Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 07:56:28 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: RFI: Central Florida MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Joel, I lived in central FLA back in the mid-70's (mom and sis still do) and have had relatively good luck with Limpkin and P. Gallinule (also breeding plumaged Little Blue Heron at 4 feet) at Wekiva Spirngs State Park, NE of Orlando. It is very close to I-4, but without a map handy, that's the best I can do. Last time I went down for a visit, I rented a canoe and took a 2 hour paddle down-spring, where the scenery is very pre-historic. It is the "real" Florida, and spectacularly beautiful. It used to be very reliable for Limpkin, though I didn't see one last time out (it was in late June, I think). Burrowing Owl was perhaps the "easiest" life bird I ever found. In SW FLA, down near Fort Myers, there is a town called Cape Coral. I stopped there at the visitor center, asked about Burrowing Owl, and the volunteer lady not only had a list of locations on her rolodex, but gave me a very fine map, well marked with the location of a pair nesting near an elementary school! If you have time for no other trip, you should make every effort to get to Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel Island. A trip here should net you spoonbill, Reddish Egret, Black-whiskered Vireo, Gray Kingbird, possibly Mangrove Cuckoo, and many others. I took a trip there years ago on a very, very hot July 4th, and had many of these birds even at that late date. Wish you luck with the "Disney thing" too! Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================