Lakes Regional Park, Fort Myers, 9 Nov 2026 (Google Map)
Lakes Park is located at 7330 Gladiolus Drive in Fort Myers. Veer right (E) as you enter the park off Gladiolus and drive to Lot 3, where we'll meet at the Community Garden/Botanic Garden area at the far end of the lot. Parking is $1/hr or $5/day unless you have a Lee County Parks and Recreation annual parking pass (see Introduction to Field Trips). The 279-acre park, a former limestone quarry, opened in 1984. The lakes are from stone extraction. The park has wetlands, a belt of slash pines, and some scrub-like areas. It's easy to put in a two-mile roundtrip walk if the far spatterdock lakes are visited. There are extensive native plant restoration projects along the trails. Unfortunately, non-native, invasive vegetation is also abundant, as are bicyclists without bells. Don't forget water and to BYOL (or at least a brunch snack!) to consume as we tabulate our bird list. See the eBird website for Lakes Park for birding details.
Donna Fiala Eagle Lakes Community Park, Naples, 16 Nov 2026 (Google Map)
Eagle Lakes Park is located at 11565 Tamiami Trail E in Naples, about 45 miles S of the intersection of I-75 and Colonial Blvd in Fort Myers. This 143-acre Collier County park was opened in 2015, and five years later named for the long-serving County Commissioner who advocated for its establishment. Eagle Lakes has human-created storm drain lakes and restored wetlands that filter water. The park has many recreational amenities, most importantly for us -bathroom facilities and picnic tables for our after-bird list tabulation and lunch (BYOL). After entering the driveway off Tamiami Trail, veer right in the roundabout to the parking lot. Parking is free. The paved trail around the lakes is to the east. This is where we will bird. See the eBird website for Eagle Lakes Community Park for birding details.
Archbold Biological Station, Highlands County, 23 Nov 2026 (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-80 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 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 eBird website for Archbold Biological Station for birding details. See the eBird website for Buck Island Ranch for birding details. See the eBird website for Lake Istokpoga Park for birding details.
Prairie Creek Preserve, Punta Gorda, 30 Nov 2026 (Google Map to Meeting Place), (Google Map to Preserve)
Prairie Creek Preserve (1900 Duncan Road, Punta Gorda) is a 1603-acre tract of upland habitats, including relatively open slash pine and longleaf pine forests that are maintained by prescribed fires. Prairie Creek is a tributary of Shell Creek, the main source of water for Punta Gorda. We drive down the two-track, unpaved Live Oak Blvd through open farm fields and a few roadside woodlots to reach the preserve, birding along the way.
Meet at the Winn-Dixie parking lot (27680 Bermont Rd, Punta Gorda), by taking I-75 N to Exit 164, US-17, turning right (E) and going 1.2 mi. Winn-Dixie is on the right. There we will try to leave some cars and form carpools so that we have a smaller number of cars traveling down the two-track with less disturbance to wildlife.
We will caravan (it is hoped with a smaller number of cars) by turning right (NE) onto US-17. Go 6.9 mi and turn Right (E) on Live Oak Blvd, the two-track. We will drive slowly along the two-track through open fields, where we might see Eastern Meadowlarks, Grasshopper Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, Bobwhite, even Burrowing Owls if the grass is short. At some roadside woodlots, we will probably see various warblers. When we reach the preserve, a highlight might be encountering Florida Scrub-Jays! See the eBird website for Prairie Creek Preserve for more birding details.
Following our visit to the Prairie Creek Preserve, we will backtrack on the two-track to US-17 and likely seek out a local park with restroom and picnic facilities, where we will eat lunch (BYOL) and tabulate our bird list.