florida – Page 3 – Birding Boomers

Florida Plan – Strictly For The Birds

April 4, 2015joannie65352 Comments

We had a plan….a good plan…..a well thought out plan to take us through southern Florida and some of the best birding ever and all in 30 days (more or less). Well, I thought it was a good plan and I had done considerable research and had created a nice short eleven page listing of places to see with links and directions and notes and big plans to see every single place on the list. It was to be the best trip ever with birding extraordinaire and all in a place where it was warm and it wasn’t snowing and there were no ice storms or winter weather warnings and, more importantly, no signs that read, “Bridges Freeze Before Roadways”. HA! There would be no bridge freezing at all – we were just not going to have any of that in the Sunshine State. End of story – just sunshine and birds and maybe some fishing. Because you see, I HAD A PLAN.

I know you’re thinking about my last blog (Snowbirds Test Flight) and how the best laid plans get all hosed up in the implementation stage. Well, you’re wrong. The plan worked marvelously. We spent a glorious thirty-four days (longest vacation ever) doing exactly what we set out to do.

I mentioned my list. It was a bit optimistic but it was a good starting point. It wasn’t our first trip to Florida so we had an idea about the lay of the land (very flat) and the type of birds we’d be seeing (lots of Herons and Egrets and Hawks and Ibises and Pelicans) and a few rare birds that we wanted to see (Kites and Burrowing Owls and Scrub Jays). We knew the Auto Train would drop us in Sanford so we planned to travel first up the road to Deland and visit an uncle who would show us around while trying to convince us mightily that we should pack up and move to Deland. It is always good to find someone who is excited about where they live and who loves to show you the sights around town.

Our plan was to go from there straight to the east coast and the Atlantic and, more specifically, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We’d been once before in summer but we’d heard the best birding is in winter so we were going back. From there we would head down the east coast and bird the areas around the main corridors of Route 1 (yep, the same one that begins and Maine and ends in Key West) and Interstate 95. We would head down to Miami and then work our way across Florida on the Tamiami Trail. Once on the west coast, we’d hit the highs around Fort Myers and then head north. We’d incorporate a visit with friends at Bradenton for the fishing part….at least for my better half. I have found that he will do a tremendous amount of birding day in and day out if he knows there is fishing somewhere in the mix. Then we’d continue north along the Gulf Coast up past Tampa (with a short visit with my sister thrown in) to Crystal Springs and then over to Ocala to visit an aunt. Finally, we’d bird our way back to Sanford and catch the train back home. I had taken to calling this “the loop” since a look at a map of Florida shows us looping our way through the southern part of the state and ending up in Sanford right back where we started.

And, pretty much, that is exactly what we did. The first part of the plan went very well except for the part about finding that hotel rooms wouldn’t be as easy to find as we’d thought (as I explained in my last blog). The only real changes to the plan came on the Gulf Coast part of the loop. My sister’s move to Tampa was delayed and then our aunt called to say that she would be out of town taking care of some unexpected business so we ended up bypassing Tampa and rethinking our plans for Ocala. So, we ended up in the lake district outside Orlando. I know you’re thinking, “Orlando…Disneyworld…kids…..traffic…Yikes!” but Orlando is actually more than Disneyworld and turned out to be good for birding and good for just plain roaming around checking things out in the central part of the state. Besides, what’s wrong with Disney except for all that traffic near the park?

All in all, we visited 53 parks and refuges and preserves that I counted specifically…..some parks were little more than community recreational ball fields with minimal birding opportunities so I didn’t really count them. I had used the Great Florida Birding Trail and eBird to plan many of the sites on my list. Otherwise, we discovered we liked the Florida State Parks which had apparently been voted the best in the United States in the past by some authority or another. We bought an annual pass and checked out their nifty guide to state parks and started incorporating the parks into our trip. We also found that there are quite a few county and local parks that have pretty good walking and hiking trails. Since water is pretty much everywhere, even in the dry season, there are apt to be birds everywhere. I do have to mention that the birds are not all huddled up in one spot just waiting for you though. They are spread out all over the state so you do have to go out looking for them…and they can be darned hard to find sometimes!

