Location: Fort De Soto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S., Tierra Verde, FL 33715

Park Office: 727.582.2267 Campground Office: 727.582.2267

Directions: From I-275 in St. Petersburg take exit 17 (old exit #4), Pinellas Bayway (toll road). Bear left at light for Pinellas Bayway, SR679, to Tierra Verde/Ft. De Soto. Continue through one more toll into park.

When to go: Year Round. Peak times in September-November, and March-June during migration. Favorite time and place to shoot here: Morning at North Beach, in the surf, with a low tide and easterly wind.

What is there to shoot: Birds! Osprey, Pelicans, Cormorants, nearly every species of wading bird, tern, gull, and shorebird are here year round. Migration brings in raptors, waterfowl, wood-warblers, kingfishers, vireos, tanagers, and on and on. If you are lucky you may encounter a rarity for the park such as a Grove-billed Ani, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, or Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Other subjects include reptiles, such as Gopher Tortoises, insects, especially butterflies like the Zebra Longwing, wildflowers, small mammals such as Raccoons and Marsh Rabbits. There are also numerous possibilities for landscape photography, such as dunes, beaches, palms, and mangrove stands, with sunrises on Tampa Bay and sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico.

Part 1: North Beach, After the Storms

For an avian photographer, Ft. De Soto is one of those places that borders on the magical. It is one of the top birding spots in Florida, possibly the East Coast. Tourists flock here for the beaches, rated #2 in the nation, but photographers and birders flock here for the population of birds. De Soto is a photographer's playground, with an ever changing selection of subjects including birds, reptiles, small mammals, butterflies and other insects. It is also probably one of the best places on Florida's west coast for beach landscape photography and there are numerous areas where wildflowers can be found. You will often find professional photographers here, many conducting workshops on the weekends, herding their wide eyed students through the dunes and mudflats of North Beach. There have been many articles written on De Soto, so it is hard to add anything to the amount of information already out there. That is, until the series of hurricanes that pummeled Florida this year. Ft. De Soto is now a different place than it was. The birds are still there, but the storms have reworked the topography of Ft. De Soto, changing the "when" and "where" of shooting this gem. For someone who shoots there often, stepping out on to the beach for the first time after Hurricane Frances, and then again after Hurricane Jeanne, was simply shocking. It felt like a different park, and required relearning the rhythm of De Soto.

For those that have never been to Ft. De Soto, a bit of background information. Ft. De Soto is part of the Pinellas County Park System, lying just south of St. Petersburg, Florida, at the mouth of Tampa Bay where it opens to the Gulf of Mexico. It sits on five interconnected islands, the largest of which is Mullet Key. These five islands make up over 1100 acres, making it the largest park in Pinellas County. Annual park attendance averages more than 2.7 million visitors, with approximately 65 million people having attended the park since its opening in 1962.

The park is divided into a number of separate sections. Starting at the Northwest corner of the park is North Beach, probably the best known part of the park for photographers. North Beach sits on the west side of Mullet Key, and encompasses the area running north of the Gulf-Side Pier up to the northernmost tip of this key. Moving down Mullet Key you come to the Fort and the Gulf side pier, a 1000ft long fishing pier jutting out into the Gulf of Mexico. It is located next to the historic fort for which the Park was named. Due east, you next come to the Bay-side Pier, a 500ft fishing pier that extends into Tampa Bay. In the parking area for this pier is the Mulberry Tree, a popular spot for birders looking for migratory birds. Moving east you pass the park offices, and then arrive at East Beach. Past East Beach the road dead ends at a turnaround looking out on Tampa Bay and the Skyway Bridge.

During both Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, Ft. De Soto experienced battering winds, waves, and extreme storm surge. While damage was seen throughout the entire park, North Beach is the most noticeably different part of the park today from the impact of the storms. As the waters rose the surge pushed and pulled the beach, smoothing down dunes, pulling the beach sands out into the gulf or pushing them inland to fill tidal areas. The beaches now slope more gradually, allowing the waterline to move further inland during high tides. During low tides there is now a sandbar exposed just off the shore. The tidal areas, both north of the foot bridge, and in the designated swimming area, are much deeper now, and the water levels change more drastically with the tides than before. Before the storms these areas were a haven for waders, who fished them during nearly all tide levels, but were really at their peak during mid tide. Now, these areas are too deep from mid tide through high tide for the waders to fish. The waders will usually leave as soon as the tide begins to rise. The best time to work this area seems to be low tide, especially the areas just north of the foot bridge. The newest hotspot, though, has really become the shoreline. With the sandbar and gentler slope, the waves hitting the shore tend to be much smaller, and push prey for the birds up with the surf. Often morning at the shoreline is exceptional. If the morning winds are out of the southeast, not only will you have herons and egrets crashing through the surf looking for breakfast, but you will also have terns and gulls fishing a few feet in front of you, all perfectly lit by the golden morning sun. Also a good spot is the new sand spit that juts into the northern tidal area. This is a popular spot for terns and shorebirds now, who often take up residence there overnight. It can be a great spot for flying birds as they come in to roost or bring in fish. North of this spit are a number of interesting spots. The storm has deposited a number of dead trees and stumps, for some interesting scenic possibilities. Just off the beach there is also a small brackish pond, which can be a great spot for Belted Kingfishers and Peregrine Falcons.

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