After our two full days in the Everglades, on 12 February we drove west along highway 41 towards Fort Myers where we were staying for 2 nights, enabling us to spend a full day in the Ding Darling reserve. Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp reserve proved to be excellent, with a good network of trails and boardwalks from which we saw a good range of passerines and waders. Along the trails we saw the beautiful Painted Bunting, along with Northern Cardinal, Black-and-white Warbler, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pine Warbler, Tufted Titmouse, Grey Catbird, Carolina Wren and Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.
Being a similar habitat to the Everglades National Park, we saw a number of species that we had encountered over the previous two days, including Great Blue Heron, White Ibis and Tricoloured Heron. But at Corkscrew Swamp we got our best photo of an American Alligator.
