Meet trip leader Chris Burney at Powers Park on Hawthorne Rd. to carpool to the Alachua Conservation Trust’s 500-acre Prairie Creek Preserve. The Preserve encompasses a variety of uplands and lowlands, and we’ll sample several of them in search of sparrows and winter feeding flocks. Wear rubber boots or old shoes you don’t mind getting wet, as the trail can be soggy or even flooded.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain and/or walking distances one to two miles).
Meet trip leader Rex Rowan in the parking corral for the West Trail on State Road 26 one mile north of the junction with County Road 329B. The 182-acre field on this property produced 13 species of sparrows last winter, including Henslow’s, Lincoln’s, and Clay-colored, and we’ll see how many of them we can find.
Difficulty: 2 (Walking over uneven ground or distances of 1-2 miles.)
Meet trip leader Bubba Scales in the Publix parking lot at SW 34th St. and Williston Rd. to carpool. The 6,577-acre Emeralda Marsh in northern Lake County, at the headwaters of the Ocklawaha River, is a National Natural Landmark. It is also a prime winter-birding location, with extensive tracts of marsh and woodland accessible by a 3.5-mile Interpretive Drive. We should see a profusion of ducks, waders, raptors, Sandhill Cranes, Limpkins, sparrows, and warblers.
Difficulty: 1 (trip within easy access of vehicle and/or level terrain one mile or less).
Meet trip leader Felicia Lee at the parking area beside the ranger/pay station at the park entrance off US-441 just north of Micanopy. The woods should be green with new leaves, spring wildflowers should be blooming, and birds should be singing.
Main Entrance fees:
- $6 per vehicle, limit 2-8 people per vehicle
- $4 Single Occupant Vehicle
- $2 Pedestrians, bicyclists, extra passengers, passengers in vehicle with holder of Annual Individual Entrance Pass
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain one to two miles).
Meet trip leader Geoff Parks in the MNC parking lot for a visit to one of Gainesville’s premier nature parks featuring over six miles of trails through sandhills, flatwoods, cypress domes, and beautifully-restored native longleaf pine and wiregrass habitat. Morningside also features a working 19th-century farm, a bird blind, and a diverse array of wildlife that thrives in this unique environment.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain one to two miles).
*The Conservation Lands Educational Program (CLEP) is designed to bring attention to local land conservation efforts. These trips are conducted on properties purchased to protect natural resources and will be led by a representative of the agency in charge, who will discuss ecological features and history. CLEP trips will be educational experiences, so the emphasis will be on much more than birding.
Meet trip leader Rex Rowan in the Publix parking lot at SW 34th St. and Williston Rd. Come and admire the longleaf sandhills and scrub in this marvelous 383,000-acre remnant of the original Florida, while we search for Florida Scrub-Jay, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman’s Sparrow, and other specialty birds.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain one to two miles).
Meet trip leader Matt Bruce at Kate’s Fish Camp on Hawthorne Rd. at Prairie Creek. Going east on Hawthorne Rd., drive past Powers Park and 0.7 mile later, just before the bridge, turn left into Kate’s. If you’ve got a canoe or kayak, bring it ($5 launching fee); if you don’t, Kate’s has a limited number you can rent (one-person kayak $15, canoe $20).
Email Matt at mattbrucefl@gmail.com if you plan to rent. Depending on the water levels, we’ll paddle along the lakeshore and/or down Prairie Creek, keeping an eye out for Prothonotary Warblers, Limpkins, and other swamp-loving birds.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Bell Ridge is a 720-acre property with a 3.1-mile trail winding through what has been described as “one of the highest quality longleaf pine sandhill forest tracts in Florida.”
Join trip leader Deena Mickelson in the parking lot of the Publix at NW 53rd Ave. and NW 43rd St. to carpool. We’ll be looking for Summer Tanagers, Bachman’s Sparrows, Red-headed Woodpeckers, American Kestrels, and other longleaf-savannah species.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Sorry, but the field trip to Green Acres Nature Park has been canceled.
Meet trip leader Becky Minnick in the SWP parking lot on Williston Road about ¾ of a mile east of US-441. By early May, our marsh birds should be involved in courtship and nesting. We’ll be looking for Purple Gallinules, Least Bitterns, Limpkins, and a variety of wading birds, as well as some late migrants like sandpipers, swallows, and Bobolinks.
