Florida Trip Summary some Alabama & Mississippi
Stuart Healy, January 22 - February 3, 2009
Trip Log (journal entries)	Trip Species List	Trip Photo List (links)

This isn't your father's Oldsmobile. Huh? What I mean is that, compared to most birder's trips to Florida, this was an unorthodox trip. Some time ago I set myself the arbitrary goal of photographing 500 species in the U.S. and my main objective for the trip was to photograph 20 new species to reach that milestone. Man cannot live just by tracking the arrival and departure dates of Buff-breasted Flycatchers and Spotted Owl roost sites. In essence then, this was a photo trip and finding lifers was secondary. My expectation was to see 4 new species. Although I'd spent two weeks in Florida in a previous life, I had not done any birding in the state so I thought that both targets were moderate and achievable. 

Geographically, my focus was also different than the areas that most out-of-state birders would choose. I wanted to see the Panhandle and the northern part of the state and to minimize my time in the highly populated areas. Having spent a week each in Miami and Orlando, I had zero desire to return. Initially, I'd planned to do this trip back in December as a driving trip taking three weeks. I was forced to delay and ended up with only two weeks. I decided to fly into New Orleans to make the Panhandle access easy.

From January 22 through February 3, I traveled a total of 2982 miles round trip from New Orleans (2562 miles in Florida). My route in Florida was from Pensacola down the Panhandle coast to St. Marks then over to Gainesville; inland in the central peninsula; down the Gulf coast as far as Fort Myers; inland again south of Orlando; over to the Atlantic coast at Daytona Beach; inland again to Ocala National Forest, a final trip to the Gulf Coast at Cedar Key; then north to Tallahassee back in the Panhandle. I also birded a little in Alabama and Mississippi. Before leaving home, I signed up for a pelagic trip (part of the Space Coast Birding Festival). However, a late change of vessel and departure point prompted me to cancel this venture. 

Areas that I decided to skip (due to lack of time and various other reasons) were the central & southern Atlantic coast and the Keys. Specific locations that I decided to skip were Everglades National Park, Merritt Island NWR and Sanibel Island.

By using the links above, you can find day to day details of the trip (in my journal); see the the overall trip list; and view the bird photos that I took from the links in the photo list. There are a couple of larger images best viewed from the species list or "View by Date". Comments and questions welcome.

Trip Planning
For general planning, I used ABA's "A Birder's Guide to Florida" by Bill Pranty. Although I already owned the 1996 edition, I purchased the 2005 5th edition to make sure that I had the most up to date info. Birdfinding information is divided into 5 major sections (Panhandle; Northern, Central & Southern Peninsula; and Florida Keys). Birdfinding coverage is consistent for the areas that I visited and there's plenty of other useful info. Obviously, the book is indispensable. My only real complaint is that the species accounts only include those species for which the author considers are of interest to visiting birders. This is an all too familiar theme and very few birdfinding guides provide accounts for all species that occur within the scope of the guide's coverage. Author's take note!  Tucson Audubon's "Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona" is a notable exception that contains species accounts for all species.

I also made extensive use of the internet, mostly to view the various Florida birding lists but also to obtain maps, directions and checklists for specific locations that I intended to visit. I also used the Great Florida Birding Trail website and picked up the print publications when I arrived. There are separate, excellent booklets roughly corresponding to the same areas as the Pranty book. The birding trail has many small locations that are not covered in the ABA guide and I recommend that you make use of this information if you plan to visit Florida.

Impressions of Florida
With this trip to Florida, I've now birded in the "big 5" birding locations -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. In terms of official birding awareness and support for birders, Florida is superior in my opinion. The Florida state park system, birding trail documentation and general recognition of, and help for, birders is the best that I've come across. Although Texas has good focus in the RGV, Florida's consistent state wide coverage is definitely better than Texas (and without the ostentatiously named "World Birding Center" to boot); and makes the efforts of AZ seem woefully inadequate. CA and AK are way behind.

I tried to avoid major cities and those that I visited I didn't care for at all, especially Pensacola and Tampa-St Petersburg. Tallahassee and Fort Myers were far more tolerable. Then again, this is perhaps more a reflection of my own dislike of cities rather than anything specific to Florida. I much preferred the northern and central forested areas although a few of the coastal areas were also quite pleasant.