Now, having said that, I have to say that Florida is about the best state that I have visited for birding and hiking if you are older or have arthritis or not in the best of health or physical shape. Many of the refuges and preserves have extensive boardwalks through the wetlands and excellent nature centers. There are regularly scheduled activities for all age groups throughout the year. In the bigger parks, most of the boardwalks are fully accessible and walking trails are paved. I was amazed at how many of the parks included some sort of boardwalk or observation deck that accommodated wheelchairs and walkers. There are, of course, wilder areas with unpaved paths and rustic facilities (those dreaded porta-potties) for those who swear that you can only enjoy wildlife if you are hot and sweaty, plagued by mosquitos, ants, and bees, and you have to hike over rough trails for miles on sore feet. But I like my creature comforts so I was pleasantly surprised at how many good birding sites were also great parks in general that can be very easily enjoyed by all ages no matter what shape you are in.

I was also impressed by the Florida water management practices and how many wetlands are water treatment facilities that are set up with boardwalks and walking paths or that allow you to drive through the impounds. It seems birds like water and really like water that smells quite yukky because we saw lots of birds in the impoundments at water treatment facilities and we got great opportunities to bird while breathing very carefully through our mouths and not directly through our noses. Notwithstanding the smell, I do wish more states would consider driving and walking trails through treatment facilities or, I suppose, landfills too. But, then again, maybe it is only birders who would visit such places.

But I digress (how unusual is that?). Back to the plan and the birds, I recorded 112 species on eBird with 15 lifebirds on more than 70 checklists. Of these 15 lifebirds, there were 5 that we had seen before so technically weren’t lifebirds for us….they just hadn’t ever been recorded by us on eBird before. To add 10 new lifebirds on any trip was big and we were quite pleased with these results. As noted, there were plenty Egrets, Herons, and Pelicans but, as we meandered, we seemed to be birding more inland sites away from the shoreline so we really didn’t record very many shorebirds. There were gulls a plenty everywhere we went but they were mostly Laughing Gulls so we didn’t really see many rarities in terms of gulls or shorebirds. I did hear a non-birder refer to a Swallow-Tailed Kite as a Frigate bird but it really wasn’t and we were not really anywhere near where we might actually see Frigate birds (too far inland) although it would have been nice…but it wasn’t… so no bingo there…..although I found myself wondering if he went home and told everyone about the Magnificent Frigate Bird he spotted in the northern part of the Everglades. I know I would be.

The most birds at any one site were spotted at Merritt National Wildlife Refuge. The least birds we saw at any one site had to be at Seminole Collier State Park (but that was just a drive through so who can say how many birds we might have tallied had we gotten out and walked the trails?) The most crowded place (in terms of people not birds) we birded was at Green Cay Nature Center & Wetlands – who knew so many just plain tourists would want to walk the boardwalk through the wetlands? I have to admit that Green Cay was also one of the nicest birding venues we visited so I can totally understand all those people taking a weekend stroll through the preserve.

On the other hand, the most crowded place we went to and almost birded was Wakodahatchee Wetlands. We went twice and could not even get into the place. The first time, we couldn’t even turn into the parking lot from the main road. The second time we made it into the parking lot but there was a line queued up getting to the boardwalk. A LINE!! Can you imagine waiting to get onto a boardwalk to go birding? Just unbelievable! We didn’t stay. We put Wakodahatchee on the list for next time with a note to go at odd hours on weekdays.

