The first thing you notice about Red Bug Slough Preserve is how improbable it feels. One moment you’re on Beneva Road—traffic lights, grocery stores, lawn crews—and the next you’re stepping into a pocket of old Florida, 70-ish acres of hammock, wetland, and water tucked right into the middle of Sarasota. (sarasotacountyparks.com)
As a Florida naturalist, I think of this place as a kind of urban refuge—part classroom, part chapel, part dragonfly convention. On a good day, Red Bug can give you warblers overhead, dragonflies at eye level, and a limpkin complaining from the far side of the pond, all while someone jogs past with a golden retriever and a latte.
Come along for a walk.
Getting There: Sliding Sideways into Wildness
Address:
Red Bug Slough Preserve
5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL 34231 (sarasotacountyparks.com)
From almost anywhere in Sarasota, you’re basically aiming for the stretch of Beneva Road between Clark and Proctor. (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
- From I-75:
Take the Clark Road exit (Exit 205) and head west. After several miles, turn right (north) onto Beneva Road. Watch for the preserve on your left; the main entrance is just north of the bridge over Phillippi Creek/Red Bug Slough. - From US-41 (Tamiami Trail):
Turn east on either Proctor or Clark, then make your way to Beneva. From Proctor, head south on Beneva and look for the preserve on your right. From Clark, head north on Beneva and look for it on your left.
There’s limited parking at the Beneva entrance—a small lot, a preserve sign, and a walk-through gate. (Visit Sarasota County)
Pull in, step out, and you’ll immediately feel the air soften. The suburban buzz fades into birdsong and the faint murmur of water.
First Impressions: Slough in the City
In Florida, a slough is a low, slow-draining wetland, a kind of shallow, wandering watercourse that moves at the speed of moss growth. Red Bug Slough threads through the preserve in a broad, reflective ribbon—ponds and ditches and wet swales connecting like beads on a necklace. (Solutions For Your Life)
From the trailhead, I walk past the small playground and picnic shelter and out toward the main pond. The grass is cropped short along the water’s edge, like a green landing strip for herons. An anhinga dries its wings on a snag, looking like a mythological cormorant in a yoga pose.
Overhead, a belted kingfisher rattles by, offering its distinctive machine-gun call as commentary. On the far side of the pond, I can see limpkins stalking the shoreline, their long bills probing for apple snails. Wood ducks slip between emergent grasses, and a mottled duck glides past with the nonchalance of a local who’s seen it all. (Florida Birding Trail)
This is one of the things I love about Red Bug: it’s small enough to feel intimate, but ecologically busy enough that you can spend hours here and never get bored.
A Simple Trail Map (Naturalist-Style)
The official maps show habitat types and basins, but for the wandering naturalist, I like a simple “mental map” of the preserve. Think of it like this (very much not to scale):
N
^
|
Neighborhood access
|
[North Hammock Trail]
/ \
/ \
West Pond Spur East Slough Trail
\ /
\ /
Main Lake Loop -- Meadow & Playground
|
|
Parking & Gate (Beneva Rd)
S
In practice, the preserve is a small network of unpaved loops and spurs—some hugging the slough, some tunneling into oak hammock, some following an open corridor near the southern boundary. Trails are generally easy, but low spots can be wet or even flooded after rain, so shoes you don’t mind muddying are wise. (Visit Sarasota County)
Walking the Main Loop: Pond, Slough, and Dragonfly Heaven
I start my walk on the main lake loop, circling the big pond visible from the parking area. Morning light glances off the surface, giving each ripple a bright edge. A green heron crouches at the shoreline, looking like a small, hunchbacked fisherman in perfect concentration.
Dragonflies are everywhere—roseate skimmers in impossible pink, scarlet skimmers glowing like flying embers, blue dashers, blue dragonlets, and pin-tailed pondhawks patrolling airspace over the shallow coves. A naturalist who once called Red Bug an “urban cornucopia of dragonflies” was not exaggerating. (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
Follow the northern side of the main pond and you’ll slip into shadier hammock. Live oaks lean over the trail, draped with airplants and Spanish moss. A red maple here, a cabbage palm there, and the understory thick with saw palmetto and wax myrtle. Red Bug is dominated by oak hammock and wetlands, with pockets of pine flatwoods and restored marsh. (Solutions For Your Life)
In this darker, cooler zone, I frequently hear the sharp, questioning note of a red-shouldered hawk, and, if I’m lucky, the distant hoot of a barred owl. The leaf litter rustles with brown anoles and the frantic zippering of little brown skinks. (iNaturalist)
The West Spur: Turtles and the Suburban Edge
Take a side path toward the western pond, and you’ll feel the edge of the preserve—backyards and fences just beyond the vegetation. This is a lesson in how wildlife persists in the gaps we leave it, even in the heart of a city. (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
The western water bodies are good spots to watch Florida softshell turtles and peninsular cooters surfacing like little armored submarines. At the right time of year, a roseate spoonbill might show up, sweeping its bizarre spatulate bill through the shallows, pink wings catching the light like a neon flag. (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
Standing here, I can hear the faint drone of traffic, but what dominates is the busy soundtrack of wetlands: pig frogs grunting like small engines, tree frogs trilling, red-winged blackbirds clinking in the cattails.
The Southern Ditch: A Dragonfly Gallery
On the southern boundary, a drainage ditch runs like a narrow, elongated micro-habitat. It doesn’t sound glamorous—“marvelous ditch” is not a phrase you expect to use—but for a naturalist, this strip of water can be electrifying. (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
This is where I often find the dragonfly show at its best:
- Roseate skimmers (males in hot pink)
- Scarlet skimmers, an exotic species that has made itself at home in Florida
- Blue dashers with green eyes
- Tiny blue dragonlets
- Pin-tailed pondhawks, like little streaks of green lightning (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
Around them: mud-dauber wasps collecting clay, sand wasps digging burrows, butterflies sampling both natives and the occasional invasive bloom. It’s a vivid reminder that even a human-engineered ditch can become a corridor of life if we let the water and plants have their way.
