3491 Flying Cow Road
Wellington

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If someone would put together a list of the best birding sights in South Florida, the Wellington Environmental Preserve would have to rank near the top. The preserve has to be among the best, most sophisticated municipal conservation areas in the region. Credit also has to go to the South Florida Water Management District, which worked with Wellington to build it.

The preserve is 365 mostly wet acres established in 2010 to collect and treat stormwater before draining it into the Everglades system. But someone had the bright idea to take advantage of all that water and create a people-friendly, bird-friendly wetland.

There is a hard-surfaced trail that runs through and around the preserve, with boardwalks that cross the ponds. Around the perimeter is a equestrian trail — this is Wellington, after all. There's plenty of parking, restrooms and drinking water. There are benches, maps and interpretive signs along the way. A four-story observation tower dominates the southwest view of the property. There are even restrooms along the trail. Birds spotted include limpkin, loggerhead shirke, osprey, great blue heron, red-bellied woodpecker, moorhen, little blue heron, mockingbird, blue jay, red-winged blackbird and more.