I haven't seen anyone ask about, or offer, their top five or ten photography venues. It may be that folks are reluctant to disclose their favorite spots. But I would be curious to hear from anyone who chooses to play, and to start things off here is a list of my top five, with ten more below that. It's tough to choose them, or to rank them. I'm defining "favorite" as the places where I feel I'm most likely to come home with the greatest number of keepers of a number of species on any given day. In some cases I've only visited a place once but was so taken by it that I put it on the list and hope to return. To keep things simple for me, I have limited my list to places in North America. Others will have different parts of the world, I'm sure. If I had added Costa Rica, or Iceland, or Botswana, it would have been impossible to make a selection. Anyway, here are my top five, with ten more approximately ranked, below those. I hope others will chime in; I would love to here where you go. Perhaps there is a better forum to post this. If the mods think there is a better forum for this, please move it.


  1. Bunche Beach, Fort Myers, Florida
  2. Nickerson Beach Park, Nassau County, New York
  3. Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio
  4. The Rookery, High Island Sanctuary, Texas
  5. Cape May Point State Park, New Jersey



  1. Fort DeSoto State Park, St. Petersburg, Florida
  2. Merritt Island NWR, Florida
  3. Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, Long Beach Island, New Jersey
  4. Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (Gateway National Recreation Area), Queens, New York
  5. Sandy Hook (Gateway National Recreation Area), New Jersey
  6. Brigantine Unit, Forsythe NWR, Galloway Twp., New Jersey
  7. Sandy Point State Reservation, Plum Island, Massachusetts
  8. Moss Landing, Monterey Bay, California (incl. Moss Landing State Wildlife Area, Elkhorn Slough Reserve, Moss Landing Beach)
  9. Ocean City Rookery, New Jersey
  10. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Assateague Island, Virginia.