Flora: A Patchwork of Native and Not-So-Native
One of the subtle pleasures of Red Bug is plant-spotting. The county and partners have been working for years to restore shorelines and remove the worst invasive species, while still battling the usual Florida suspects. (scienceandenvironment.org)
You’ll encounter a mix of:
- Canopy & mid-story
- Live oak (Quercus virginiana)
- Laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia)
- Red maple (Acer rubrum) in wetter pockets (Solutions For Your Life)
- Slash pine (Pinus elliottii)
- Cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto)
- Shrubs & ground layer
- Saw palmetto
- Wax myrtle
- Beautyberry with its outrageous purple berries
- Muhly grass forming pinkish clouds when in bloom (sarasotacountyparks.com)
- Wetland and shoreline plants
- Pickerelweed
- Arrowhead / bulltongue (Sagittaria lancifolia)
- Duck potato
- Native sedges and rushes along the slough edges (Solutions For Your Life)
Mixed in, you’ll see the inevitable invasives—air potato vines, alligatorweed, maybe a stray patch of mother-in-law’s tongue—but you’ll also see evidence of active management to remove or contain them. (Solutions For Your Life)
Birds, Beasts, and Other Neighbors
Red Bug Slough is on the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail, and birders know it as a surprisingly productive little hotspot—especially during migration, when warblers can “fall out” here in dizzying variety. (Florida Birding Trail)
On a representative walk, you might encounter:
- Wading birds & waterfowl
- Green heron, great egret, white ibis
- Limpkin, wood duck, mottled duck
- Anhinga and double-crested cormorant
- Occasional least terns cruising over the water (Florida Birding Trail)
- Raptors & larger birds
- Osprey overhead
- Red-shouldered hawks patrolling the hammock
- Barred owls calling in early morning or dusk
- Songbirds & migrants
- Red-winged blackbirds in the marsh
- Northern cardinals, Carolina wrens, gray catbirds
- Seasonal waves of warblers—yellow, palm, black-and-white, common yellowthroat, and more (Florida Birding Trail)
Add to that reptiles and amphibians—green tree frogs, narrow-mouthed toads, little brown skinks, softshell turtles—and a healthy cast of insects from butterflies to those gloriously showy dragonflies. (iNaturalist)
Handy Reference: Flora & Fauna Highlights
Here’s a compact list you could easily turn into a field checklist for your visit.
Notable Flora (Representative Sampling)
- Live oak
- Laurel oak
- Red maple (Solutions For Your Life)
- Slash pine
- Cabbage palm
- Saw palmetto
- Wax myrtle
- Beautyberry
- Muhly grass
- Arrowhead / bulltongue (Sagittaria lancifolia) (Solutions For Your Life)
- Pickerelweed
- Duck potato
- A mix of natives and occasional invasives such as air potato, alligatorweed, and mother-in-law’s tongue (Solutions For Your Life)
Notable Fauna (You’ve Got a Good Shot at These)
- Birds:
- Limpkin
- Green heron
- Great egret, snowy egret, white ibis
- Wood duck, mottled duck
- Belted kingfisher
- Osprey, red-shouldered hawk, barred owl
- Red-winged blackbird, cardinal, Carolina wren
- Seasonal warblers (various species) (Florida Birding Trail)
- Reptiles & Amphibians:
- Florida softshell turtle
- Peninsular cooter
- Little brown skink, brown anole
- Various frogs and toads, including narrow-mouthed toads and tree frogs (iNaturalist)
- Invertebrates:
- Roseate skimmer
- Scarlet skimmer
- Blue dasher
- Blue dragonlet
- Pin-tailed pondhawk
- Mud-dauber wasps, sand wasps, assorted butterflies (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
Practical Tips from a Muddy-Booted Naturalist
- Hours: Generally open from early morning to evening/dusk; county and birding sources list dawn-ish to sunset (or 7:30 a.m.–6/8 p.m. depending on season). Check current county info if you’re aiming for the edges of the day. (Florida Birding Trail)
- Footwear: Trails are unpaved, with wet spots year-round in some crossings—wear trail shoes or old sneakers, not your favorite leather sandals. (Visit Sarasota County)
- Bugs: Mosquitoes and gnats can be “motivational” in warm months—bring repellent. (Tripadvisor)
- Dogs: Leashed pets are permitted on trails; this is a popular dog-walking spot. (Fun 4 Manasota Kids)
- Binoculars & Camera: Essential for birding and dragonfly watching. This is an excellent place to practice photography with reflections, backlit grasses, and fast-moving odonates. (Lemon Bay Conservancy)
Leaving the Slough, Keeping the Mood
On my way back to the parking lot, I pass a kid with a fishing pole, a woman walking a rescue dog, a retired couple with binoculars and a folded paper bird list. Everyone is sharing the same 70 acres, the same slough, the same sky, each tuned to a different layer of the soundscape.
That’s the quiet magic of Red Bug Slough Preserve: it’s wild enough to satisfy a naturalist, close enough to fit between errands, and rich enough that each visit feels like a slightly different story.
When you step back out onto Beneva Road, traffic will rush past, errands will reassert themselves, phones will start buzzing again. But somewhere just behind you, dragonflies are still patrolling the ditch, limpkins are still complaining at dawn, and oak hammocks are still knitting shade over sandy trails.
And once you know it’s there, it’s very hard not to come back.