The least crowded place we visited was the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. No, we didn’t see any panthers and we didn’t see many birds. There were wildflowers and it was very peaceful and quiet but very empty, or at least to me, it appeared that way. We were the only visitors when we arrived so headed out on a looping trail. We were about a quarter mile into the refuge when we stopped at an observation platform to check out some wildflowers when a young couple walked up behind us and just about scared the socks right off of me. They went on ahead of us but then turned back after a bit so, for the most part, we were left alone on the trail. We never saw another person during the remainder of our two hour walk until we arrived back at the parking lot where we found a young couple with car trouble waiting for roadside assistance and another photographer/birder who quickly disappeared down a trail. We checked to make sure the young couple was okay and then headed out on our way.

I suppose one might wonder where we saw the “best birds”. It’s an impossible question to answer for me, or, perhaps, for any birder. A friend once asked me what my favorite bird was. I thought about this for several minutes ticking through a mental list of scores of birds we’ve seen over the past few years and the only answer I could come up with was, that my favorite bird is the one I’m looking at right now…at any given moment. Every bird is beautiful – yes, even the vulture – and fascinating in its own way. Every memory of birds we’ve seen is just as nice as the others. I suppose some stand out but then, once I think of another, that one gets my attention and is great too. I just cannot pick one that I like more than the others. I’ve tried. I just cannot pick a favorite bird.

I will certainly tell you more about the places we visited in blogs to come. Suffice to say, our plan worked, we had great birding and we would do it again in a heartbeat. Besides, I’ve updated my list and there are still plenty of places to go in Florida….and there’s Wakodahatchee to get back to at some point. As long as birds have wings, we’ll probably be out there, binoculars in hand trying to find them.

Snowbirds Test Flight 2015

March 21, 2015joannie65357 Comments

I sit here gazing out the window watching the wet snow drift down softly covering what few spring flowers might have been brave enough to poke little green shoots up through the cold hard soil in my flower beds. My mind drifts back to the balmy breezes and warm sunshine of Florida where we were just one short week ago. A lot can happen in seven days. We thought we came home to spring but, alas, there is a just a bit of winter yet. It’s not quite blackberry winter but close enough for me and too cold and snowy altogether. I’m thinking we came back from Florida way too soon.

Our plan this year was to do a “test flight” and see how we would like joining the ranks of the snowbirds who flee the cold northeast just about the same time that real birds make their southern migration and much for the same reason – to get out of the cold and spend the winter someplace where it is warmer and, yes, drier. Years ago, I recall thinking how quaint it was that my older friends and neighbors just couldn’t wait to head south for the winter. Let’s get through Christmas (if that) and let’s hit the road. I would think, “What???!!! Leave and have no chance to see the beauty of snow falling silently in the yard covering the flower beds allowing the azaleas and hydrangeas and dogwood to sleep through the winter months in their blankets of white?” Why, perish the thought.

But that was then and this is now.

The years have taken away some of my innocent views about snow and I’ve become a little jaded by the thought of shoveling all that snow and how nasty it gets after being plowed up off of dirty streets leaving a brown/black berm running along the highways and surrounding all the parking lots….not to mention limiting the number of parking spaces available at the grocery stores where you rush to buy milk, bread, and toilet paper before the next snow starts. I still love snow but the aftermath can be a mess. Talk about yin and yang, roses and thorns, clouds and silver linings, snow has it all….great beauty and terrible ugliness.

Add to this the siren call of the Sunshine State and we were queuing up with every other retired person and heading south. Last year we took our first trip to Florida on the Amtrak Auto Train and I wrote about the experience here. We only stayed in Florida for two weeks last year but this year decided we’d need a full month for our test flight. If everything worked out, then we’d know whether or not we could join the ranks of the others each winter and schlep out the cold months in a place where we could find warmth and sunshine. So we did some figuring and cyphering and budgeting and decided that we would take the auto train again and our test month would be February. A few reservations and we were ready to go. We left Annapolis on a relatively warm (for winter) day in February, had a marvelous time touring southern Florida, and came back on a nice (for winter) day in March. Here’s what we learned:

