birds, exotic mammals and a host of reptiles. It is a zoo which you might find curiously interesting.
Why do birds like to nest at a zoo? The alligators make it safe for the birds from other predators that have them, their eggs, and chicks on the menu. Marauders like snakes, lizards and small hungry mammals are scared off by the alligators. Native herons, egrets, spoonbills, and wood storks are assured safety to roost and raise their chicks with the hundreds of alligators swimming beneath the oak branches of the Alligator Lagoon, safe from tree-climbing predators they might encounter elsewhere. The chicks must be wary when fledging though, one slip or miss step and they fall into the wide open mouth of a gator. This is the second Zoo I visited that had a rookery both in a zoo, and over a waterbody filled with alligators. It makes one question the obvious in asking – why do birds congregate at these types of places?
You are safe though as you stroll along a wooden walkway around the Alligator Lagoon for incredibly close views of the wading birds on their nests. In late March, you might find Great Egret chicks starting to hatch out, Wood Storks incubating eggs, Roseate Spoonbills (Platalea ajaja) and the Snowy Egrets (Egretta thula) laying eggs. The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) , the Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), Little Blue Herons (Egretta caerulea), Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) and Tricolored Herons (Egretta tricolor) start to arrive in late March. The best time to visit is March through June, when you will see nesting of all these birds, and much more. The rookeries in south Florida will be more active in January and February than those in north Florida, but so much is to be seen, come March.
We had extended photography hours at the Alligator Farm with a purchased Photography Pass. We started our shoot at 8 am when the light was less harsh. We had stormy skies our first day which made for good photography later in the morning, along with opportunities throughout the day. Great photo ops were had of birds breeding, sitting on eggs, and gathering branches for building nests. There were territorial disputes, protection of mates, and tender moments between mated pairs, giving way to very expressive photos of birds.
The Alligator Farm hosts the Birding and Photo Fest in April, and the swamp boardwalks fill with loads of photographers and birders! They extend hours during this event as well. It is a very popular event.
On a conservation note, the Alligator Farm made improvement to the boardwalk to improve the safety conditions for park guests and the animals within the Alligator Lagoon. Safety cabling was added to help prevent the loss of equipment and other items that fall from the elevated boardwalk into the alligator swamp below. It is quite dangerous to recover dropped camera equipment, sunglasses, flip flops, baby bottles, hats, and phones from the many alligators that congregate below with open jaws. Plus the health of alligators could be compromised because many of these items do not break down in their system, resulting in a medical emergency for the gators.
The live oak island in the Lagoon receives detailed attention yearly, so the oaks can thrive too. This island in the Lagoon has a high soil pH from all the bird droppings. It suffers from soil compaction when the multitude of alligators bask en masse, and occasionally suffers saltwater encroachment. The park started an air spade compost treatment for the compaction and added a fence line to keep the alligators off the roots of the live oak trees.
These oak are the homes to nesting birds. The park works hard on conservation to maintain these important habitats. They collect tubers from the highly invasive Asian Air Potato (Dioscorea bulbifera), introduced to the area in 1905. This plant spreads rapidly, vining its way through the island and dropping more tubers. Invasive plants are removed and are replaced with native plants like fakahatchee grass, yaupon holly, wax myrtle and they broadcast a coastal riparian seed mix. Much can be learned from the conservation efforts at this facility.
Circle B Bar Reserve – Orlando
This is a remarkable park between Orlando and Tampa in Polk County, Florida. The Polk County Environmental Lands Program and the District established legislation to protect the floodplain of the northwest shore of Lake Hancock and to restore the Banana Creek marsh system. It is a former cattle ranch that was donated and put to better ecological use. Restoration projects were developed and completed to the pastures to restore and rehabilitate much of the original hydrologic function of the area, enabling and supporting the vast number and variety of birds. If you want to see birds, look at places designed and maintained to protect their habitat.
Like many parks in Florida, it is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, and it is free to visit. It is birds that draw those that love to see and photograph them, but the habitat is amazing as well. It hosts large populations of shorebirds, wading birds, eagles, osprey and a variety of interesting waterfowl. The unique property has oak hammock, freshwater marsh, hardwood swamp and a lakeshore are among the characteristics of this unique park. You will likely see and run across alligators crossing the trail, squirrels scampering about, and the occasional bobcat as well. If you see a gator, just turn around and walk the other way. The park doesn’t track the big reptiles, nor do they move them along for you! Luckily, it is not as congested with gators as was the Alligator Farm.
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
This is a very productive and essential estuary, but the refuge was experiencing an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) when we visited. The disease primarily affects waterfowl, so when we visited, there was a decrease in the amount of birds. The refuge is located near the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s John F. Kennedy Space Center.
Wildlife conservation is at the heart of this and many other refuges and reserves in the coastal estuaries and wetlands of Florida. As I mentioned, places with conservation in mind produce the best concentrations of birds.
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1963 for the protection of migratory birds and as a buffer to the Space Center. It sits on 140,000 acres of varied habitat conducive to hosting a wide variety birds. Habitats consist of: coastal dunes, saltwater marshes, managed impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks. These habitats provide homes for many species of plants and animals.
The refuge’s habitats support large numbers of endangered and threatened species found within the refuges of the National Wildlife Refuge System. In fact, it is one of the best places to see these rarity species.
It has seven distinct habitat types representing the subtropic and temperate zones. These habitats help as a major wintering area for migratory birds. Over 500 different species of wildlife inhabit the Refuge, with 16 currently listed as federally threatened or endangered. Several wading bird rookeries, active bald eagle nests, numerous osprey nests, even manatees and breeding Florida scrub jays can be found on the Refuge. This is a place I hope to visit again when I have the more time. We spent such a short amount of time here, but it was time well spent. We drove the seven mile Black Point Wildlife Drive. It takes you through the refuge where you have interesting and unique places to explore.
There are countless places to see and photograph wading birds in Florida, and I only visited a small number of the important sites in 2022. Nature photographers are always thrilled by the abundance of wading birds in Florida.
