SHORELINES

Many of the sites on the Alabama Birding Trail are on Alabama Power lakes. We picked a few scattered across the state and asked Ken Hare, an avid birder based in Montgomery, to share a few of his "can't-miss" spots. LOGAN MARTIN DAM Birding Trail: Appalachian Highlands Look for: black-crowned night herons (on the shoals below the dam) and bald eagles, as well as hawks in the sky above the dam. CHEROKEE RIDGE AT LAKE MARTIN Birding Trail: Piedmont Plateau Look for: bald eagles over the water and turkeys in the forest, as well as many other small woodland birds. WIND CREEK STATE PARK AT LAKE MARTIN Birding Trail: Piedmont Plateau Look for: ospreys, gulls and terns on and near the water, plus red-headed woodpeckers in the trees. In open areas, keep your eyes peeled for American goldfinches and eastern bluebirds. WEISS LAKE OVERLOOK Birding Trail: Appalachian Highlands Look for: gulls, including the rare glaucous or lesser black-backed, American white pelicans in winter, and great blue herons and great egrets year-round. COOSA WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA DOUBLE BRIDGES AT LAKE MITCHELL Birding Trail: Piedmont Plateau Look for: high numbers of songbirds, raptors and game birds as well as one of the few remaining populations of red-cockaded woodpeckers. "Any of the state's large lakes are great places to bird. ere is something about lakes and birds that go together. At Lake Martin, Wind Creek State Park is a favorite place of mine. It is an especially good spot to photograph woodpeckers – red-headed woodpeckers, red- bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, northern flickers, even an occasional pileated woodpecker. I have also seen bald eagles flying over Lake Martin, Lake Jordan and Lay Lake. And don't forget to look below the dams in the spillway areas for birds. Cormorants, anhingas, ospreys, herons and egrets, even on rare occasions white pelicans, are oen attracted to the fish below a dam." By Ken Hare Photo: Steven Rod MacLeroy 22 | 2017 Vol:3

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