Tampa/clearwater area in april?

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byrns
Posts: 22
Joined: June 13th, 2012, 2:39 pm

Tampa/clearwater area in april?

Post by byrns »

what can i expect from this area in april? im headed down for a week and im gunna try to get a day or two of herping in. Ive been looking at some parks in the area and they look alright.
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mtratcliffe
Posts: 533
Joined: January 19th, 2014, 4:34 pm
Location: Mt Laurel, NJ

Re: Tampa/clearwater area in april?

Post by mtratcliffe »

This is my first April down here, but there are plenty of parks that offer good herping opportunities. Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties are heavily developed, so you will have to travel a ways to find any herping spots that aren't part of a preserve or a park.

Here are some of my favorite parks to visit:
Boyd Hill Nature Preserve (St. Pete)
Brooker Creek Nature Preserve (north Pinellas County)
Sawgrass Lake Park (St. Pete)
Weedon Island Nature Preserve (St. Pete)
Lettuce Lake Park (North Tampa)
Myakka River State Park (near Sarasota)
Oscar Scherer State Park (Sarasota, but never been there personally)

Keep in mind that you may not be able to herp at these locations in the traditional sense (straying off the beaten path and flipping every piece of cover you see) due to the fact that these are managed areas trying to protect wildlife. But you should see enough herps to make the outing worth it, even though these places are often smack dab in the middle of a city. Weedon Island has more mangrove habitat than uplands, and thus I've had way fewer herp sighting there. That said, I've seen several gopher tortoises there right off the main road. The other spots have good diversity, and many of them feature boardwalk trails over swamps.

That should be a good start for you. I need to expand my list of places that I go to for herping in this region!
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