CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trails, Collier County, 1 Mar 2027 (Google Map)
The CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trails are located at 1295 Shady Hollow Blvd, Naples, about a 45-mile drive SE from the intersection of I-75 and Palm Beach Blvd (FL-80) in the greater Fort Myers area. Under typical traffic conditions the drive from there takes about an hour and 20 minutes. The trail we visit opened in 2011 and includes a 1500-foot boardwalk through a maple and cypress swamp. It has been closed throughout most of 2026 for a parking area and boardwalk renovation. The project was expected to be completed by the end of summer 2026, but the trail access parking and boardwalk were still not open in October. It is hoped that the project will be completed by our scheduled trip, so be sure to check the our Club website for updates and prepare for the possibility of visiting a newly-announced destination.
Driving Directions from Fort Myers: From I-75, take exit 111 and turn E (away from Naples) on Immokalee Road (CR 846). Travel 11.4 miles and turn left onto Shady Hollow Blvd. (One mile past the Oil Well Rd stoplight – Shady Hollow is where Immokalee Rd goes from 4-lane to 2-lane). Go to the end of Shady Hollow (about 2.4 miles). Parking lot is on the right. [Directions taken from the CREW website.]
The property is adjacent to Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. The area we plan to visit is managed largely by the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) Trust, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Many volunteers from all walks of life help. The CREW Trust was established in 1989 and, with the support of Lee and Collier Counties and the SFWMD, began purchasing lands in the area. There are about 55,000 acres currently under conservation management. See the CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail eBird website for birding information.
Prior to its renovation, the parking area had two porta-potties. Furthermore, there were picnic tables for our BYOL lunch and list tabulations. In years past, we have had to walk carefully around a female alligator after leaving the boardwalk. Picking up any baby alligator that you see would be a very bad idea.
Six-Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, Lee County, 8 Mar 2027 (Google Map)
Six-Mile Cypress (7751 Penzance Blvd, Fort Myers) is a 3,500-acre mostly wetland preserve that got its name as a cypress slough that indicated a traveler was about six miles away from Fort Myers (the actual fort). A slough (pronounced "slew") is a slow-moving, relatively narrow freshwater wetland, which, in Florida, is usually a narrow cypress swamp dominated by bald-cypress. Six-mile Cypress Slough is 11 miles long and 1/3 of a mile wide. Its waters drain into Estero Bay. See the Six-mile Cypress eBird website for birding information. Our club has several members who appear to live on-site, especially one notable pediatrician!
The Preserve was established in 1976 as a Lee County Park, largely due to the efforts of Cypress Lake High School students in Dr. Bill Hammond's "Monday Group," a seminar that linked environmental concerns to advocacy and action. The boardwalk opened in 1991 and currently is 1.2 miles in length. The interpretive center was completed in 2008 and received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in 2009, apparently as the first "green building" in Lee and Collier Counties. The interpretative center is closed on Mondays but modern restroom facilities also are available at the boardwalk trailhead. Parking availability can be a problem at Six-mile Cypress, especially on the weekends. Parking is $1.00/hour or $5.00/day, payable at a kiosk in the parking lot, unless you have a Lee County Parks Annual Parking Pass ($60.00). See the Introduction to Field Trips for instructions on how to acquire a pass online.
Dinner Island Ranch WMA, Hendry County, 15 Mar 2027 (Google Map)
Dinner Island Ranch Wildlife Management Area is a 21,000-acre property located about 29 miles SW of Clewiston. It is 65 miles SE by road from the intersection of I-75 and Palm Beach Blvd (FL-80) in the greater Fort Myers area, and about a 1 hr, 25 min drive under typical traffic conditions. The address of the check station (18235 Co Rd 833, Clewiston), which is a 4.3 mi drive into the property, is useful for GPS directions. We typically meet just inside the entrance, along the entry drive. Portions of the area are a working ranch leased for grazing cattle, which is a management tool used to maintain open wildlife habitats. Please don't block the drive, as there's often traffic in and out.
