Mobile-Tensaw Delta is a world unto itself

The second largest delta in North America is one of the world's most bio-diverse estuaries just north of the Gulf Coast

We visited the Mobile-Tensaw Delta aboard a pontoon boat operated by Wild Native Tours from the dock at Five Rivers Delta Resource Center. We went on a two-hour tour, but Wild Native offers a variety of tours throughout the Delta, which is the second largest river delta in the United States.

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Five rivers converge in the delta, which flows into Mobile Bay.  The rivers are the Mobile, Spanish, Tensaw, Apalachee and Blakeley rivers. That makes the brackish water at the Delta full of fish and wildlife from alligators to herons. The eminent biologist E.O. Wilson, who grew up along the Delta, has said it is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. 

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In 2017, Wilson told Ben Raines of Al.com: "It is arguably the biologically richest place," describing the importance of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta on a global scale. "The delta floodplain forest and swamp, and the area immediately around it, including the Red Hills to the north, has more species of plants and animals than any comparable area anywhere in North America ... it is a place yet completely unexplored, sort of like the upper Amazon."

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The Delta drains a massive land area of streams, rivers, floodplains, lakes, bayous, swamps, and forests.  It floods each spring and provides submerged grass beds for cover and nourishment for rich spawning grounds sought out by speckled trout, reds and shrimp and other ocean sea life. In all, the system includes nine rivers, the Alabama and Mobile are the largest and ships have plied its waters for centuries. The system also includes the Tombigbee, Spanish, Blakeley, Tensaw, Apalachee, Raft, and Middle.  The rivers drain five Alabama counties. The Five Rivers Delta Center, open every day except holidays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., offers tours, kayak rentals, and picnic areas.

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Scientists have identified 500 plants, 300 birds, 126 species of fish, 46 mammals, 69 reptiles, and 30 amphibians in the Delta. 185,000 acres within the Delta are now preserved and protected. 

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We joined the tour on a September morning at the Five Rivers Delta Center, intent on seeing the rarely blooming American lotus, which is abundant in the Delta. The lotus is quite common in wetlands throughout much of the eastern and central United States, as well as California and eastern Canada. However, it is rare because it blooms June through September, and each pale, yellow petals, with a darker yellow center, shooting up on a single stalk, only lasts a couple of days.

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As we floated through the Delta, dragon flies flitting around us, we knew its flowing waters created an ecosystem that included alligators, hawks, herons, ibis, bears, turtles, and fauna, including Queen Anne’s Lace, massive live oaks and cypress trees, gum trees and delicate orchids. The fall day we took the trip we didn’t see orchids, but we were on the boat to see the gorgeous blooming beds of the flowering American lotus.

Margaret Renkl of the New York Times floated into the Delta to see the flower a few weeks before we took the trip. And she reported: “The American lotus is no relation to those in Homer’s epic, but it is every bit as intoxicating as the ancient lotus of yore: thousands of pale yellow flowers rising on foot-high stalks above floating pads with water pearled across their surfaces, the petals of each bloom curling gently toward the sun. Their deep-golden centers are tangled with white-tipped stamens, a flower within a flower, and their enormous, unopened buds are as delicately furled as any miniature rose. There spidery stems spread out across the water and their blooms exploded in bouquets of yellow.” 

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The capable crew of Wild Native floated us back toward the dock, taking time to search out flowers and gators alike, and we ended the tour enriched by a beautiful day on the Delta.

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The Center is at 30945 5 Rivers Blvd, Daphne, Alabama. Its phone number is (251) 625-0814.