Florida III - Logistics and Itinerary

Logistics

• A three day trip in early  November (9^th – 13^th); I've been at this exact time of the year before, albeit slightly further north around Tampa Bay, so fully expected a repeat of those wonderful photographic opportunities. It did not disappoint. Accompanying me and chomping at the bit was Mick S for his first visit.
• Flights with Britis Airways to Miami were pretty cheap all things considered, and I used some of my frequent flyer built-up perks to get a flat bed there and back - the return journey was especially important as I was going straight into work and needed some sleep. Other airlines are available.
• Car hire via Avis was a fantastic Chevy Camaro convertible. God knows what engine it had but it made a lovely noise. Despite a likely dreadful economy fuel was only £50, which included driving across Florida and back again. Welcome to the land of the free....
• We stayed on Estero Beach at the Wyndham Garden Inn. A twin room was basic but adequate for our stay - we spent almost zero time in it.
• We visited a number of sites, some repeats from my first trip, others new. Ding Darling was once again disappointing for bird photography and we did not linger. The new sites, such as Bunche Beach between Sanibel and Fort Myers, proved excellent.
• Weather was stunning throughout, with highs of 31c and blue skies. This actually meant that photography ended quite early on each morning.
• Early morning and in shaded areas the midges were unbelievable. Invest in some repellent.

Itinerary

Day 0: A very early start at work to fit in a half day and then nipped to Heathrow for the early Friday afternoon departure to Miami. The nice shiny A380 I had booked had morphed into a knackered old 747 with no in-flight entertainment which was rather a shame. We arrived in the evening and set off for the long drive across the Everglades, attempting and failing to sleep in the car. The Camaro is great to drive but has almost no space in it so we gave up and got a motel in Naples.
Day 1: After breakfast at an all-night Denny's we were at Ding Darling for dawn, and spent the morning exploring Sanibel island. The afternoon saw a small amount of shopping and a nap, and then the early evening was spent reconnoitring Estero beach and lagoons in preparation for the following day.
Day 2: Pre-dawn start at the southern end of Estero Beach, walking north with the sun rising behind us. Mid morning we did a recce of Cape Coral for Burrowing Owl sites, and in the afternoon we sought out Florida Scrub Jay up towards Port Charlotte. Evening back at Cape Coral for the Owls.
Day 3: Early start at Bunche Beach Preserve, and an afternoon visit to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for a different selection of birds.
Day 4: Back at Corkscrew for a morning of birding and photography, and then back across to Miami for a 5pm flight back to Heathrow

Main Sites visited

Sanibel Lighthouse and Fishing Pier - tame Egrets by the pier and various other bits of habitat.

Estero Beach and Little Estero Lagoon - a series of lagoons between Fort Myers Beach and the strip of hotels, fabulously tame waders and egrets as well as Pelicans and Terns.

Cape Coral - Burrowing Owls amid suburbia, no photographic opportunities but a few Owls seen.
Tippecanoe Environmental Park - a confusing series of trails, but prime Florida Scrub Jay habitat.
Bunche Beach Preserve – an almost empty and massive beach carpeted in waders and egrets with the sun in a perfect position in the morning. One to go to again.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - a long boardwalk through a Cypress swamp, magnificent habitat and various warbler and woodpecker photo opportunities.