The region was originally part of the Everglades watershed that was drained for agricultural purposes beginning in the mid-1800s. It still features a mixture of open, prairie-like habitats and wetlands, pine flatwoods, cypress domes, and hardwood hammocks. In recent years, the area was most notably farmed by the Hilliard family, who raised cattle, sugarcane and citrus. In 2003, the property came under state ownership as a Wildlife Management Area. The original ranch got its name from cowboy culture. Hardwood hammocks are typically drier areas at higher elevations than the surrounding wetlands. Cowhands sought out such "islands," probably shaded by live oaks, for their mid-day meal, which in the rural south has been (and still is) often called "dinner."
Dinner Island Ranch includes a 10-mile loop road of gravel and packed sand that passes through its various habitats. We plan to caravan through the area, stopping along the way, using our new club walkie-talkies to communicate our bird sightings. This is an excellent trip for those of us who can no longer walk long distances, as it is "drive and get out" birding through mostly open areas. See the Dinner Island Ranch WMA eBird website for birding information.
Directions from Fort Myers: Take Palm Beach Blvd (FL-80E) towards LaBelle for 20.5 mi before turning R on Helms Rd at the stoplight. Continue on Helms Rd for 2.7 mi. Turn R onto FL-29S and continue for 9.4 mi. Turn L onto Co Rd 832/Keri Rd and continue for 20.1 mi. Turn R onto Co Rd 833 S and continue for 7.5 mi until you see the entrance to Dinner Island Ranch on the right. The hunter's check station is an additional 4.3 mi inside the property. We usually meet near the entrance to the property, not at the check station. Please don't block the drive.
Directions from Bonita Springs (1 hr 25 min): Take I-75 S to Exit 111 and head E towards Orange Park. Turn L onto Immokalee Rd and continue for 10.1 mi. Turn R onto Oil Well Rd and continue for 20.5 mi. Turn L onto County Line Rd and continue for 7.7 mi. Turn R onto County Rd 846 and continue for 11.2 mi. Turn L onto County Rd 833 N for 2.6 mi until you see the ranch entrance on the left. Please meet inside the property within sight of the entrance but don't block the drive.
Directions from Naples (1 hr 25 min, toll): Take I-75 S to Exit 80. Merge onto FL-29 N and continue for 10.5 mi. Turn R onto Oil Well Rd and continue for 4.7 mi. Turn L onto County Line Rd and continue for 7.7 mi. Turn R onto County Rd 846 and continue for 11.2 mi. Turn L onto County Rd 833 N for 2.6 mi until you see the ranch entrance on the left. Please meet inside the property within sight of the entrance but don't block the drive.
Archbold Biological Station, Highlands County, 22 Mar 2027 (Google Map)
Archbold Biological Station (123 Main Dr., Venus, FL) is an extraordinary scientific facility that has an international reputation for its research and conservation programs, yet is little known to many Florida residents. The core of the station comprises 8,841 acres located on central Florida's Lake Wales Ridge, a 115-mile former island archipelago where most of Florida's rare terrestrial plants and animals occur. Much of the habitat at Archbold is sand pine scrub, an ecosystem of grave conservation concern.
Our trip, unfortunately, is limited to 12 participants due to the size of the Swamp Buggy at Buck Island Ranch. The cost is $25.00 for each participant and each must complete and sign a waiver before participating. This trip was very popular last spring, so we have scheduled it again (twice) this season, with preference for those who have not attended previously. We will begin by being driven some distance through the scrub to an active population of Florida Scrub-Jays in order to learn about the habitat and research projects at the station. Later, we will caravan in our vehicles to Buck Island Ranch, about 15 miles by road SE, where we will board a 12-passenger swamp buggy and learn about more-sustainable ranching techniques while getting to view and photograph a much wider variety of bird species than we are likely to see in the scrub. If time allows, we will continue to Lake Istokpoga Park, which is located about 35 miles NW of Buck Island Ranch, to do some lakeside birding along a boardwalk.
