Ft. Meyers Area Locations

[Dave Walz]

I will be visiting Ft. Myers Beach during the Holiday Season. Other then Ding Darling, Little Estero and Cape Coral, does anyone have any suggestions on locations for bird photography? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dave
www.myphotographybydave.com

[Michael Pancier]

Bunche Beach is an amazing place for early am and afternoon locations especially for shorebirds. check out my earlier post. If you get there early enough, you may catch spoons.

[David Smith]

Dave:

You might go to Corkscrew Swamp.. It is just East of Ft.Myers.. Has a nice boardwalk and is home to some nesting Storks..

Dave

[Gavin Spooner]

Dave:

You might go to Corkscrew Swamp.. It is just East of Ft.Myers.. Has a nice boardwalk and is home to some nesting Storks..

Dave

Corkscrew is about 15 miles east of Naples (exit 111) I was just at Corkscrew. Storks are later in the year (or should that be earlier?). Swallow tailed Kites around feb 17th.
Painted Bunting is present currently.

check out this SWFL blog for good local birding info. http://swfloridabirder.blogspot.com/ He also has pbase galleries of all our local birds and the locations.

Also some good eagle nests in Cape Coral and Burrowing owls. use this locator for eagle nests. Do a county search http://myfwc.com/eagle/eaglenests/nestlocator.aspx

cheers
Gavin

[Linwood Ferguson]

Harns Marsh is a little known place out west of Ft. Myers (West 38th St, Lehigh Acres, FL, 33971). It's a big open water storage facility. Some times of the year it is filled with snails and thus snail kites (haven't been out enough to know precisely when). I like it at dawn -- the closest area is a N/S cleared road, the water on your west, and sun rising right behind your shoulder so the lighting is great. Don't go in the afternoon as there are no good ways to get on the other side of the water so you are looking in or near the sun (it is quite large). Here's some samples from that location: http://captivephotons.com/Nature/Harns-Marsh

Another favorite of mine (but not quite as nice as Corkscrew) is on the way - Six Mile Cypress Slough - boardwalk through a swamp. It's well wooded so a good place if the day is hot or sunny (not a problem lately).

If you go to Ding Darling on Sanibel, you may also want to go to the south tip of the island, and/or the causeway. There's a lot of interesting scenary on the south tip (e.g. lighthouse, some very old/large driftwood), good people shots, and sometimes a fair number of wading birds and pelicans fishing. The causeway is also good for pelicans fishing, and if it is windy both are good for kite-surfing and wind surfing shots (ok, not technically birds, but makes for a good break).

[Alfred Forns]

Would go up to Venice, always good !!!