Fort De Soto

Fort De Soto
Description

Fort De Soto is incredible for bird photography! My favorite time to go is in the spring, when the birds are in their breeding colors, and around September, when the terns congregate prior to migrating. The entire park is good for birding, but my favorite places are North Beach, the East Beach Turnaround, and the Mulberry bush area and East Beach woods (for migrating birds).

 

Photography Advice

Take every lens you can carry! I use my long lens for bird portraits and far-off rarities, my intermediate telephoto for flight shots, and my wide-angle for landscapes.

Fort De Soto is one of those rare places where you can photograph both sunrise and sunset over the ocean!

Check the website for road closures before you go!

When to GoYear Round
Species Photographed (75)American Oystercatcher, American Redstart, Baltimore Oriole, Barn Swallow, Bay-breasted Warbler, Black Skimmer, Black-Bellied Plover, Black-and-white Warbler, Black-hooded Parakeet, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, Brown Pelican, Cape May Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, Common Ground-Dove, Common Loon, Common Merganser, Common Tern, Dunlin, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Fish Crow, Forster's Tern, Great Blue Heron, Great Horned Owl, Hermit Thrush, Herring Gull, Indigo Bunting, Laughing Gull, Least Sandpiper, Least Tern, Little Blue Heron, Magnificent Frigatebird, Magnolia Warbler, Marbled Godwit, Nanday Parakeet, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Parula, Orchard Oriole, Osprey, Painted Bunting, Palm Warbler, Piping Plover, Red Knot, Red-Breasted Merganser, Red-Eyed Vireo, Red-Winged Blackbird, Reddish Egret, Ring-Billed Gull, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Roseate Spoonbill, Royal Tern, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Sandhill Crane, Sandwich Tern, Scarlet Tanager, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Short-Billed Dowitcher, Snowy Egret, Snowy Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Summer Tanager, Tennessee Warbler, Western Sandpiper, Whimbrel, White Ibis, Willet, Wilson's Plover, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-Throated Vireo
Websitehttp://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_ft_desoto.htm
eBirdhttps://ebird.org/hotspot/L127332
Google MapClick here to view Google Map
Trail MapNone
Least Tern Feeding Babies

Least Tern Babies!!

August 3, 2021 - A beautiful morning on the beach photographing cute Least Tern babies. Such excitement when the parents brought in fish for breakfast!

Royal Babies on the Way!

Royal Tern Courtship

May 3, 2014 - I finally got to photograph Royal Tern courtship. The Royal Terns exchanged fish and crabs before mating on North Beach. What a fun morning!

Scarlet Tanager Chewing his Bug

Photographing Scarlet Tanagers Eating Insects

May 1, 2014 - I had such a great weekend at Fort De Soto with the migrant birds not too long ago, and one of the best parts was photographing the Scarlet Tanagers.  The bright red feathers and black wings of the males are very striking.  At the East Beach, I found about ten tanagers that were feeding near […]

Summer Tanager (male)

Migrant Birds at Fort De Soto

April 29, 2014 - Two weekends ago I had the most amazing morning photographing the migrant birds at Fort De Soto.  The trees were literally dropping with colorful birds.  Red tanagers, orange orioles, blue buntings and grosbeaks, and warblers everywhere.  It was a birder’s paradise. Good birding isn’t always good for the birds.  Most of these birds spend the […]

Red-Breasted Merganser

Springtime Bird Photography at Fort De Soto

April 15, 2014 - April is my favorite time to visit Fort De Soto in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The sandy beaches are beautiful, the spring winds are cool, and my toes get to wiggle in the ocean water as I photograph the birds molting into their breeding plumage.  An April visit always has the possibility of a fallout, where […]

Great Horned Owl Family

Great Horned Owl Nest at Fort De Soto

March 4, 2014 - Two weeks ago, my dad and I drove over to Fort De Soto to photograph the Great Horned Owl nest.  At the time, the owlets were two weeks old.  Ever since I saw Marina Scarr’s highly honored image in the Windland Smith Rice photo contest, I’ve wanted to see a similar scene – the mother […]

Sandwich Tern chases fish in mid-air

The Chase

September 15, 2013 - While at Fort De Soto over Labor Day weekend, I captured a fun sequence of images.  The Sandwich Terns were in a feeding frenzy over the ocean.  I tried to photograph them as they grabbed their fish from the ocean.   One grabbed a huge fish, dropped it in mid-air, then dove and caught it […]

Doin' the Twist!

Feeding Frenzy at Fort De Soto

September 14, 2013 - I had such a good time photographing the terns and gulls in their feeding frenzy at Fort De Soto over Labor Day weekend.  I got to North Beach just after sunrise.  The feeding frenzy from the night before continued as hundreds of birds dove into the waves and pulled out their breakfasts.  There were so […]

East Beach at Dawn

Sunrise at Fort De Soto

September 12, 2013 - We stayed the night at the beach over Labor Day weekend, and I enjoyed the opportunity to shoot sunrise at Fort De Soto without having to drive for two hours! Except I was dismayed to arrive and find that the park is more strictly enforcing its hours. There was a “do not enter” sign that […]

Sanderling

Shorebirds Returning to Florida’s Beaches

September 10, 2013 - Although it’s still really hot outside, fall migration is underway, and the shorebirds are returning to Florida’s beaches.  Most of our shorebirds fly to places like Alaska and northern Canada to breed.  They leave in May looking all spiffy in their breeding plumage, fly to their breeding grounds, raise their kids, and return to Florida […]