Do you enjoy watching wildlife? Do you carry binoculars in your car and keep a notebook of the birds you see along the way?

The Alabama Coastal Birding Trail offers avid birdwatchers the opportunity to view an abundance of birds, including those pelicans that fly in formation over the water and the great blue herons that feed at the water’s edge.

Starting in northern Baldwin County, the trail includes the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta Loop where birders may spot yellow-crowned night herons, red-shoulder hawks, barred owls and other birds that live on and near the river.

Traveling south to the Eastern Shore, Mobile Bay Causeway and Blakeley Island Loop, check the waterways for ducks, pelicans and wading birds. Eagle-eyed birders may also spot the occasional peregrine falcon, egret or white ibis.

Other stops along the Birding Trail include the Dauphin Island Bayou La Batre Loop and the South Baldwin County Loop. Visitors to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach venture to Perdido Pass east and west, Boggy Point, the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail, Gulf State Park Pavilion and Wade Ward Nature Park.

So go ahead and pack the binoculars and a long lens for the camera. There are no shortage of birding opportunities along the Alabama coast.