Wildlife Report: Myakka River State Park

Sarasota, Florida:  We took an late morning/early afternoon trip through Myakka River State Park on a sunny Sunday afternoon to do some wildlife photography.  With the recent rains, the river level was high and the trails were a bit muddy so we decided to stick to the park driveway for our photography.

It didn't take long to encounter wildlife on our drive.  As soon as we cleared the campground area, we encounter a female white-tailed deer in the field and some black-bellied whistling ducks along the water line.

Our first stop on the drive was at the bridge over the Myakka River.  This is always a great place to see gators and birds by the water.  But the high levels of the river kept things pretty quite.  There were only a couple gators and birds.

We drove the rest of the way through the park on the way to the birdwalk.  The drive was unusually quiet, not much activity at all.

At the birdwalk we encountered a bit of activity but still relativity quiet by Myakka standards.  But two of our best views occurred here.  The first was a rather large gator hiding in the brush close to the birdwalk.  Then on the way back, a red-shouldered hawk guarded the trail from high atop a palm tree.

We made one last stop at the bridge on the way back out of the park but not much had changed.


Here is a list of what we saw during our trip today:

• American Alligator
• Black Bellied Whistling Ducks
• Common Gallinule
• Great Blue Heron
• Glossy Ibis
• Little Blue Heron
• Palm Warbler
• Snowy Egret
• White-tailed Deer

Check out the Into the Wild page for photos of the wildlife we encountered on our trip to Myakka River State Park.