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Written by Pamela Ann Lanning
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Thursday, 27 March 2008 |
It's a bird watcher's paradise in the areas around Mobile Bay and all of our beautiful Alabama Gulf Coast! The Alabama Coastal Birding Trail winds through Baldwin and Mobile counties and the loops can easily be driven from one to another.
( To request your 52 page free copy of the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail Guidebook go to www.alabamacoastalbirdingtrail.com.) You might see a great blue heron sailing across a Mobile Bay sunset, or Brown Pelicans flying in perfect formation as they prepare to nose-dive into the Bay or the Gulf for their food! Our area is a popular one for many migrating and wintering birds, as well as year-round residents. Some resident birds include the Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal and Eastern Screech Owl. The Blue Grosbeak, Summer Tanager and Acadian Flycatcher nest here in the summer.
Fairhope, a charming town on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, has been a Bird Sanctuary since 1977, through the efforts of the Fairhope Garden Club. Also, Fairhope has been officially declared the "Purple Martin Riviera"! Garland Sims and Charles Dean first put up 27 Eastern Bluebird houses at the Fairhope beach parks back in 1996, but this project was unsuccessful so they changed their focus. After a lot of tireless effort, by 2001 there were finally 19 Purple Martin birdhouse condos erected along the Fairhope waterfront. They were rapidly occupied by the Purple Martins and have they have faithfully returned every year since,....starting in early Feb. and continuing into late spring. We also get alot of other migrating birds here that come to our birdfeeders like American Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwings & Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, as well as resident birds such as the Eastern Bluebirds, Northern Cardinals, Red-winged Blackbirds, Bluejays & many, many more.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 March 2008 )
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