What each place is like, and who owns the facts that change. Hours,
closures and fees are the refuge's to state — they are linked, not repeated,
because a wrong opening time sends somebody on a drive for nothing.
Wildlife Drive
Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel-Captiva Road
Managed mangrove impoundments, open shallow water and mudflat, seen from a one-way road.
The reason most people come. You bird from the car, which doubles as a hide, so the birds tolerate a far closer approach than they would on foot. Wading birds and shorebirds work the flats when the water is low.
The impoundments are MANAGED. Water levels are raised and drawn down deliberately through the year, and a drawdown concentrates birds onto a shrinking flat while a full impoundment disperses them. That is management, not weather, and no forecast predicts it — the refuge does.
A flat walking trail along the edge of mangrove and freshwater.
Quieter and slower than the Drive, and better for the passerines and rails a car passes at the wrong speed. Walking also gets you in on days the Drive is closed to vehicles.
Freshwater ponds and open scrub, a separate unit of the refuge away from the Gulf.
The freshwater counterpart to everything else on this list, and the reason it is worth a separate stop. Different water means different birds: ducks, gallinules, and the herons that prefer a pond to a tidal flat.
The island’s southeast tip, where the Gulf meets the bay channel — beach, wrack line and scrub.
A tip pointing into open water is where tired migrants make landfall, which makes this a spring and autumn place more than a year-round one. Shorebirds work the wash in any season.
What has actually been reported, week by week, for twenty-five years —
eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Bowman’s Beach
Bowman’s Beach Road, Sanibel
A long undeveloped Gulf beach with a wrack line and dune behind it.
Distance from the car park is the point. The far end of the walk is the quietest sand on the island, and roosting shorebirds pick their spot accordingly.
What has actually been reported, week by week, for twenty-five years —
eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Blind Pass
Between Sanibel and Captiva, Sanibel-Captiva Road
A tidal cut with fast-moving water, sandbars either side, and a bridge to stand on.
Moving water through a narrow pass concentrates fish, and terns and skimmers follow them. Working the tide here has more in common with fishing than with walking a beach.
What has actually been reported, week by week, for twenty-five years —
eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
