TEMPORARY EDIT: Unfortunately, Bayfront Park, where the arrow points you, has closed until Spring 2027. The pier and coordinates for Entrance #2 are still accessible via a long walk through Village Point Park Preseve. For these directions, please use trailheads and directions listed on the EarthCache nearby, GCB6KFE. Please proceed to Entrance #1 for park visiting and bird watching. This will be changed back to normal when Bayfront Park reopens and Entrance #2 can be used as an entrance, again!
Welcome to Village Point Park Preserve! (sorta) I have a goal to place a cache at each one of the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail locations. This is for site 24. This one is a little different. The sign was removed at the location (at the end of this road) during a revamp of the area. I don't think the sign will be put up again down there. The site is at the end of the road in which this cache is placed in front of. The arrow on the sign will point you to the actual site. PLEASE park at the parking waypoint. This is an entrance to the preserve (I'm not sure why the sign wasn't placed here) Although, this is not at the site, i am still counting this as it is very near. I have visited this site many time. Two reference points are attached for site entrances. You do NOT have to visit these for the cache, this is only for people who may want to visit the actual site, like this series is based around. This cache is near a busy road so watch out and be away of your surroundings as the cache is located a few feet from the road.
At approximately 70 acres, Village Point Park Preserve is the largest park in the city of Daphne. A parking lot with bathrooms and a picnic pavilion marks the beginning of a 3,000- foot main trail that takes visitors westward toward Mobile Bay. Along the bay are a pier and an extensive boardwalk where visitors can walk north to Bayfront Park, another Daphne city park that eBird links with Village Point as a single birding hotspot. Mixed pines and hardwoods dominate the property. Yancey Branch flows along the southern boundary of the park, and a small marsh is found near the bay.
Year-round residents include Great Horned and Barred Owls, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatch and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in the woods and Brown Pelicans and a great variety of terns and herons near the bay and marsh. In winter, a great mix of ducks are visible in the bay, although a scope can be helpful to check out the distant ones. Gadwall is the dominant winter duck, but Buffleheads are common, both scaups fairly common, and all the scoters possible. American White Pelicans appear in winter, sometimes in squadrons of more than 100, and small numbers of Horned Grebes are also present then. The spit at the north end of the beach often has a mix of shorebirds, but the best shorebird show comes when the water in the bay is low. Then, shorebirds can be abundant on mudflats offshore. Both adult and young Bald Eagles are frequently on the mudflats or in the air, sometimes right overhead, particularly in winter. Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Yellow-throated Warblers and Northern Parulas breed in the park, and other Alabama summer birds often visit.
Within Village Point Park is D’Olive Cemetery, a burial site of early Daphne settlers. This burial site dates to the early 1800s, making the D’Olives the oldest family in Daphne and one of the oldest in Baldwin County. Several graves remaining in the cemetery bear headstone inscriptions in French. In addition to its historical significance, the area near the cemetery is often excellent for migrants in spring and fall. Two paths lead through the woods from the cemetery. In spring, they often have Swainson’s Warblers, and in fall they often yield such special birds as Canada Warbler. Migrant birds can also be found near the beach, particularly by the north end of the marsh.
Jackson’s Oak, a massive Live Oak, is at the site where General Andrew Jackson is said to have once bivouacked his troops.