Directions: Archbold Biological Station is located about 60 miles from I-75, Exit 141, FL-80 (Palm Beach Blvd). If you choose this route, head E on FL-80E about 22 miles to LaBelle. Turn left onto FL-29N/Bridge St and continue for 14 miles. Turn left onto US-27N and continue for 16.2 miles before turning left onto Hickoria Rd. Continue on Hickoria Rd for 1 mile. Then turn right onto Old FL-8/17. Follow Old FL-8 for 2.1 miles until you see the station entrance, Main Rd, on the left. Drive in slowly. When you come to a T intersection turn right and park in the lot of the Frances Archbold Hufty Learning Center, where we will gather. From Archbold to Buck Island Ranch (300 Buck Island Ranch Rd, Lake Placid): Exit the station E on Main Rd. Turn left (N) on Old FL-8 and continue for 1.9 miles. Turn right onto FL-70E and continue for 8.2 miles. Turn right onto DC Bar Rnch Rd/Jc Durrance Rd and continue for 4.1 miles. Turn right onto Buck Island Ranch Rd. Entrance is 0.1 mile, on the left. From Buck Island Ranch to Lake Istokpoga Park (127 Istokpoga Park Access Rd, Sebring): Turn left onto DC Bar Rnch Rd/Jc Durrance Rd and continue for 4.1 miles. Turn left onto FL-70 W and continue for 7.1 miles. Turn right onto US-27 N and continue for 9.8 miles. Turn right onto County Rd 17 and continue for 6.7 miles. Take a sharp right onto US-98 S and continue for 7.3 miles. Turn right onto Istokpoga Park Access Rd and continue for 0.3 miles. The parking lot is on the left. It's a fun fact that Lake Istokpoga is the second largest lake in Florida.
The avian stars of the show in the Archbold scrub are Florida Scrub-Jays (our new State Songbird, if the Florida Senate would ever pass the bill), which have been studied intensively and continuously there since 1969, first by USF Professor, Glen Woolfenden (1930-2007), and more recently by other scientists, including John Fitzpatrick, Director Emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (and the former Executive Director of Archbold). In any given year, 40 visiting scientists from the U.S. and other countries conduct studies at Archbold. In addition to its ecological, taxonomic, and farming sustainability research (the latter at Buck Island Ranch), Archbold offers environmental education programs to students of all ages.
The station had its earliest beginnings in 1929 when John A. Roebling II (of the family that designed and built the Brooklyn Bridge) and his wife, Margret S. Roebling, purchased 1,058 acres of scrub in order to establish a winter estate. Work began on constructing sturdy warehouse structures that would store materials for the main house. However, Margret died in 1930, and John apparently began losing interest in the project. John's son, Donald Roebling, donated the estate in 1941 to his friend, Richard Archbold (1907-1976), an explorer and patron of the American Museum of Natural History, who, in the 1930s, led major scientific expeditions on behalf of the museum. Archbold was the grandson of John Archbold, who succeeded John Rockefeller as President of Standard Oil.
Today, the Roeblings' essentially railroad warehouse structures are modified as the modern laboratories and offices at the station. Archbold now owns and manages over 20,000 acres, since it purchased the 10,500-acre Buck Island Ranch in 2018. The more-sustainable ranching methods tested there are starting to be applied by ranchers at other localities. See the Archbold Biological Station eBird website for birding information. See the Buck Island Ranch eBird website for birding information. See the Lake Istokpoga Park eBird website for birding information.
Rotary Park, Cape Coral, 29 Mar 2027 (Google Map)
Rotary Park (5505 Rose Garden Rd, Cape Coral) is a 97-acre city park that includes, among other features, a 4,200-square-foot environmental center, nature trails, a butterfly and native plant garden, a butterfly house (scheduled tours only), a playground, a dog park, picnic areas, and modern restroom facilities. Admission and parking are free. The park had its origins in the early 1980s as a project undertaken by three local Rotary Clubs in partnership with the City and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the latter providing grant funding. It was opened to the public in 2001.
Habitats at the park include open parkland with attractive hardwood plantings, human-dug ponds of various sizes, and estuary mangrove forest near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. There is an observation tower that allows for a scenic view of wading birds.
See the Rotary Park eBird website for birding information. One recent year, we were eating our BYOL lunches and tabulating our bird list, when a Short-tailed hawk gave us some low flybys that yielded great photos!