We live full time in our RV and spend Nov to May in North Fort Myers. I concur with the recommendation for Cape Coral/Naples/Fort Myers/North Fort Myers as a base of operations and the springtime is the best time to be here. Here are a few of the things you can do easily from here.
1. Nesting eagle pair Harriet and M15 in North Fort Myers on Bayshore Road.
2. Venice rookery about 30ish miles north…no walking needed for either of these two.
3. Myaaka State Park about 50ish miles north…some hiking there but plenty of trails.
4. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary about 30 miles south of here (here being North Fort Myers…more precisely the north bank of the Callooosahatchee River and I-75). This is a 2 mile or so elevated boardwalk through the swamp…opens early for walking tours…spring is the best time for it as the water is lower so there are more waders around.
5. Shark Valley over in Everglades National Park about 70ish miles south and east on I-75. Nice 14 mile flat paved path through the swamps with gators and plenty of birds. There's a tram you can ride or you can walk or even bike…a lot of people do that. Biking you'll be within 10-15 feet of many gators but they could not care less about you…they just lie there.
6. Any roadside canal or pond anywhere in south Florida…there's birds a plenty down here. Just this morning on my 13 mile bicycle ride from the RV park I saw great blue and little blue herons both mature and juvenile, wood storks, 3 or 4 different hawk/raptors, snow egret, great white heron, cattle egret, and numerous songbirds…that's a typical spotting.

Get our early for best birding down here…we usually get to Corkscrew or Shark Valley right about dawn. You really can't go wrong.

Hi fellow UHH members. As usual, I’m reaching out to people I can trust for advice. Florida members, I’m counting on you!

My husband has finally agreed to go with me to Florida this spring so I can follow my passion of photographing birds. He’ll more than likely be hanging out on the beach, reading, and watching the girls go by.

I really don’t know the best time to go, where to go, or where to stay. We are both retired, so we are open as to how long we can be away from home. Home is as far south in NJ as you can get. We will be driving down rather than flying and renting a car once there. Once in Florida, we would rather stay in one location with fairly easy access to great locations for birds. I am not averse to basing out of one place. My preference would be to observe and photograph the mating and nesting behavior of birds we do not usually see in southern NJ. I’m thinking Burrowing Owls, Spoonbills, Pelicans (white abd brown), Woodstorks, Reddish Egrets, etc. Open to other suggestions.

This will be our first trip to Florida for this purpose so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. If there is a “must-see! spot on the way down, please feel free to bring it to my attention.

Thanks in advance!

Hi fellow UHH members. As usual, I’m reaching out to people I can trust for advice. Florida members, I’m counting on you!

My husband has finally agreed to go with me to Florida this spring so I can follow my passion of photographing birds. He’ll more than likely be hanging out on the beach, reading, and watching the girls go by.

I really don’t know the best time to go, where to go, or where to stay. We are both retired, so we are open as to how long we can be away from home. Home is as far south in NJ as you can get. We will be driving down rather than flying and renting a car once there. Once in Florida, we would rather stay in one location with fairly easy access to great locations for birds. I am not averse to basing out of one place. My preference would be to observe and photograph the mating and nesting behavior of birds we do not usually see in southern NJ. I’m thinking Burrowing Owls, Spoonbills, Pelicans (white abd brown), Woodstorks, Reddish Egrets, etc. Open to other suggestions.

This will be our first trip to Florida for this purpose so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. If there is a “must-see! spot on the way down, please feel free to bring it to my attention.

Thanks in advance!

You have received many excellent suggestions for photo locations in Florida, the timing and water levels will have a bearing on what you see in some of those areas. On your way down if you feel like breaking up the long drive, there are excellent opportunities at Huntley Meadows County Park in Virginia. You can get nice shots of various rails from a boardwalk in addition to Great Blues and the other common wading birds, beavers, and woodpeckers, and various owls, it just depends on the day.
As you get further down near Florida the Okefenokee Swamp offers all types of photographic opportunities, this area is for a more adventuresome person that likes to explore, although in the interior of the swamp is the Steven Foster Park where you can rent a small boat and travel the marked water route through Bald Cypress Stands and beautiful scenery complete with birds of all types, tame raccoons, reptiles and amphibians, a very enjoyable place. Hope you have a wonderful trip.