Roseate Spoonbill in Florida

<p>Dear All,<br>

I will be visiting Florida from 18th till 22nd Dec. Any suggestion on the places/spots for Roseate Spoonbill photography?<br>

How is J Ding Darling National park at Sanibel Island these days or any other suggestion?</p>

<p>Thanking you. </p>

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I have photographed spoonbills at Ding Darling, but that was like 20 years ago. I haven't been to Florida lately.

<p>I haven't been back for about 5 years, but they were always on the tour somewhere.</p>

You may want to try the American Birding Association Listerv for the area you are going to visit or possibly ask

on the Listserv, but you need to join to be able to post questions.

 

http://birding.aba.org

 

 

Also (I would check here first) check the National Park Service for Florida. NPS websites usually have

extensive information on wildlife:

 

https://www.nps.gov/state/fl/index.htm

Ding Darling is part of the National Wildlife Refuge System administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service, not part of National Park Service.

 

But that brings up a whole new area where you can find information. I am not familiar with Florida but

suspect there are numerous Nation Wildlife Refuges. They all maintain lists of wildlife.

There are records of Spoonbills from Ding Darling and Sanibel Island for this month. But I have no idea if

they are or aren't not approachable for photos.

<p>Try ebird.org . Hit the tab for "Explore Data", then species maps. You can enter Roseate Spoonbill, a date range, and location [e.g. Florida]. Play around a bit - in about five minutes I was able to find that several people had reported up to to 87 in the last few days, at Merritt Island NWR--Black Point Wildlife Drive. Lots of other locations too.</p>

<p>Dhruba, Ding Darling is one of the best places on the gulf side. I have not checked with the National Wildlife refuge office at Sanibel Island but try 239-472-1100. I know at Bosque del Apache New Mexico there is an ongoing bird species census (no spoonbills though) but perhaps as well at Ding Darling in Florida and they can give you a bird count. Also contact the St Augustine Alligator Farm on the Atlantic side. St. Augustine Alligator Farm's birds are closer, more frame filling, up close and personal when they are there. They breed in Florida in the winter so maybe you will have good opportunities. Good hunting.</p>

 

When I was there 8-10 years ago, my best roseate spoonbill images came at Little Estero Lagoon, Fort Myers Beach. You can do a web

search to find directions and parking advice. It was a great location and I highly recommend it. You will likely see numerous shore birds

there in a very compact location. Also go to Ding Darling.

<p>In response to your question, it's been a couple years since my wife and I, have visited the places you mentioned on/near the west coast of Florida but the last time we were there we saw lots of Roseate Spoonbills. We live near (15 miles) the Kennedy Space center/Blackpoint Wildlife Drive and go there a few times a month. It's a little early (March) however, we saw about a dozen Roseate Spoonbills about a week ago at Blackpoint (accessed via Titusville). Another good location north is Stick Marsh in Fellsmere. Happy hunting.</p>

<p>An update from my previous response. On our last visit to Black point Wildlife drive we were within 20 feet of Roseate Spoonbills however, during a visit to Black Point today, my wife and I, discovered that the spoonbills have moved about an 1/8 of a mile from the road - too far to get great photographs. The spoonbills seem to stay in a group about 1/2 to 3/4 of the distance around the loop drive - a west to northwest direction.</p>