 Visitors enjoying the new viewing platform at Rotenberger WMA.
Visitors to Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area can now enjoy a new viewing platform, recently installed by FWC’s Public Access Service Office. This WMA lies on the northern end of the Everglades and is part of a large complex of conservation areas along with Holey Land and Everglades and Francis S. Taylor WMAs. The platform offers shade and views of expansive vistas across the sawgrass marsh.
You can easily reach this new structure from either Rotenberger or Holey Land via the same drivable levee system. Look at the canals alongside the levees to see Anhinga, herons, resident King Rail, occasional American Bitterns in the winter and more. Keep an eye out for raptors above, including Snail Kites and wintering Northern Harriers.
The viewing platform is located half a mile north of the break between L4 and L5 Levees on the Miami Canal Levee. Learn more about Holey Land/Rotenberger WMA and how to find the new viewing platform on our website.
 Boardwalk at Orlando Wetlands Park. Photo credit Mark Sees.
When: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Saturday, February 18th, 2023
Where: Orlando Wetlands Park, 25155 Wheeler Road, Christmas, FL 32709
Directions: Drive 40 minutes east of downtown Orlando on State Road 50 to Christmas, Florida. Go north (left) 2.3 miles on Ft. Christmas Road (County Road 420) and 1.5 miles east (right) on Wheeler Road.
Orlando Wetlands Park is a birding paradise. Visitors to the park have a chance to see some of the 250 bird species recorded there, including nesting Purple Martin during spring. The Orlando Wetlands Festival has promoted community awareness of the Orlando Wetlands Park and the importance of Florida's ecological and water resources since 2001.
The festival is a free, all ages event where you and your family can enjoy guided hikes and tours (including birding hikes led by Orange Audubon Society), bird banding, and mist netting demonstrations, environmental exhibits, kids’ activities, a native plant giveaway, door prizes and more!
Learn more about birding at Orlando Wetlands Park on our website, and learn more about the festival here.
 Bert (right) and his wife Val (left).
Part 2 of 2 (This interview has been edited for length and clarity).
What has it been like trying to visit every Trail Site?
I live in Brevard County and that made it kind of easy for me, there were a lot close by that I could go to. That first year I picked up a lot on the East Coast, but I'd also traveled to the West Coast and down towards Miami. It's a little bit of a game because I keep a bird list and keep track of how well I'm doing. I like games. And so, it’s the idea of making it a game, trying see how many of the counties I’m gonna get and how many sites, and what kind of interesting birds I’ll see there. Will I have any lifers at that site? It's really become a fun way for me to kind of brag that oh yeah, I've been to all these different counties so far and gone to a lot of different birding sites. But I still have like 200 more to go.
What has been your biggest inspiration as a birder?
In our county, David Simpson. He's a fantastic birder and he's also a great educator. He doesn’t just know the birds, he knows their habitats, and he's one of the people that made me really realize how important that is, knowing the types of plants and what kind of birds would be attracted to those plants and so forth. And I've gone out with guides who are good not just at seeing a bird and identifying it but explaining to you how they identified it and how they knew to look in a particular area. And to me that's what's really important, having them explain all this stuff. So, its other birders that inspire me, especially the more experienced ones who are willing to spend the time to help me and anyone else learn a little bit more, and I try to do the same.
Do you support local businesses on your travels? What kinds of places do you stay at, and do you visit other attractions besides Trail sites?
The places we stay at, that's a mixture. We have a timeshare that allows us to stay at different places throughout the country, but then we just did the Florida Birding and Nature Festival in October and we stayed at a local hotel while we were out there. And of course, part of my planning is always to look for what little restaurants other places we want to visit, not just the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail sites. I try to avoid the fast-food chain type places and I'd say 90% of the time we go to these little restaurants that we never would have stopped at, and we have a great meal, and we meet interesting people every once in a while. And we just came back from Clearwater Beach this past week, and I picked up Trail sites while we were out there, but we also went to the Dali Museum and a few botanical gardens. So, it turns out to be a really good opportunity for us both to enjoy a lot of different things.
What was your most memorable experience at a GFBWT site?
Wakodahatchee (Wetlands) is a fun place. It was one of my first Birding Trail sites when I first started the goal. The first time I went there, it was with our (Audubon) chapter and there were all these egrets and wood storks and herons nesting just everywhere, from birds still building the nest to some of the birds being almost ready to fledge. And you know the noise and the excitement and the birds in those breeding plumages were so exciting, and there were people that were out there that weren't into birding at all, but we were standing there and talking to them and pointing out different things, watching the excitement in their faces, and the kids getting all excited about seeing all the little baby birds. And typically, these birds build their nests over waters that are alligator infested, and there was kind of a traumatic episode where there was this young anhinga that had fallen in, and we watched this, and it goes swimming with an alligator right behind it. And everybody was just rooting for this anhinga and all of a sudden it got over to a bush and it jumped up and it got onto it. And we all started to cheer. And then the alligator leaped out of the water and got the anhinga. So, it was it was that whole group of people just cheering on that that little anhinga and then all of us just heartbroken when it ended up not making it. It's one of those things where you feel so bad for that anhinga, but also realize that the alligator needs to eat, too. Being birders, we just want them to eat fish though.
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