Florida II - Trip Report

Logistics

• A three day trip in mid November (13^th – 16^th), hopefully to be a repeat of the trip I made in February and which I enjoyed hugely, and targeting a slightly different area I hoped to see a few different species.
• I took advantage of an airline sale and snagged an economy return to Miami for £380 with British Airways on their A380 service. Airline geek, moi? In a very happy turn of affairs I ended up getting upgraded to a flat bed both ways which made the trip a lot easier. I also booked cheap onward tickets to Tampa with American Airlines.
• Car hire via Avis was a lovely Ford C-MAX hybrid, very comfy with lots of mod cons including satnav which meant I didn’t even need to use my phone. About £90 for three days and used a mere £15 of fuel.
• I stayed in the frankly dreadful Guy Harvey Outpost on St Pete Beach, complete with spurious resort 'fees'. I don’t believe there are any decently-priced options that are not going to be full-on uber-occupancy party hotels. I spent very little time there so it didn’t really matter, but it was a poor way to spend close to £200.
• In contrast to my last trip where I tried to visit too many sites, I resolved to visit only two – Fort Desoto Park and St Pete Beach. Research was thus very thorough, reading up on what the tides were doing, where to park, which locations were best at which times of day. I even picked out the main Skimmer colony from Google Maps satellite view, though in the event no birds remained after the breeding season.

Itinerary

Day 1: A morning at work before a wholly chaotic departure from London Heathrow mid-afternoon, arriving three hours late into Miami and missing my Tampa connection which was the final flight of the evening. These things happen I suppose. BA put me up in a hotel overnight, and AA rebooked me onto the first flight in the morning – the benefits of being a frequent flyer but irritating as I missed out on a sunrise.
Day 2: Early arrival into Tampa, picked up my car and was in Fort Desoto Park by half nine. I spent all morning and early afternoon here, and then investigated St Pete Beach in the afternoon.
Day 3: Early morning at St Pete Beach, an exploratory drive to Clearwater, Largo and Seminole. Afternoon and evening at Fort Desoto Park.
Day 4: All morning at Fort Desoto Park, early afternoon around Old Tampa Bay, and then an afternoon flight to Miami. Miami to London overnight and straight to work.

Main Sites I went to

Fort Desoto Park - a fantastic peninsula for birds reached by some toll bridges. Multiple beaches that face all directions, so great at all times of day, tidal pools, scrub and mangrove. Shell Key Preserve just to the north ensures plenty of birds, as does a roped-off sanctuary area on the western edge. There is a $5 park entrance fee.

St Pete Beach – this is a stretch of white sand that stretches for miles, from Fort Desoto in the South to Clearwater in the north. I spent most time near Indian Shores.
Old Tampa Bay - various boat ramps around the bay seemed to attract waders, gulls, egrets and other birds.

Day by day account

Day 2
Day 1 was all about either work or travelling. I dislike work and I like travelling, but nonetheless let’s skip straight to day 2 and birds. I arrived at Tampa at 8am, and had completed the 40 minute drive to Fort Desoto Park by about 9.15am. Florida was experiencing some rather unseasonal weather, and rather than temperatures in the 80’s and bright sunshine, it was more like high 60’s, with a stiff breeze blowing and overcast skies. This turned out to a blessing in disguise, and meant I could happily take photographs all day long, albeit that I missed out on the soft golden light that Florida is so famed for. After paying my $5 at the entrance booths, I checked out East Beach but this was busy with kite surfers so I went straight to North Beach, parking at the far end. Here I had a good encounter with some Palm Warblers in the mangroves at the shoreline, as well as a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher. Waders on the beach included Willet, Grey Plover and Sanderling, however most birds were concentrated on some sandbars offshore – huge swirling masses that I couldn’t get to! Green Heron and various Egrets stalked some inland pools, and an American Herring Gull played with a crab. Being a weekend, the numbers of beach users soon began to build up, but there were plenty of inland areas that I could bird happily. Eastern Phoebe and Mourning Dove were the commonest birds, whilst Ospreys and Black Vultures soared overhead, and there was constant traffic in the form of Royal and Sandwich Terns. I was very happy, but as with most first mornings, the photography was a slight disappointment. I guess I am somebody who just needs a bit of time to get into it.

