For you paddlers out there looking for something to do, here’s my tip of the week: Take up bird watching, and try scouting the many roosting areas and backwaters we have for early arrivals.

The southern half of Florida is a bird magnet in the cooler months, with literally millions of feathered migrants making their winter homes here. We should start seeing more wading birds around the shallow grass flats of the bays and the freshwater ponds and sloughs along the rivers. As the weather gets cooler, the number of birds will increase, as will the number of different species — making our backyards a bird watchers’ paradise.