League City sees chance to fly high with birding
Developing programs to make the area a destination for birdwatchers could help tourism take off, officials say
League City is hoping that its efforts to become a birding destination will help tourism take flight.
Boosting tourism by attracting birders is no flight of fancy: About 80 million birdwatchers contribute more than $40 billion to the U.S. economy.
“Birding is a huge industry,” said Stephanie Polk, manager of the city’s convention and visitors’ bureau. “Birdwatching is a wonderful market for tourism. It’s also something that people do that’s safe and they can keep a social distance. It’s really an untapped market for this area.”
Birders can be hardcore. “Some birdwatchers start in the early part of the year in the Rio Grande Valley, then they come up the Texas coast and they go all the way to Florida,” Polk said. “They follow the migration patterns and depending on what you are interested in, different areas have different offerings.”
Much to offer
When it comes to attracting birders, League City has much to tout. It is home to eight municipal parks, a county park, a prairie preserve, a nature center and several hike-and-bike trails. Clear Creek runs through town, and the city is also situated on Clear Lake. Combine all that with the fact the city has a footprint of more than 50 square miles with large swaths of yet-undeveloped land, and there are numerous places for birders to have a field day.
Local birds range from water birds such as brown pelicans — which dive-bomb lakes and ponds for fish — to tiny songbirds.
“We have all these amazing birding hot spots,” Polk said. “We have the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, which runs through the entire state (and) we are on the Clear Lake Loop.”
Guide in the works
Acknowledging that, Polk is working on a birding guide for the entire Bay Area.
“I’m kind of working on what locations we have, what makes them special, what’s the best time to see (different birds) and what people need to know about it,” she said. “I’m partnering with Galveston and Lone Star Coastal Alliance and a bunch of other organizations.
“I’m not the only one that thinks birding is an important market. There’s a lot of other regional partners that get it and understand it.”
Polk has experience when it comes to marketing a city as a birding destination. She did that in Beaumont before moving to League City last year.
“We had a wetlands area that we developed called Cattail Marsh,” she said of Beaumont. “It was part of the water reclamation area for the city. It was a huge wetland that became a major haven for birds, and the birdwatchers would come from all over the world to look at the birds.
“We realized there was something to be said for this; so we built a boardwalk and there’s an education center there now. We started tours and really started to push it. That was a big development for us.”
Birding classes planned
In an effort to get the homefolk interested in birding, League City has several programs in the offing.
One event is today, the Tweet Heart Trail Walk, which will be held at 10 a.m. at Dr. Ned and Fay Dudney Nature Center, 1220 Egret Bay Blvd. North.
Participants will stroll the nature center’s paths, have a birding session with a Texas master naturalist and learn how to access birding apps.
On tap are some birding classes.
“There will be a series of eight weeks of classes on Monday nights (beginning March 22) and we will be doing them via Zoom online for free,” League City spokeswoman Sarah Greer Osborne said. “Then our plan is to culminate the eight weeks in May with the Big Sit.
“Cities all over the U.S. do it and you sit and you count birds. It’s billed as one of the easiest recreational activities around.”
Registration for the online classes can be done via the city’s website at https://bityl.co/5Yqp.