Palm Warbler

In the early afternoon I drove to St Pete Beach, to somewhere between North Redington and Indian Shores. There were loads of tame birds around the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary – this is a hospital that takes in and recuperates injured birds, but due to the amount of food around there are a lot of hangers on. Maybe they’re there to visit friends, maybe they spent some time there themselves? Whatever, if you want to see Wood Storks and Great Egrets wandering around, copious quantities of Night Heron etc, then this is a place to visit for sure. The best photographic opportunities are on the beach outside the Sanctuary, where you can see the Pelicans coming in to land on the aviary roof. On my visit there was also a fantastic Cooper’s Hawk perched on a wooden pole nearby. 

Cooper's Hawk

On the beach itself there were plenty of the usual suspects – Laughing Gulls, Royal, Sandwich and Forster’s Tern, and lots of waders. In the afternoon with the light coming in off the sea, I had to resort to a bit of wading myself to get the right angle, but it is very shallow, and in any event it was still cloudy. Of course there were lots of people swimming, using the beach, out for a stroll and so on, but very few of them flushed anything – in most cases they walked right past and the loafing birds barely moved. Gradually people started moving away, and this resulted in more birds dropping in on the beach, including an American Oystercatcher, a bird I had missed last time. Finally the sun went low enough to undercut the cloud layer, and so I finally got some decent light and spent a good 20 minutes with this one bird which was quite wary by Florida standards. I resolved to come back in the morning when the sun would be coming from the land side.

I finally checked into my hotel who had of course been expecting me the previous evening, and went and had a couple of beers on the beach before going to a roadside bar for dinner and live music. Despite the “mission” aspect of it, this was still a holiday.

Day 3
Back on St Pete Beach at exactly the same place as the previous day, and most of the same birds were still there! Overcast again, and although somewhat of a repeat of what I’d already done I had a couple of different ideas and spent some time trying to make them work. Particularly appealing was a juvenile Royal Tern constantly begging from a parent that had no food. I spent a happy few hours here, rarely going a hundred metres either side of the pier here. I’d lie down and photograph Terns and Waders, and then when a Brown Pelican came in range, quickly stand up, change the settings and try for a few flight or diving shots. 

A quick sandwich lunch and then I drove the length of St Pete Beach looking for different opportunities. Due to the amount of residential buildings it’s very difficult to find places to actually get to the beach, but there are a few public carparks along the way. I pootled all the way to Sand Key Park and beyond, but there was nothing doing during the middle of the day. Retracing my steps I spent the early afternoon driving around the interior looking for suitable habitat, but the short answer is that it’s either exceedingly built up or that you need a boat. I found a friendly female Anhinga on a public golf course, but other than that I barely took a photograph. So, back to Fort Desoto Park.

I tried a different area at the south end of North Beach, and this was fantastic. There are some saline pools, and beyond this the beach is roped off – and this is where all the birds are! The ropes are there not only for the breeding season, but also to provide the birds some respite from the constant human activity. There were thousands of them in tight flocks – no good for photography but great birding. Happily there is a bit of overspill, and it was here that I found one of my top target, Black Skimmer. A lone bird in with Laughing Gulls, and unfortunately right in the middle! They’re enormous, like a giant Tern with an even more outsized beak. Miracle of miracles this single bird was progressively joined by more and more birds, giving me some brief flight opportunities, and then developed into a decent sized flock on the beach. Again I had to wade to get the best of the light, but managed to isolate some individual birds – very happy. And then the inevitable happened and a kid flushed them, whereupon they all took off and went some distance back over the rope and into the sanctuary area. Still, it had been good while it lasted and I knew where I would be the following morning.

Black Skimmer

I spent the final part of the day investigating the fishing pier and the scrub behind it, and unfortunately managed to lie on a fire ant nest whilst photographing some Phoebes. For very small ants they really pack a punch, and being social animals they cunningly all got into position before HRH Number One Ant issued the bite command, whereupon they all got stuck in simultaneously. Agony, like being poked by a thousand needles. Legs, arms, back of the neck, thumb, ears. I sprang up, dropped the camera and vigourously started slapping at myself but it was too late….. I read later that these mass attacks can be bad enough to require steroid injections, so I was pleased to more or less get away with it, though some of the bites persisted for two weeks. I didn’t get any photos of the Phoebes and didn’t try again!

