Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center

Beautiful Place. Exotic coastal birds. Be weather wise and bring water. I visit here 3 times a year. Always leave happy. Birder's paradise.

Home of Boots the local celebrity alligator. Apparently he is the only gator in this area as he is territorial and tries to run any others off. Don't recommend bringing your pets for this reason, they're not allowed anyway (it's posted). We've been here a few times but today we arrived earlier in the day (around 9:30AM on a Wednesday) and we got lucky and finally got to see him! It made our day as he was always MIA our previous visits. If you're on the boardwalk and lucky you can stand right over him (got several awesome photos), so much different (better) than seeing an alligator in captivity, truly an awesome experience. There's also tons of birds everywhere to observe (it is a birding center after all, although many who come visit are focused on Boots haha). In our recent May visit there were butterflies EVERYWHERE over the fields (hard to see from photo), it was surreal and magical like a fairytale (I got a video that did the incredible sight more justice). A must-see spot if you are in Port Aransas, definitely recommend coming during the warm seasons as it is rather cold and windy on the boardwalk otherwise. We'll be back, see ya later Boots!PS regarding the smell - yes it is a bit smelly being right next door to a water treatment plant but once you get away from the entrance and go further out on the boardwalk the smell goes away. Go take a few minutes to experience and enjoy the wildlife!

I always see an alligator, flamingos, and rosette spoon bills here! This is a great place for birders of any experience.

It was coolThe birds there were nice, and there is also very good equipment. The environment is nice, but it is next to a water treatment plant, so it smells quite bad

I think you need to be a birder to really enjoy this place. It's nice for a non-birder but won't take a ton of time. Beware of rats by the entrance path. That wasn't my idea of wonderful but at least they moved out of the way. We also saw the alligator which was cool.

If you're a bird watcher, photographer, or just like being in nature, you have to visit here when in Port A. Hundreds of different types of birds hang out here in this beautiful wetland. A long, wooden walkway takes you out to a tower where you can see the bay system and Charlie's Pasture.Some of the stuff we saw: blue crabs, hermit crabs, mullet, gaftop, redfish, alligator, turtles, about 7 types of ducks, white and brown pelicans, seagulls, night heron, rosette spoonbill, terns, ibis, crested caracara, 3 types of hawks. There is a lot to see.

We almost missed the entrance due to the incorrect gps location but luckily we drove a bit further and found it. Free to enter so that's great. There were quite a few serious birders and they block the pathways. I enjoy nature but also wanted to explore. Should have brought my good camera and probably tennis shoes instead of flip flops for the uneven flooring.The main negative thing is that there are garbage dumps surrounding this place and the smell is awful. I wore a mask and it didn't help block these disgusting smells. It is pretty sad how poorly kept the island is. Looks like they are in process of expanding the pier which would be great if they can keep it away from the garbage dumps.We saw some beautiful birds, there were informative signs showing some of the bird types however the signs were also blocked by the birders.

I'll admit it makes it easy to appreciate a place like this if you are from Texas and have spent a lifetime here. I have been in and around the gulf coast estuaries my entire life. The good and bad. My earliest memories are of a Coast in pristine untouched condition. As the decades have marched on the encroachment of man leaves his marks, large and small. For example, only a few miles from here Exon is building the largest refinery constructed in the USA for decades. When fully operational, what effect will it have on this place? In the winter, this is a major migratory thoroughfare for migrating birds. I've seen 10 to 20 different species just standing here for ten minutes. Several, I have no idea what they are. I'm glad man has the forethought to set aside places like this. It's nice and yes, there are gators here!

Great place to enjoy the outdoors and see birds. Nice decking areas to walk on above the grass and bird look out areas too

So this could have been nice if there was not a "no pets" allowed sign. Our fur-baby is well behaved/trained and if she had an accident we clean up after her. So we were not able to fully explore this area do to this silly sign posting. The website has no information that would lead you to believe you could not have a pet with you in an outdoor setting. If you are traveling or have a fur-baby I would pass this one up. Also this is literally by the waste water plant so you are in for a smell of a lifetime.