I really enjoyed my visit to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, southeast of Fort Myers, despite the fact that this was the worst weather day of my trip. I'm not much of a fan of boardwalks but the extensive boardwalk through the Cypress forest and swamp is very well built and much can be seen from it. Other excellent birding areas that I particularly liked included St. Marks NWR on the coast south of Tallahassee; Paynes Prairie State Park south of Gainesville; Myakka River and Oscar Scherer State Parks near Sarasota; and Bunche Beach Preserve in Fort Myers. Although not a bona fide birding location, I also enjoyed my visit to Venetian Gardens in Leesburg (an excellent spot for photographing a number of water birds).

Weather
I saw quite a variation in the weather over the two weeks. Conditions ranged from sunny and warm to cloudy, cool and wet. Generally, coastal locations were always breezy, at least for part of each day. I saw a temperature range of 29 degrees in Ocala National Forest to 85 degrees in a couple of locations. Bugs were not a problem. Photographically, 6 of my 13 fields days were ruined by cloudy and/or wet conditions. Unfortunately, half of those days were in key locations.

Vehicle
I wanted fuel economy as well as enough room for all my stuff. In particular, I wanted easy access to photo equipment. As a compromise, I decided to rent a compact SUV. When I reached the Alamo lot around midnight, I had the choice of several vehicles and chose a Chevy HHR. The vehicle looked a little funky and after driving it for a few minutes in the dark I thought that I'd made a major mistake. However, the vehicle worked out really well and I was pleased with my choice.

With the rear seats folded down, I was easily able to stow two fully extended tripods flat (with camera and scope attached) to make them available for immediate use. I still had plenty of room for my other photo equipment and luggage.

Performance and economy were more than adequate. I averaged 30mpg for the trip. Acceleration was very good and the vehicle was as smooth as a baby's bum when cruising at interstate speeds. The electronics package was good with various useful displays. Particularly good were individual readouts of tire pressure for each tire (most vehicles just have a low pressure indicator and don't even tell you which tire). The only negative that I found was an annoying noise (from somewhere in the drive train) at low speed. Obviously, I don't know if this is a model design problem or just this vehicle (14,300 miles on the clock when I picked up the vehicle).

My results
I achieved both of my objectives so I'd have to say the trip was a success. In terms of life birds, I saw the four species that I hoped and expected to see -- Florida Scrub-Jay (easily seen at Oscar Scherer State Park); Glossy Ibis and Limpkin (both seen at Myakka River State Park); and Snail Kite (seen at East Lake Toho in Saint Cloud). All species were seen without any real difficulty or significant effort (the kite took the most time). I was quite surprised to find only one Glossy Ibis throughout the entire trip since it is listed as a common resident at several locations that I visited.

Had I been interested in Budgies, Bulbuls and the like (and been motivated to travel further south), it's likely that I would have found a few more lifers (including White-crowned Pigeon and Smooth-billed Ani), even in winter.

I recorded a total of 148 species on my route. Easy-to-see and widespread species in appropriate habitat included the following:
Brown Pelican, Anhinga, Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Black-bellied & Wilson's Plover; Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin, Ring-billed & Laughing Gulls; Royal & Forster's Terns; Black-skimmer, Red-bellied & Pileated Woodpeckers; Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Blue Jay, Fish Crow, Pine & Palm Warblers; Northern Cardinal and Boat-tailed Grackle.

Although I managed to reach my photographic target, overall I was quite dissatisfied with the quality of many of the images that I obtained. The weather played a part and I had to contend with several cloudy days and a couple of wet days. My own shortcomings in photographic techniques and even the basics also contributed. For example, I have some great shots with wings or feet out of the frame. When I shoot in a hurry, I often forget to recompose the image after focusing. Dumb!  Also, when it comes to photo firsts, I generally succumb to accepting images of inferior quality (below my normal minimum publishing standards). Generally, this is because I'm too far from the bird and beyond the limit of the equipment (for example, White-winged Scoter and Glossy Ibis fall into this category).

Before leaving home, I'd identified American Oystercatcher, Purple Gallinule and Rusty Blackbird as the species that I'd most like to photograph. Purple Gallinule wasn't a problem but I dipped completely on the Oystercatcher. Although they were relatively easy to find at several locations, I could never get close enough to the birds. I never found time to look for Rusty Blackbird.

Looking at the numbers, I shot 2700+ images (30Gb+) from which I published 76. I photographed 51 species, 26 of which were photo firsts bringing my total to 506 in the U.S. Using a five tier scale I'd have to rate the 76 images as follows: excellent (0), very good (10), good (23), fair (31), poor (12).

Here's the breakdown in terms of the equipment that I used for those interested in such matters. The numbers are images shot with images published in parentheses. I always used a tripod with the 400mm lens (IS disabled); everything else hand-held.