Entry fee $5 per vehicle. Bring sunscreen and water.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve distances greater than two miles).
Meet trip leader Steven Goodman in the Publix parking lot at NW 39th Ave. and NW 13th St. to carpool/convoy to these agricultural fields about 20 miles southeast of Palatka in search of rarely-seen fall migrants like Upland Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and American Golden-Plover (AKA “grasspipers”).
Bring water, lunch, and insect repellent.
Difficulty: 1 (trip within easy access to vehicle and/or level terrain one mile or less).
Meet trip leaders Ben and Sam Ewing in the parking lot on NW 34th St. directly opposite 5th Ave. (3315 NW 5th Ave., Gainesville, FL 32607).
The diversity of trees growing in the bottomland surrounding Hogtown and Possum Creeks creates a great hunting ground – for birds seeking fuel for the next leg of their migratory flight, and for birders in search of those migrants.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain and/or walking distances one to two miles).
Join trip leader Scott Flamand and the Tidewater Tours crew on a canopied pontoon-boat ride into some of the lesser-known shorebird haunts of the Cedar Key area.
Tidewater Tours offers a special Alachua Audubon price of $25 per person for this trip.
Call Wild Birds Unlimited (352-381-1997) to reserve a spot (limit 20 people) and for details on where and when to meet.
Difficulty: 1 (trip within easy access to vehicle and/or level terrain one mile or less).
Meet trip leader Michael Drummond at the trailhead on SE 175th Avenue 1.5 miles west of I-75 (go west on County Road 234 and keep right at the fork). Barr Hammock is a forested land bridge between Ledwith and Levy Prairies, an environmental jewel that provides habitat for a wide diversity of upland and wetland species. We should see some migrant birds on this walk, but we’ll be looking at everything – trees, wildflowers, insects, reptiles, whatever we find.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
*The Conservation Lands Educational Program (CLEP) is designed to bring attention to local land conservation efforts. These trips are conducted on properties purchased to protect natural resources and will be led by a representative of the agency in charge, who will discuss ecological features and history. CLEP trips will be educational experiences, so the emphasis will be on much more than birding.
Meet trip leader Steve Hofstetter in the trailhead parking lot on Millhopper Rd. Sandhill, meandering streams, and forested slopes set the stage for the diversity of warblers, thrushes, tanagers, and other migrant birds that we’ll hope to see.
Entry fee $4 per vehicle.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
We’ll meet trip leader Barbara Shea at Powers Park to look for migrant warblers, tanagers, and thrushes in the trees along the boat channel and to scan the lake from the fishing pier. Then we’ll travel to nearby Palm Point to search for more migrants in the live oaks and cypresses.
Difficulty: 1 (trip within easy access of vehicle and/or level terrain one mile or less).
Meet at the parking corral on State Road 121 4.5 miles north of LaCrosse. Trip leader Rex Rowan will lead a walk along the 1.5-mile trail through hardwood forest and bottomland surrounding Santa Fe Creek in search of migrants. Wear rubber boots or old shoes you don’t mind getting wet, as the trail can be soggy in places.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain and/or walking distances one to two miles).
Meet trip leader Steven Goodman in the Publix parking lot at Newberry Road and NW 143rd Street (Jonesville) to carpool/convoy to this coastal Dixie County site within the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
The Dixie Mainline is a nine-mile driving trail that passes through hardwoods, pinewoods, swamps, and marshes. There are plenty of spots to park the cars and look for fall migrants. We’ll end the trip at beautiful Shired Island on the Gulf of Mexico.
Bring water, lunch, and insect repellent.
Difficulty: 1 (trip within easy access to vehicle and/or level terrain one mile or less).
Meet trip leader Jonathan Mays at the Bolen Bluff parking lot on US-441. Bolen Bluff is one of Gainesville’s perennial favorite birding locations, especially during fall songbird migration, which is peaking now. This is often the best walk of the season for warblers and thrushes.
Entry fee $2 per vehicle.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Join trip leader Jerry Krummrich for a 2.5-mile ramble through his favorite fall-migration hotspot: “I enjoy birding here because of habitat diversity, with sandhill, scrub, and floodplain. Lots of tree species, lots of edge.”
We’ll meet at the High Springs Winn-Dixie, on US-441 a mile past the stop light at County Road 326 (where Hardee’s is). There should still be some fall migrants passing through, and we’ll keep a particular eye out for Bay-breasted and Black-throated Green Warblers.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).