Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is the Place to Be for Fall Migration

Get your binoculars and discipline information prepared! Fall migration is underway. For some birds, this annual odyssey begins as early as July. At Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, volunteers and guests reported recognizing migratory birds early in August, together with Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Ovenbird, and Louisiana Waterthrush.

What’s migration, anyway?

Within the Northern Hemisphere, migratory birds fly north within the spring in quest of meals and nesting habitat. Within the fall, they fly south, retreating from the chilly temperatures and meals shortages that winter brings.

Greater than 450 North American chook species migrate from summer time breeding areas — which can be as far-off because the Arctic Circle — to overwinter in South Florida or the tropics. Some fly hundreds of miles yearly, instinctively retracing their ancestral routes.

“Fall migration is for much longer than spring, as birds don’t transfer as shortly,” says Sanctuary Director (and avid birder) Keith Laakkonen. “Within the spring, birds are pushed to time their arrival with the meals assets they should increase their households, however within the fall, climate patterns have extra affect on their actions,” he added.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a chook’s and birder’s paradise

The Sanctuary, which has welcomed over 1,000,000 guests since its institution in 1954, stays a vacation spot for birders from close to and much. It affords implausible alternatives to see all kinds of birds alongside the two.25-mile boardwalk, which traverses 4 completely different habitats.

In line with eBird.com, a world on-line database the place birders can share chook observations, the Sanctuary is ranked seventeenth within the nation for the variety of checklists submitted and third in Florida. Roughly 6,800 birders have submitted greater than 25,000 checklists from the Sanctuary, comprising 264 species for the reason that platform debuted in 2002.

From birding to volunteering

Robbie Wooster is a retired registered nurse who was an informal birdwatcher again earlier than the times of the web.

“Watching an American Dipper forage alongside the Rogue River in Oregon was fascinating,” says Wooster, who was desperate to study extra about this small chook’s distinctive conduct of swimming in rapids for its meals. She saved her babysitting cash to purchase her first two discipline guides: The Golden Information to Birds and a Peterson’s Subject Information.

Later, after changing into a touring nurse, she timed her 12-week to 6-month assignments to coincide with migration routes and the wintering and breeding grounds of birds. “I shortly discovered that one of the simplest ways to expertise an space was to attend Nationwide Audubon Society discipline journeys and related conferences,” including that the friendships she fashioned on the paths proceed to this present day.

In 1989, Wooster settled in Naples, bought concerned within the native Audubon chapter, and visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for the primary time. Shortly thereafter, she began volunteering weekly on the boardwalk, preserving discipline notebooks, and ultimately recording her sightings on eBird. She says that attending to know the standard and cadence of chook songs, calls, and chip notes is crucial for anybody wishing to distinguish residents from migrant species.

Volunteering

“Being a volunteer at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is an enriching expertise,” says Wooster. “The standard and data base of the employees, fellow volunteers, and guests through the years is spectacular. Everyone seems to be keen to share their experience and data, making it a priceless studying expertise,” she concluded.

Volunteers play a significant position in Audubon’s mission to protect Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and assist the conservation and restoration of pure ecosystems all through the Western Everglades. Volunteers donated 7,500 hours in 2024-25, aiding employees throughout varied applications. Learn more about our volunteer program.

Do your half to guard migrating birds

Throughout migration, along with navigating via and round storms, birds face disorienting metropolis lights, feral cats, habitat destruction, and extra. By making use of decals, netting, or decor in your home windows to forestall chook collisions, decreasing vibrant lights at evening to keep away from complicated birds, preserving cats indoors, and gardening with native crops to create interesting chook stopovers, you give birds higher odds of surviving their perilous journeys.

Visiting Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary as a birdwatcher, birder, or nature fanatic affords many mutual advantages, together with a memorable expertise that’s good for the soul. Plus, admission charges, memberships, and donations assist the complete operation of the Sanctuary, together with employees, land stewardship of 13,000 acres, the Western Everglades Analysis Middle, and academic programming for practically 80,000 annual guests and learners of all ages.