Some people call it America’s Riviera. Ray Cole calls it “this piece of paradise.” When visiting Alabama’s Gulf Coast, the McLean resident’s family builds castles in the soft, sugar-white sand, swims and goes bird watching.
This key segment of the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail includes Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Gulf Shores. Birders have spotted 370 species in this critical migratory flyway stopover for neotropical birds from Central and South America. Bon Secour, which translates to “safe haven,” spans 7,000 acres on the Fort Morgan peninsula bordered by beaches and bays. The refuge’s maritime forests, marshes and pristine beaches support such species as the piping plover, ruby-throated hummingbird, American alligator and endangered Alabama beach mouse, that feeds on sea oats and burrows in coastal dunes, said park ranger Lillian Falco.
Two weeks each spring and fall at the Fort Morgan banding station, local and vacationing volunteers capture and band thousands of birds. The purpose: to monitor populations, health and weather effects.
If You Go
gulfshores.com
800-745-SAND
Alabama Coastal Birding Trail
alabamacoastalbirdingtrail.com
877-226-9089
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge
fws.gov/bonsecour
Bird banding events
hummingbirdsplus.org/fortmorganbanding.html
Along Jeff Friend Trail, a 1-mile wheelchair-accessible loop, Falco points out redheaded woodpeckers, blue herons, edible dewberries, trees felled by 2004’s Hurricane Ivan that now support new life — part of “the circle of nature.” Life here is about endurance, she said, given the winds, shifting sands, salt and sun. The trail’s habitat-protecting boardwalk rims Little Lagoon, where wild residents needn’t be feared, said Falco; just keep your distance and don’t feed them.
Jerry Nasello’s home backs up to Bon Secour. Having Lou Gehrig’s disease, Nasello understood the challenges facing disabled vacationers, so he customized and recently began renting “Beach Power” wheelchairs. He said his motorized chairs feature a joystick, which can even be removed for operation by a caretaker, and “balloonlike tires that don’t get stuck in the deep sand.” The chair can be equipped with an 8-foot-wide umbrella. “Just stay out of the water,” Nasello advised.
Nasello noted the chair could also be used on Bon Secour’s sandy trails, to volunteer on turtle patrol during sea turtle nesting season and to participate in Fort Morgan’s bird banding events. Demand is so great that he’s expanding his fleet.
Cole suggests the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail, a scenic, wheelchair-accessible asphalt and boardwalk route winding through between Gulf State Park and Orange Beach. “The trail has benches and swings under moss-draped oaks and magnolia trees.”
In Gulf Shores, getaways are open to all.
Reach Robin Tierney at [email protected]