Day 4
I had until at least midday before needing to return to Tampa, and finally the day dawned bright and clear, and I got the light I had been wanting. I was at the same spot at sunrise and photographing a Reddish Egret fishing on the saline pools. Wonderful birds, and exactly as per the last trip to see them fishing is superb – dancing, jinking, running, waggling. Comical but amazingly effective in the shallow water. There were Egrets and Herons everywhere, but the Osprey I attempted to stalk was having none of it. No Skimmers this morning, and rather disappointingly two metal detectorists were systematically working the beach exactly where they had been yesterday, no doubt hoping to find all the jewellery lost at the by the weekend visitors. They happily stepped right over the rope and carried straight on into the bird sanctuary, pushing everything with them….Grrrr. A few birds remained however, and in the lovely warm light I made the most of it. Best of all was a white morph Reddish Egret. By 10am the light was really harsh, and I reverted to birding mode. Although the prior days had seen no nice light at all, the benefits of a cloud layer were now very apparent – I had in reality been very fortunate.

Hard to believe that these two are the same species! Reddish Egret!

All too soon it was time to leave, and as is typical for my flying visits I was late already. Just enough time to photograph a male Anhinga on the shores of Old Tampa Bay, and then I packed up, got rid of as much sand as possible, and headed to Tampa airport for my flight to Miami. A long layover in Miami stocking up on beer and deleting upwards of a thousand duff images, and it was onwards to London on the upper deck of the flying whale. All in all a decent and very productive trip, once again in rather compressed timescales, but it only required a day and a half off work.

A weekend in Florida - part 1

Logistics

·        A three day trip in late March (28^th – 30^th) with the sole aim of photographing extremely tame Herons, Egrets and Waders, as well as taking in a bit of early migration. I had wanted to go to Florida for a long time, as I greatly admire the bird photography of Arthur Morris, and this is his patch so to speak. I wasn't disappointed, and I now see in part why his photos are so spectacular. It was however rather busy as I had not realised it was Spring Break in the US, which meant that the population of every State east of the Rockies and north of Georgia had gotten in their cars and driven to Florida....

·        An extremely complex and stupid routing whereby I took nine flights when I could have taken just two in order to benefit from a sale fare out of Dublin. I quite like flying, but still. It also gave me an afternoon in NYC to see a suite of different birds, followed by an overnight flight back to London City Airport and straight into work. Zero jet-lag at any point, which was a bit of a result.

·        Car hire via Avis was a lovely Ford Fusion, very comfy and a nice big back seat for me to sleep on.

·        I did skimp on the hotels somewhat, with just one night booked on the Saturday at Estero Beach. Good thing I had booked as it was rammo everywhere. On Friday and Sunday nights I just slept in the car wherever I was, and showered in the various airports I visited.
·      Used my phone for navigation but this wasn't necessary really, everything was well signed.

·        Research was fairly brief due to lack of time, but as it was just me that didn't really matter. I used Artie's SW Florida site guide, and followed my nose. There were birds everywhere.

Laughing Gull at Estero Beach

Itinerary

Day 1: Flight arrived at Miami via NY at about 11pm, and I was on the road very quickly. I slept in the Everglades for a few hours and was at Ding Darling Reserve on Sanibel Island for dawn and spent the morning there. Midday at Blind Pass Beach, the afternoon at Sanibel Fishing Pier, and then the late afternoon session at Little Estero Lagoon.

Day 2: Dawn and all morning at Little Estero, Cape Coral in the afternoon, and Placida for the rest of the day.

Day 3: Early morning flight from Orlando to NY via Miami gave me four hours in Central Park, and an opportunity to buy some new clothes as most of mine are falling apart.

