Note:
All tour participants must meet guides at RiverCamps Riverhouse at designated times before each morning and afternoon tour. On some trips, participants will use their own transportation to follow guides to the tour site locations. Please wear appropriate clothing and foot wear and bring insect repellent and sun screen.
View Excursion and Tour Locations
Tour Descriptions
Bat Mist-Netting: Join one of the leading bat experts in the Southeast, Dr. Jeff Gore, after Friday evening's social and dinner as he catches bats in mist-nets as they feed along the waterways of Crooked Creek. Learn about the life history, migration and importance of Florida's only flying mammals. This tour includes listening to eco-locations from electronic bat detectors and/or observation of the capture and release of live bats including Red, Seminole, Evening, Big Brown, Eastern Pipistrelle, Southeastern Miotis, Yellow, and Free-Tailed Bats. This tour is on private non-public access area and is free to all paid registrants. Tour Time: Friday Night, 7-9 pm
Wetappo Creek Conservation Area: This private non-public access 1,600 acre-area contains the largest stand of old-growth long leaf pine timber in Gulf County. Participants can expect to see five species of wood peckers, including the red-cockaded woodpecker for which the area is intensively managed. Numerous bird species common to long leaf-pine ecosystems may be seen during the trip. Following the birding tour, participants will enjoy flora in bloom and other fauna in the wetlands and uplands of the area. The tour host will also describe management activities for red-cockaded woodpeckers and other protected species on-site.
Tour Times: Saturday, 6-9 am and 3:30-6:30 pm
RiverCamps Photo Excursion: This private non-public access area tour targets novice birders and those interested in gaining experience in wildlife photography. RiverCamps has over 1,000 acres of natural areas that include fresh, brackish and salt marshes, flatwood prairies and savannahs, tidal flats and creeks and maritime hammocks. An experienced wildlife photographer, Paul Winterman, will guide birders on this tour and provide tips and techniques on wildlife photography. Tour Times: Saturday, 7-10 am and 4-7 pm
RiverCamps Kayak Tour: This kayak tour couples excellent birding with exercise and the beauty of crooked creek and the West Bay tidal flats. The tour begins at the beautiful private non-public access RiverHouse on Crooked Creek and traverses the tidal creeks and flats of the bay. Tour Times: Saturday, 7-10 am and 4-7 pm
Deer Point Lake/Econfina Creek: Deer Point Reservoir is a 5,000 acre lake that serves as the drinking water supply for Bay County. It is fed by three main sources: Econfina, Cedar Creek, and Bear Creek. This boat tour will explore various areas of the lake and creeks including the cypress swamp in the northern part of the lake. The lake is home to many alligators and species of resident and migratory birds. Species that you might expect to see are bald eagles, ospreys, various waterfowl, moorhens, several species of herons and egrets, boat-tailed grackles and numerous migrating wablers. If lucky, a few of the summer residents may be seen early such as the purple gallinule and least bittern. In recent years the call of the limpkin has returned to the lake in areas that are abundant apple snails.Tour Time: Saturday, 3:30-6:30 pm
Tupelo Bend Waterfowl Area: This private non-public access 6,000 area is located in Gulf County south of Wewahitchka, home of Tupelo honey, along the Brother's River and is compromised of bottommland hardwoods, cypress drains, flooded impoundments and pine plantations. Thousands of waterfowl of 13 different species winter on the area. The area is also home to numerous species of wading, shore, song and birds of prey. The area hosts the only nesting rookery of wood storks in Gulf County. The highlight of this late afternoon tour will be watching hundreds of wading birds return to an evening roast. Tour Time: Saturday, 3:30-6:30 pm
Camp Helen State Park: The tour of this beautiful state park will include exploration and birding along pristine Emerald Coast gulf front beaches, Lake Powell coastal dune lake shoreline, maritime oak hammocks and freshwater wetlands. Participants are likely to see a wide variety of shore, wading, raptor and neo-tropical migrant birds.
Tour Time: Saturday, 7-10 am
Suggested Excursion Items To Bring
Hat
Binoculars
Camera
Bug Repellant
Sunglasses
Comfortable Shoes
Lightweight Clothes
Lightweight Jacket