First and foremost – we absolutely loved spending the month of February in Florida. The only problem we had was in coming back a little too soon. We think that next year, we will go for at least two months (Good Lord willing and the numbers crunch out just right).
Our original plan had been to wander around like birding vagabonds going from place to place birding during the day and finding a hotel where ever we happened to be come evening time. This practice had worked on many of our birding trips in the past and had worked splendidly on last year’s Florida trip. Two things caused a problem with this plan in 2015 – snow and a holiday. We just didn’t account for a holiday right smack dab in the middle of the month. Yes, we remembered President’s Day but we sort of forgot how much it means to people who are not retired. We also forgot that this long weekend gets extended by most folks to include Friday and, this year, by a couple of states who tagged on a “teacher work day” on Tuesday. Combine that with Valentine’s Day and nothing but snow in every state north of Georgia (and actually some snow in Georgia) and there is absolutely no reason for anyone not to grab a flight or jump into the car and head south. I kid you not, starting on Thursday evening, February 12^th, we found ourselves searching high and low for a room. We had a couple of moments there where we weren’t quite sure if we’d be able to find a room. When we found a room, we booked it for three nights and then booked a few miles down the road for another two nights to get us through the long weekend. So we liked being vagabonds but we decided that we needed to do just a bit more planning. Always good to know where you’re going to bed down for the night even if you’re free roaming vagabonds.
Along the same lines, we learned that we liked being in a stationary location and having a “home base”, as it were, to come back to in the evenings. We stayed in some of the nicest hotel rooms, and, unfortunately, some showing lots of wear & tear that weren’t so nice. There was one hotel where our room was on the ground floor with outside access right by the ice machine. It was apparently the best place ever for smokers to congregate at all hours of the night so that at any time you awoke during the night, you could hear the rumble of the ice machine along with a smattering of talk just loud enough to be annoying but too low to be entertaining. Although it was short notice, we called a travel service and found a three bedroom condo for just about the same price we would have paid for a hotel room for a week (the room prices increases exponentially when the hotel gets booked up – Economics 101 – supply & demand just like the textbook says). The condo was luxurious compared to hotel rooms. We weren’t so much taken with the view of the golf course(s) in the resort community but we did like the space and the kitchen and the washer/dryer and…..did I say space already? And we were able to visit and bird most parks and preserves within a fifty mile radius with no problems. So we gave up some our vagabond freedom for a little comfort and stability….good trade all in all.
We just do not like navigating in heavy traffic and city neighborhoods so we didn’t delve too deeply into Miami or the surrounding cities. There was great birding west of the city so we were good but we did miss the parrots and parakeets that make their homes nowadays in and around Miami. We will return someday and brave the dangers of the city to see the birds there but we bypassed the city this trip. On the other hand, we found a condo near Orlando for our last week in Florida so did manage to get to downtown Orlando for a little birding and the traffic wasn’t so bad. Two different cities with different characteristics, I suppose.
Daylight Savings Time (DST) totally slipped up on us. You sort of lose track of time when you’re being a vagabond. We were able to keep up with the days (had to know check-in and check-out dates) but sometimes the hours flew by with almost no notice at all. We mapped the next day’s birding (and some other tourist type activities) each evening after supper. There were no hard stops and starts so we just took things as we got to them. It did mean we got to some hotspots at less than optimal birding times but it all worked out okay. When we got tired in the afternoons, we headed back to the condo or hotel room. Each morning we packed the cooler with crackers and cheese and raw vegetables and water/soda….when we got hungry, we ate. In late afternoon or early evening, we’d find a restaurant to eat or we’d fix something at the room. One day began to flow into another relatively quickly so I decided we needed to declare a “rest” day on Sundays. We would catch up on washing clothes and rest and we’d find a church for the morning services. That was working okay until DST caught us. We were heading out to attend a church we’d found online that was supposed to be about five miles away but our GPS kept saying it would take about an hour and a half to get there. We just couldn’t figure out why the GPS arrival time was so late until we realized it was about an hour off our mental calculations. Yes, it was our watches that were wrong and not the GPS. SO, no church that day. And, yes, the calendar on my smart phone did indeed have a reminder to reset my watch to “spring forward” and it did play that annoying little song to let me know I had a reminder….I just didn’t listen, as usual.