Main Sites I went to

Ding Darling NWR - a fantastic wetland reserve, though not that good for photography as many of the birds were too far out. You drive a one-way loop, stopping as you like.

Blind Pass Beach - between Sanibel and Capitiva, good for roosting waders though my timing was poor.

Sanibel Fishing Pier- incredibly tame Egrets hang around waiting for handouts. Good migrant scrub.

Little Estero Lagoon - a series of lagoons between Fort Myers Beach and the strip of hotels, fabulously tame birds.

Estero Beach - plenty of roosting waders

Cape Coral - Burrowing Owls!

Placida Fish Restaurant - Ospreys and Pelicans, with plenty of decent scrub to find migrants in.

American White Ibis

Day by day account

Day 1
After sleeping in the Everglades and a decent breakfast at all-night diner near Fort Myers, I found myself at the gates of the fabled J.N. "Ding" Darling  National Wildlife Refuge. This is a place that I have known about for many years, but never had the opportunity to go. To say I was excited doesn't do the word justice. It doesn't open until 7.30am (and be aware it's closed on Fridays), but I was first in the queue and that's about the time it gets light anyway so not a problem. Once the gates opened it's simply a question of paying your $5 and then walking or driving the four mile loop trail. Being in America, I chose to drive it, as did almost everyone. There are huge pools each side, and they were teeming with birds. Willet, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Pelicans, the list goes on and on. Not a great deal was close enough in for the camera but I didn't care. It was fabulous, and supposedly is a shadow of its former glory. All I can say is "wow", it was phenomenal. For starters it was teeming with fish, jumping out of the water, flurries, shoals - the Egrets were having a field day. Bigger fish too, Ospreys catching enormous great things with ease. It was just first class habitat. The Spoonbills were sadly right at the back, and indeed although I saw several birds over the weekend, they were always the furthest away. I'll have to go back - shame.

Tricolored Heron

I drove the loop a few times, seeing new birds each time, including a decent selection of Warblers - Parula, Black and White, and Palm. A pole nest had an Osprey with nearly fully-grown young, and overhead an Anhinga zipped past. Gradually it became busier, and once it had got to the point where I had to identify birds for groups of geriatric US birders it was time to move on. I left the loop for the final time and turned off to the right, towards Captiva. I stopped at Blind Pass beach, which is where Sanibel joins Captiva, and spent literally 45 minutes getting parked - the place was heaving. I knew, as I finally headed off down the beach, that it wasn't going to be great and so it proved. Way too many people - I found three Willet, all of which were repeatedly flushed to buggery by all manner of human activity, and try as I might there was no spot on the beach which was empty. So much for my Skimmers and Terns, so I headed back to the car and back towards the Sanibel Lighthouse.

Once again it was nearly impossible to get parked, and the place was rammed. The fishing pier did have the incredibly tame Egrets that I had heard about, but with so many people around I wasn't feeling the love so I just did a bit of casual birding - the usual fare really, though a Frigatebird was pretty cool, and the only one I saw all weekend, as was a Lesser Black-backed Gull.

I got stuck in a huge jam on the way back to Estero/Fort Myers Beach, my base for the evening, but eventually found Little Estero Lagoon. A gem of a place, a bit mucky, but with the muck and the slime came fewer people - hurrah! More incredibly tame birds, including a Reddish Egret, a bird I'd been hoping to see for its amazingly fishing style, a skipping, dancing, hopping chase through the shallows. None of this slow stalking, it was all that and more, incredible, and the photos don't do it justice. There was a Palm Warbler sat on the sand, and I did a bit of wader photography on the beach that was so enjoyable I decided that I would start here again tomorrow. The other choice had been the Venice Rookery, but that was nearly a two hour drive and after my back seat slumber I needed some proper rest. 

A welcome shower, dinner at a great seafood grill, a couple of beers and a good old-fashioned deleting session saw the evening out. Camera ready by the door, what would the next day bring?