The Marsh & the Birds

Where the trees fall back and the country opens into wet, grassy marsh, slow down and look — this is some of the best bird-watching in the whole park. Wading birds love these shallows: great blue herons standing statue-still, snowy egrets with their golden slippers, wood storks, ibis probing the mud, maybe a roseate spoonbill flushing pink across the grass. Hawks and vultures ride the thermals overhead, and in the wet months the whole marsh chatters and croaks with frogs and life.

Bring binoculars if you have them, and a little patience. Early morning and the last hour before dark are the magic times, when the animals move and the light goes gold. This marsh, the swamp, the hammock, the pines — four worlds in one small park, and the birds use all of them.