VISITOR'S GUIDE - Carrabelle Area Chamber of Commerce

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Birding
CARRABELLE about an hour southwest of Tallahassee, is in an area that is a little-known stopover for migrant birds
crossing the Gulf of Mexico on their way north. Carrabelle is a quaint fishing town that overlooks an estuary with
American oystercatchers and brown pelicans - and you may, driving just a short distance either east or west, find parks,
reserves and birds, birds, and more birds.
DOG ISLAND is a barrier island accessible only by water-taxi, boat or plane. On this island you may encounter herons,
egrets, terns, shorebirds, loons, grebes, ducks, kingfishers, wrens, sparrows and warblers. It is truly worth a boat trip!
TATES HELL STATE FOREST is one continuous tract of land comprising over 202,000 acres. Many species
of wildlife make their home in the forest. Those with confirmed sightings on Tate's Hell State Forest that are currently
listed as threatened, endangered or species of special concern are: bald eagle and red-cockaded woodpecker. Tates Hell
State’s Forest is on the Great Florida Birding Trail.
BALD POINT Tidal marshes along northwestern Bald Point offer unobstructed views over a flat terrain of needle rush
and saw grass, and provide rich feeding grounds for land and seabirds such as bald eagles, osprey and migrating falcon
and is a draw for gallinules, tricolor herons, limpkins, anhinga, nesting yellow-crowned night herons, pied-billed grebes,
and great egrets
ST. GEORGE ISLAND just 25 miles west of Carrabelle is a narrow barrier island containing a beautiful state park.
Here you may find American oystercatchers, pine, Cape May and prothonotary warblers, green and great blue herons,
orchard orioles, blue grosbeaks, and red-eyed and white-eyed vireos. Osprey, great crested flycatchers, Sandwich and
Forsterís terns are also a possibility. This island is famous for the oystercatchers nesting on the causeway leading
to the island.
ST. MARKS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE is 47 miles east of Carrabelle
and is the largest coastal refuge. Here you will find white ibis, eastern kingbirds,
wood ducks, night herons, bluebirds, pine warblers, swallow-tailed kite, wood storks
(an endangered species), migrating hawks, red-cockaded woodpeckers, Bachman’s
sparrows, blue winged teals, woodstocks, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks and red-shouldered
hawks in season. Wintering marbled godwits, snow geese, white pelicans and red
headed ducks also stop over. Purple gallinules, terns, cormorants, brown pelicans and
gulls loaf here year-round.