Best Locations for bird photography

What are your 10 favorite places in North America for bird photography? Please include best time of year.

I can't count to ten while typing on this thing as I need both hands to type. But try Death Valley.

There is little doubt that Florida, or various locations in Florida, has to be on this list: the Everglades, Sanible Island, Venice Rookery, etc. Every time you go there, you see a lot of people with 600mm/f4 lenses; that says a lot. :-)

 

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The new book by Arthur Morris recommands quite a few locations. One place he suggests is the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City. I went there for the first time this past Sunday. I saw a lot of Canada geese and swans; otherwise, I was quite disappointed.

There are two many places to list, really. Out here in the West, Malheur NWR in spring, the Klamath and Tule refuges in winter, Bear River NWR much of the time, SE Arizona anytime, the Pacific Coast during shorebird migration, on and on and on.

 

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If I only had ten favorite, I'd do something else with my time...

 

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Shun: did Arthur Morris say *when* he finds Jamaica Bay to be "birdy"? Mid-summer's usually pretty dead at the duck farms, the kids are pretty much grown, the males are getting into eclipse plumage in preparation for molting new flight feathers and will be hiding out, songbirds aren't singing as much as two months ago, etc etc. It may also be a refuge known as being a migratory stopover for waterfowl, in which case spring and fall will be best.

Many of the obvious have already been mention, but I will include a few more. THE BEST I have experience was the Pribilof Island Alaska. I use to do research on Thick Billed Murres on St. George (one of the 3 Pribilof's) in the Berring Sea. Unfortunately for me, I was not a photographer then. As a result, I missed endless opportunities to photograph Thick Billed & common Murres, 4 species of Auklets, 2 species of Puffins, Albatross, King Eiders, Petrels, Fulmars, Cormorants, all during breading season (ouch!!!) Over a million birds reproduce on St. George each summer. The best time to go is early to mid July. While your there, you can photograph breeding fur seals, grey phase arctic fox, snowy owls, and an island heard of Carribou.

 

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Today I live and work as a science teacher/nature photographer in Minnesota. Northern MN is one of the best places to photograph Northern Owls. The Best time and place is Mid January of a Cold Year (no joke!) at the Sack-sim bog west of Duluth. Here you can photograph Great Grey and Hawk Owls.

 

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regards

bruce

I don't have Arthur Morris' book in front of me right now, but I did check that section on Jamaica Bay before we went. Morris talks about versious species to photograph there during the spring, summer and fall. Fall is probably the better time to go and my Sunday trip was mainly for scouting purposes, but I was a bit disappointed. Driving around New York City wasn't fun either. However, we do plan to go again in the fall. Perhaps it was just a bad day for me; it certainly isn't conclusive.

 

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For those who aren't familiar with Arthur Morris, he is from New York and was a school teachter there for over 20 years before doing bird photography full time. In his early days as a bird photographer he frequently went to Jamaica Bay. He now lives in Florida but still speaks with a heavy New York accent.

Artie goes to Jamaica Bay primarily for shorebirds. Mid-July is still a bit early for fall migrants, but some should already be around. August and Sept. would be better.

 

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My 10 favorite spots. Well, I haven't really travelled across the country, but SW Florida in Feb. was the best place for burning film on birds that I've ever been to. Little Estero Lagoon, Sanibel, and the Venice Rookery were all good for large wading birds, but Litle Estero Lagoon was spectacular for shorebirds.

 

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Churchill, Manitoba in June can't be beat for a birding/photography adventure. The 4 habitat types (Hudson Bay coast, tundra, muskegs, and boreal forest) will keep your binoculars and all camera lenses very busy. At least 2 weeks should be spent there for a photography visit, since good light can be scarce. Great birding as well as scenic and macro photo-ops there.

 

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Since I live in Ohio, here are my favorite bird photography places here :

 

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1- Magee Marsh State Wildlife Area. The #1 migrant trap for passerines on the s shore of Lake Erie. No reason for me to go to Pelee. Within 15 minutes are the Crane Creek State park beach, Ottawa NWR, Maumee Bay State Park, Metzger Marsh State Wildlife Area, and Mallard Club Marsh. While spring is best for warblers, any time of year will usually yield something interesting.

 

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2- Woodbury Wildlife Area (May through July). Reclaimed strip mines are great places to photograph grassland species.

 

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3- Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area and near by Big Island Wildlife Area are good for shorebirds, grassland and marsh species, and winter owl roosts.

 

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4- Lake Erie in winter. The central basin from Huron to Conneaut offers some great spots for gulls and occasionally waterfowl photography.

 

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5- my backyard. My odds of being at the right place at the right time are high here. I live near a large river which brings lots of migrants by.

 

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Other good places in Columbus can be Griggs and Hoover Reservoirs, Blacklick Woods and Battelle-Darby Metroparks, Greenlawn Cemetery and Dam. Friends who live in rural areas let me set up blinds near their feeders in winter and for hummingbirds in summer to get a different variety than I get at home.

Hi JSmith,

Have you ever checked out Machias Seal Island, Maine. Extraordinary opportunity to photograph puffins. Head north to Gaspe Peninsula to photograph as many gannets as time will allow. Leave time to hike.