Speaking of the trusty GPS. Turns out that Garmin does not really recognize National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) or most Preserves or any parks that do not have a street address. But Google Maps on my smart phone does. So, I ended up using both in combination to get to the NWRs. There were still a few wild places that neither GPS nor Google could find for us but, for the most part, we found them all eventually. In 2014, we had started adding Florida State Parks to our birding venues and were delighted at how nice some of the parks were. We continued to visit state parks on this trip and were not disappointed. Let me add that, in the planning stages each evening, I found Bing Maps to be very helpful. Since I did not know Florida very well, I did not know which places were nearby or which were further away from our base hotel. Bing allowed me to look for directions for different sites showing distances and adding destinations so that I could see how best to lay out the sites to minimize the driving and also save time. I could set up an itinerary on Bing on my computer, note down the best order in which to visit the sites, and then enter the sites in that order on the GPS in the car the next day without having to try to mentally calculate which site to do first while we were on the go. It saved quite a bit of running back and forth and covering the same highway territory getting to new sites as we roamed.
I learned to use eBird to find hotspots and turned on the “Alerts” for Florida so that I got daily updates on where rare birds were being spotted. Using that in conjunction with my list of sites I had compiled using the Florida Birding Trail before our trip was very helpful. And I joined Florida Birds on Facebook. I saw daily postings from birders and photographers from all over the state that helped solidify our plans over the month we were in the state.
We learned that Murphy’s Law will prevail….something will go wrong. There will be times you get lost and the GPS will not seem to know what country you are in let alone what county and state. There will be times you get cranky and aggravated…..nuff said, you get through it. Your car (or train or whatever) will have a problem……it started small with the trusty Scooterbug….the radio stopped working. Just like that, it stopped. First thought was that a fuse was blown so checked that – wasn’t the case so we headed to the dealer where it started again, just like that. It’s like taking a kid to the doctor with a fever…you walk in the door and the fever is gone and the kid is fine. But you get back home and the fever is back. Likewise, the radio stopped again on the way to the hotel. And then the car wouldn’t start at all, but then it did, and so back to the dealer we went. Unfortunately, that particular dealer was swamped so we were directed to another one….you guessed it, deeper into Miami during some of the worst traffic ever. So, the day’s plans were scrapped and we spent the day at the dealership. On the other hand, Mother Nature handed us a small consolation prize….on our way out of town, we stopped at a Burger King and, when we least expected it, we found a life bird – a Common Mynah. Guess it’s like the commercial – getting a new starter – $400 plus and 4 boring hours – finding a life bird – priceless! But Murphy prevails – we still haven’t figured out the radio problem.
Finally, we learned that you cannot do and see everything no matter how well you plan. We took beach and snorkeling gear but never really made it to the beach. But it was good to be prepared just in case. And, when birding, the old lessons come back. Sometimes you just have to find a bench and sit and wait for the birds to find you…..you can walk around forever and never see the birds until they decide to let you. And sometimes when you’re looking for something or some place, you have to drive around a bit and see what else you find. You have to realize that some people build and name roads in crazy ways that totally mess up your GPS so having a paper map for back-up is always good. Sometimes the best things (like our mynah bird) are found quite by accident when you’re on the way to something else. Guess the poet, Robert Burns, was correct in saying –

“The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!”

* Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785) Scottish national poet (1759 – 1796)

Will we do it again? Absolutely! I am already planning next year’s winter trip to Florida…or, maybe, Belize or, maybe Panama, or maybe Texas, or maybe Arizona. Good birds there too and lots of sunshine and heat….at least, that’s what I hear.