In this guide, I share my experience on my favorite locations for photographing wading birds and wintering shorebirds in the Southwestern part of the Florida state. Even though I’ve visited many other regions of this state, I always return to the Gulf Coast as locations there proved to be productive every time. Even though you might be familiar with these hotspots, in this guide I’m sharing tips on how I’m photographing these birds there to get the best results. You will also find here general information on these locations like: parking situation, entrance fees as well as tips on cheap or even free lodging. It wouldn’t be a true guide if I didn’t include the renowned heronry at the Venice Rookery or my long time favorite, Fort De Soto Park. I also include my top hotspot as well as my newest find on Sanibel Island. As a bonus, I'm including my most reliable location to photograph Burrowing Owls in Cape Coral as well as few tips on how to find them in other locations.

In this guide, I provide information on how to decide when and which location to visit. It might happen that conditions at one of these location are not favorable during the time of your visit. Wouldn’t it be great to know not to go there to save time and gas? My guide is written with those in mind that want to improve their photography at these renowned locations as well with those traveling to the Southwestern Florida for the first time looking to discover best places to photograph waders and wintering shorebirds. My goal is to save you time and money! Locations I’m sharing, have no or very minimal entrance fees and do not require hiring a boat. Yes, photographs of Rosette Spoonbills are also possible from the ground. No need for a boat tour! By following few simple steps, you will be able to create the same, or even better, photographs that you see here. At your own schedule, without extra cost. If you follow my tips on lodging, you will recover the cost of this guide on your very first night!

As with all my location guides, I don’t include any information on how to setup your camera, exposure etc. I simply don’t want to fill up pages with the information that can be easily found on the internet these days.

I did my best to keep this guide as short as possible to give you only useful information. I’m not including any of my bird photographs. By doing so, this guide is easily accessible on the smartphone while you travel. A sample of the provided information in my guides can be seen in my free guide here: https://www.greggard.com/blog/nesting-shorebirds-nickerson-beach-long-island-ny-photography-guide

Birds that you will most likely encounter at these locations: Roseate Spoonbill; Snowy, Great and Reddish Egret; Tricolored, Little Blue and Great Blue Heron; American and Brown Pelican; Elegant, Royal Sandwich Tern; Semipalmated, Piping, Snowy, Black-bellied Plover; Sanderling; Least Sandpiper; Marbled Godwit, White Ibis and other birds.  

If you are driving to Florida, I would highly recommend on stopping by the Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for at least one session. At the specific conditions, you will be able to find and photograph wintering shorebirds and resident wading birds at close proximity in a spectacular light: https://www.greggard.com/location-guides/shorebirds-hilton-head-island-south-carolina

As with all of my guides, all future updates are included for free. Please keep your receipt/order number for future reference.

Upon successful payment, you will receive an email with a link to download this eBook. Link will expire after 24 hours. If you encounter any problems, please email me.

This is version 2 of this guide updated in an early 2021. This version brings a major update to the location #1 as well as few corrections on other locations. Please contact me if you haven’t received updated version yet.

Please note that I will do my best to update this guide, or send individual emails, if I happen to find out of any changes to any of the locations described in this guide. Before planning your trip, please research if there were any major hurricanes/storms that could affect any of those locations. As of early 2024, area near the location described on page 32 is still recovering from the 2022 hurricane Ian. Yes, birds are still there. The problem is that most of the businesses are still recovering / are still damaged. For this reason, you won’t be able to find any lodging near by. Parking might be difficult as well. Fortunately, one of my favorite spots, page 23, is still active and the hotel is open. Please visit the location on page 19 only if you are nearby as I don’t have any information on the current situation there. Location from page 3 is definitely a “go” you might encounter slightly different scenery though caused by hurricane Idalia in 2023. As you can see, last two hurricane seasons significantly affected the gulf coast. For that reason be mindful when planning your future trips.