PALM BAY - With its tall banks shaded by hardwood trees, Turkey Creek seems a bit out of place in hot, flat coastal Florida.

And that's just fine with visitors to the sanctuary that holds the river's upper reaches.

"Just being out there in the woods is what makes people like this place," Park Ranger Jenny McVicker said. "A lot of people say it reminds them of being up north."

The 130-acre city park is small, but there's a lot to see within its variety of landscapes. And the park staff and designers make it easy for anyone to not only take in the scenery, but learn about it as they go.

The Audubon Society co-owns the place, which is famous for what David Simpson of Rockledge calls its "incredible variety of migrant songbirds."

The warblers are the star attraction, as more than 20 kinds of the talented singer have been recorded in the park.

And since the flitty birds are hard to identify, the more expert birders keep a tally of what they've seen in recent weeks. And the names of the birds they record are as colorful as the birds themselves.

McVicker said a recent list of sightings included the "worm-eating, prairie, parula, yellow-throated, black-and-white and cerulean" warblers, the latter of which "got everyone really excited because it isn't seen very often."

The list of birds seen in the park continues to grow, and birders say the nearly two-mile jogging trail is the best place to spy songbirds, especially in the early morning and evening.

"This is a wonderful migratory spot and (bird-watchers) are always getting excited about what they see," McVicker siad. "They'll even send out alarms for other people when they see something unusual."

The ranger said August saw more than 1,400 visitors come to the park, a number that climbs to about 2,000 monthly in the winter.

But if those viewers start to get kinks in their necks from taking in the flyers, they can cast their view back to the ground, where there are plenty of new sightings, as the wildflowers also change with the seasons.

A running list of what's in bloom is also kept at a kiosk, and McVicker said it currently shows "goldenrod, blazing star, partridge pea -- the butterflies really like that -- American beauty berry and golden aster, which I like because it's such a silky flower" along with others.

There are also plenty of land animals that are regularly seen, from the ubiquitous squirrel and raccoon to the funky gopher tortoise, and McVicker said one of her favorite unusual sightings is of the occasional gray fox.

But the creek for which this sanctuary is named is home to one of the area's most famous residents, and one that's among just about anybody's favorite sightings. And you can count Mike Brown among the manatees' biggest fans.

"Oh, yeah, I love to see them in the water," said Brown, who lives on Turkey Creek downstream from the sanctuary. "I see them all the time. In fact, they use my boat for birthing. I'll go out there sometimes, and a manatee will be right there with her baby, and that's so exciting to watch."

Brown belongs to a watch-dog organization called Friends of Turkey Creek, which keeps abreast of ecological issues affecting the creek and has been very active in protecting it.

He is happy to report there's been a great deal done to protect the creek, including the public purchase of the sizeable Outlaw Island within its waters and parks along the creek's banks.

And he's quick to give a lot of credit to the city of his city.

"Palm Bay has just been terrific," Brown said. "And they've got some awesome plans for Turkey Creek in the future to tie all the greenways together."

It is only from water level on the creek that a visitor can get the best feel for how Turkey Creek Sanctuary stands out as an oasis of environmental diversity.

Starting, as most boating visitors to the park do, in the palm-lined bay from which Palm Bay gets its name, paddlers go through a wide-open expanse of low-lying marsh before taking a left turn at the sanctuary boundary. Here they enter another world.

The wide-open sunny space suddenly turns into shaded shelter under towering cliffs and trees that make paddlers feel they've traveled -- well, as McVicker put it, "up north."

Visitors wanting to give themselves the impression of traveling such a long distance without spending much on gas can rent canoes and kayaks at either of two marinas where U.S. 1 crosses Turkey Creek. It's an easy two-mile paddle from there to the sanctuary's canoe landing where visitors can get out directly onto the boardwalk to add a walking tour to the experience.