Seabrook's Pine Gully Park is one of Clear Lake's contributions to the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. Photo by Ben DeSotoReady to go exploring for birds beyond your back yard?

Texas Parks & Wildlife includes nine Clear Lake hot spots on its Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail:

• McHale Park: 400 Todville Road in Seabrook

Right there on the shores of Galveston Bay, you'll almost certainly find American white pelicans in the winter. Herons and egrets hang out in the nearby marshes.

• Hester Garden Park: 3029 Todville Road in Seabrook

A former nursery, Hester Garden Park is small, but many of the surprisingly large variety of trees and shrubs are evergreen, making the park a year-around buffet for insects and therefore migratory birds.

• Pine Gully Park: 605 Pine Gully in Seabrook

The pretty Galveston Bay shoreline draws picnickers, joggers and the restored wetlands draws water birds, but wander back into the trees to see the landbirds that stop by each winter.

• Robinson Park: 702 Red Bluff Road in Seabrook

The mature oak woodlands on the edge of Galveston Bay attracts migratory birds. A path connects Robinson Park with Pine Gully Park, so it's a good chance to get out of your car.

• Armand Bayou Nature Center: 8500 Bay Area Blvd. in Pasadena

It has wetlands, woodlands and prairie all in one preserve, so you can just imagine the variety of birds to be seen year-around. Lots of walking paths to choose from.

• Bay Area Park: 7500 Bay Area Blvd. in Houston

On the shores of Armand Bayou, you'll share the park with kids on swingsets, but you'll share it with osprey or other interesting birds as well.

• Nassau Bay Park: Upper Bay Road at Clear Creek in Nassau Bay

Texas Parks & Wildlife offers up this city park as "a respite if you are in the area on business." But there's a new alternative just on the other side of Clear Creek with lots more elbow room: the Dudney Nature Center over in League City.

• Challenger 7 Memorial Park: 2301 W. NASA Parkway in Webster

Along the nature trail and boardwalk on Clear Creek, look for eastern woodland birds and white-tailed hawks nesting nearby.

• Walter Hall County Park: 807 Highway 3 in League City

Another park designed more for kids than birdwatchers, but almost any spot on Clear Creek will do if you have a pair of binoculars.

Print out a map of the Clear Lake loop of the Coastal Birding Trail.

See more great birding sites along the Coastal Birding Trail.