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 the hunt for 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 distant 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 rapidly,” 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 one million guests since its institution in 1954, stays a vacation spot for birders from close to and much. It presents unbelievable alternatives to see all kinds of birds alongside the two.25-mile boardwalk, which traverses 4 totally different habitats.

In response to 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 off-the-cuff 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 desirous to be taught extra about this small chook’s distinctive habits 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 Discipline 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 rapidly realized that one of the best ways to expertise an space was to attend Nationwide Audubon Society discipline journeys and related conferences,” including that the friendships she shaped on the paths proceed to at the present time.

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, holding 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 workers, 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 an important position in Audubon’s mission to protect Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and help the conservation and restoration of pure ecosystems all through the Western Everglades. Volunteers donated 7,500 hours in 2024-25, aiding workers throughout numerous packages. 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, lowering vivid lights at evening to keep away from complicated birds, holding cats indoors, and gardening with native vegetation 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 presents many mutual advantages, together with a memorable expertise that’s good for the soul. Plus, admission charges, memberships, and donations help the complete operation of the Sanctuary, together with workers, 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.