While you enjoy visiting our beautiful shores, keep in mind that our beaches have local wildlife residents. Several species of wildlife make their homes in the sand, plants and dunes of our coast. Please do your part to keep their homes safe while you enjoy your time frolicking in the waves. Here are a few ways to do just that: Give nesting areas some space. Even if you don’t see birds, that doesn’t mean eggs and nests may not be [...]
You’ve just enjoyed another glorious day on the Alabama beaches and it’s time to pack it in for the night. We’ve got a quick five-step checklist to ensure you Leave Only Footprints and keep the spot pristine for the next visitors. First, pick up all your trash. And when we say “all,” we mean those little can tabs, bottle caps, snack wrappers and cigarette butts. It may seem small, but it adds up. Make it a game for the kids [...]
One way to protect the coast is to implement environmentally friendly practices all year long, including over the Christmas holidays. Some ways to go green this Christmas include using LED lights, which emit 80 percent less energy than traditional Christmas lights and last 10 times longer according to Today’s Homeowner. Limit your use of lights by turning them off when you go to bed at night. Another tip from Today’s Homeowner is to go old-fashioned when it comes to choosing [...]
How much do you know about the Share the Beach program? While thousands of families converge on our beautiful beaches each year for their summer vacation, so do thousands of sea turtles. Starting in May, female sea turtles make their way hundreds of miles to our shores to lay eggs, which hatch between July and October. Once they hatch, the young sea turtles must make their way to the Gulf of Mexico. That’s when they need our help. Hatchlings are [...]
If you have visited our Alabama Gulf Coast, you have most likely seen a great blue heron, a wading bird that stands as tall as four feet and has a wingspan of nearly six feet. They are loners, so it’s not unusual to see a solitary, thin silhouette of one close to the shoreline at sunrise or sunset. No doubt about it: Herons are built to catch fish. Those stately, majestic, great blue herons stand perfectly still while stalking their [...]