I agree with Shun's #5, your back yard. That can be taken literally or meant as a wide area near where you live. I live and shoot almost exclusively in my home state, Oklahoma. We have some 450 species, some common, some rare. My long term goal is to publish a book, "The Birds of Oklahoma." It'll take me 5-10 years to amass the needed number of quality images. Even if I never get it published, it will, nontheless, be a labor of love. You don't necessarily have to go to the ends of the earth to find good birding opportunities. Working close to home saves travel dollars, but you often have to work harder to get better photos.

Don't forget the Bosque del Apache (even though it is practically in my backyard) from appox. Nov - Feb/Mar. for lots of geese and cranes, plus others

Merritt Is. wildlife refuge, St Augustine Gator farm,

Gatorland, Orlando. Huegonot Park at Ft. George Is,Gainesville for

sandhill cranes, Indian River, Matanzas Inlet, are also good places. All in N and cent. Florida and best in the winter months.

I have had much success at these places and a real change from the aforementioned spots in S.FL

Dear Shun,

JBWR can be great for bird photography any day of the year, but there is usually not a great deal of stuff to shoot in early summer. Do, however, visit the East Pond between August 15 and September 10 or so. Bring your longest lens and wear dirty clothes. Crawl around in the mud and you'll be able to get close to juvenile shorebirds on most days. You need to be there from about 2 hours before high tide until an hour after. Mornings at the south end and along the southeast shore are best. See you there.

Best, Arthur Morris

I thought I would resurrect this thread to see if there are some new ideas.

For the record, my #1 N.A. destination for bird photography would be So. Fla. (coast-to-coast) in Jan.-Mar. Others include my home state, So. NJ, during Spring (May) migration; Dry Tortugas in Apr.; Rio Grande Valley in Jan.; SE AZ. anytime; Bosque del Apache in winter; Salton Sea in late winter; St. Paul, The Pribilofs in summer; Churchill, Manitoba in June/July; Maine Coast up thru Gaspe' in late May/June/July. I'd love to expand my list of great places,i.e.,good closeup opportunities of a variety of species.

 

Thanks in advance.

Having recently visited there, I'd definitely add NW North Dakota and NE Montana to my list. The "Souris Loop" National Wildlife Refuges in North Dakota (Lostwood, J.Clark Salyer, DesLacs) and Montana's Medicine Lake NWR offer tremendous opportunities to photograph a large variety of resident shorebirds, grebes, waterfowl, sparrows, etc.

For those interested in bird photo locations, you might want to try and pick up a copy of the Feb '99 issue of Wild Bird magazine that has an extensive article on top bird photography locations written by myself, Arthur Morris, Kevin T. Karlson and Shawneen Finnegan. Many of the well-known locations like southeast Arizona, Churchill, Manitoba, the Dry Tortugas, Florida, the Texas coast, Alaska's Pribilof's, etc are covered in pretty good detail. You will also find a top ten list from each of us and it's kind of fun to compare and contrast the lists of the four writers. In case you are unable to find the magazine, here are the 10 locations (in no particular order) that I chose: Bosque del Apache, Dry Tortugas, Nome, Texas Gulf Coast, Rio Grande Valley, Bear River Refuge, Sanibel Island, Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona, Bolsa Chica Reserve/Newport Back Bay in southern California and Malheur N.W.R., Oregon. Interestingly, no single place ended up on all four of our lists. Although, my guess is that's because none of us had been to all the places on everyone else's list.

Brian:

 

Any chance you'll tell us the choices of the others?

 

 

Thanks

 

JSSmith

JS, no problem..........here they are: Karlson chose Dry Tortugas, Churchill, Everglades, Upper Texas coast, Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica Bay, Ft. Myers Beach, Cape May, Jones Beach, Cayman Islands. Morris went with Pribilof's, Bosque del Apache, Sanibel, Churchill, La Jolla cliffs, Jamaica Bay, Venice rookery, Pt. Pelee, Ft. Myers beach, Anhinga Trail. Finnegan picked Dry Tortugas, Palo Alto Baylands, Santa Barbara area, Monterey, Hatteras, Salton Sea, Rio Grande Valley, Cape May, Attu/Pribilof's/St Lawrence Island and Churchill. As I said before, the only reason a place like Churchill wasn't on my list or Dry Tortugas wasn't on Artie's list is that we hadn't been to those places personally and we were asked by the magazine's editor to stick with places we had personally visited. As an experienced bird photographer, I would tell you that all the places on these lists are great for photography but don't neglect the many unknown or less famous places. I have so many little "secret spots" that are close to home and these are the places where I take the majority of my photos. The famous places are often easy to shoot at but you may have a harder time getting images that are truly unique. My advice is to sometimes take a chance, invest some time exploring new places and find some new bird photo hotspots. Like Clint Eastwood said in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly......."if the risk is little, the reward is little".

Brian:

 

Many thanks for sharing the other choices. I agree that new places may provide new opportunities; that was the idea behind my original post. I'm happy to say that many of the responses did provide new

ideas, although I must confess that I anticipated a greater interest.

 

Insofar as the "famous places" are concerned, with time, money and effort being at a premium for most posters, going to any one of the big name hotspots (at the right time) provides the biggest bang for the buck.

 

Thanks again.

Any where on the Florida west coast from naples and north. One of my favorite locations beside the Venice Rookery is the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary operated by the Audubon Society.Every day is a new experience, best times are early morning and late afternoon november thru may.