The River of Birds

Keep your eyes on the wet edges and the shallows all through this park, because Myakka is one of the great bird places in Florida — so much so that folks call the marshes here the River of Birds. In the cool dry months, from fall through spring, the shrinking water concentrates the fish and frogs into the shallows, and the wading birds pour in from all over to feast.

Learn a few to look for. The tall gray statue standing dead-still in the shallows is a great blue heron, waiting to spear a fish. The brilliant white ones are egrets — the big great egret and the smaller, golden-slippered snowy egret, the very bird that was nearly wiped out a century ago for its plumes. The flocks of white birds with long curved bills, probing the mud like sewing machines, are white ibises. And the two you'll cross the park hoping to see: the roseate spoonbill, that unmistakable flamingo-pink bird with the flat spoon-shaped bill, and the wood stork, a big, bald-headed, prehistoric-looking wader that's a threatened species. Overhead, watch for ospreys and even bald eagles. Now, I can't promise you any particular bird on any particular day — this is wild nature, and it keeps its own schedule — but come in the dry season, look patiently at the water's edges, and you'll see a show. Bring binoculars if you've got them. Roll on.