Joan and Dan's Birding Blog: Wings Over Florida

On December 27th 2012, on an outing to the Celery Fields in Sarasota, we spotted the Sora. Finally, we had scored our 150th Florida bird and earned our "Scrub-Jay" level certificates from "Wings Over Florida".

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) administers the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail (GFBWT). This 2,000-mile, self-guided highway trail features over 500 sites covering the eastern, western, southern and panhandle sections of Florida. We have visited over 40 of these Birding Trail sites and countless other parks, lakes and ponds.

The Birding and Wildlife Trail oversees the Wings Over Florida program. Birders can sign-up for free, print a checklist of Florida's birds, grab the necessary gear (survival, optical and digital) and start having fun. Beautiful, frameable certificates are awarded at five different levels of achievement. We had already photographed more than 80 species when we signed up for the program, so we applied for and received our "Cardinal" level certificates right away. In just over two years, we now have over 170 species of Florida's birds on our list. We are well on our way to the next level, the "Black-Skimmer" level, which requires 250 Florida birds.

Our next planned outing is to the Stormwater Treatment Area 5 (STA-5), south of Lake Okeechobee early next month. We're hoping to score at least five life list birds on the trip. Click on the links below to visit the FWC, GFBWT and Wings Over Florida websites for additional information. Enjoy some of our photos taken along the trail.....tweet.....tweet!!