Alabama Nature Guide: March 2026
March is full-throated spring in Alabama — dogwoods and redbuds light the woods, the Mobile azaleas explode into color, trout lilies and trilliums carpet the Bankhead coves, and the first trans-Gulf migrants begin reaching Dauphin Island. The warm-season garden goes in across the south as the whole state greens up from the coast northward.
What to look for this week
- Sandhill Cranes crowd the fields at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge at their winter peak, bugling over the Tennessee River, while Christmas Bird Counts wrap up across the state.
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks in a short, sharp burst around January 3 — best after midnight from a dark Cumberland Plateau ridge or the unlit west end of Dauphin Island.
- Camellias, the state flower, open red, pink, and white against the cold in gardens across central and south Alabama and at Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile.
Birds This Month
March opens Alabama's spring migration — and the legend of the Gulf Coast. The earliest trans-Gulf migrants begin arriving on Dauphin Island and at Fort Morgan, the famous landfall sites where tired songbirds drop in after the long flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Watch for the first Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, with Purple Martins now established at their colonies.
The Sandhill Cranes depart Wheeler NWR for the north, and wintering ducks and sparrows thin out. Resident birds are in full breeding song — Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wrens, Brown Thrashers, Eastern Towhees, and the state bird, the Northern Flicker (Yellowhammer) — and Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Chickadees, and Brown-headed Nuthatches are nesting. In the longleaf pine of the south, Bachman's Sparrows begin their sweet whistled songs and the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker is active at its cavity clusters. The first Swallow-tailed Kites return to the lower Coastal Plain and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta late in the month — one of the South's most elegant raptors.
What's Blooming
March is one of Alabama's greatest wildflower months. The signature spectacle is the flowering dogwood and eastern redbud, which light the understory white and magenta across the state — celebrated on the dogwood trails of Birmingham and Mountain Brook — while on the Gulf Coast the famous Mobile azaleas erupt into great banks of pink, red, and white, drawing visitors to Bellingrath Gardens and the city's old neighborhoods.
On the woodland floor of north Alabama and the Bankhead National Forest, the spring ephemerals carpet the rich coves — trout lily, spring beauty, bloodroot, hepatica, rue anemone, Dutchman's breeches, the first trilliums, and wild ginger — a brief, dazzling show on the forest floor before the canopy closes. Carolina jessamine drapes fragrant yellow over the woods, native wild azaleas and red buckeye begin in the south, and the fields fill with violets, henbit, and toadflax. In gardens, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and creeping phlox peak, and the first wisteria drips purple from the trees.
Garden This Month
March is the busy heart of the Alabama spring garden, with the season running weeks ahead in the south. The cool-season garden is in full swing statewide — sow and harvest peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, and greens, set out onion plants, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, and plant asparagus, strawberries, and fruit trees while still dormant. In the warm Coastal Plain, the warm-season garden begins late in the month.
This is prime planting and prep month: finish setting out blueberries, brambles, and muscadine grapes, mulch beds, and side-dress overwintered crops. In the south, set out hardened-off tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant after mid-March once frost danger truly passes, and direct-sow beans, squash, cucumbers, corn, and melons into warming soil — but in the north and on the plateau, hold those tender crops until April and keep frost cloth ready. Watch for the first aphids and cutworms, pull early weeds before they seed, and enjoy the fast, green growth as the long Alabama growing season takes off.
Zone 7b (Cumberland Plateau & north Alabama): the cool-season garden goes in now. Direct-sow peas, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets, and radishes, set out onion plants, potatoes, cabbage, and broccoli, and keep warm-season transplants growing indoors — the last frost is still weeks off, into mid-April.
Zone 8a (central Alabama & Black Belt): the frost-free date nears late this month. Keep the cool-season garden producing, and harden off tomatoes and peppers for setting out at month's end in the warmest spots — but keep frost cloth handy for a late cold snap.
Zone 8b (lower Coastal Plain & Gulf Coast): the warm-season garden begins. Set out tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant after mid-month once frost danger passes, direct-sow beans, squash, cucumbers, and corn, and plant sweet potato slips toward month's end.
What's at the Farmers Market
March brings the first real freshness back to Alabama markets as the spring crops come in, especially from the warm south. The earliest tender greens and roots appear — lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes, green onions, baby carrots, and bunches of cooking greens — alongside the last of the winter collards, kale, cabbage, and stored sweet potatoes, potatoes, and onions. The first strawberries may appear at the very end of the month on the Gulf Coast.
Tender herbs, green garlic, and the first cut flowers brighten the stands, and bedding plants, seed potatoes, and tomato and pepper transplants crowd the tables for home gardeners. Shelled pecans, local honey, and stone-ground grits and cornmeal remain market staples. Year-round markets such as Birmingham's Pepper Place are gearing up for the season. Choose spring greens crisp and bright and store them cold and damp in the crisper, pick radishes and carrots firm, and rinse and dry tender greens before refrigerating to keep them fresh through the week.
Night Sky This Month
March's milder nights make for comfortable stargazing as the winter sky gives way to spring across Alabama's dark-sky sites — the Von Braun Astronomical Society observatory and field at Monte Sano State Park near Huntsville, the Cumberland Plateau and Bankhead National Forest ridgelines, and the unlit Gulf beaches of west Dauphin Island. The spring equinox around March 20 brings nights and days into balance as the season turns.
The brilliant winter constellations sink into the west after dark — catch Orion and Sirius before they go — while the spring sky climbs in the east. Leo the Lion rides high in the south with bright Regulus and its backward-question-mark Sickle, the Beehive Cluster in Cancer glows in binoculars, and the Big Dipper swings high overhead, its handle arcing down to orange Arcturus rising in the east. The faint galaxy-rich realm of Virgo and Coma Berenices begins to climb — a telescope feast from a dark site. No major meteor shower falls this month. The printable Alabama night-sky guide lists this year's exact planet positions and the best dark-sky sites for your region.
Butterflies & Pollinators
March is when Alabama's butterfly year truly begins, racing ahead in the warm south. The spring specialists emerge in the rich woods — the small white falcate orangetip (the male orange-tipped) flies low over its mustard hosts, the tiny spring azure dances at woodland edges, and the first eastern tiger swallowtails and zebra swallowtails (over the pawpaw thickets) appear on warm days. Spicebush, black, and pipevine swallowtails follow, and the overwintered mourning cloaks, commas, and question marks are joined by fresh broods.
The first monarchs moving north from Mexico reach Alabama this month, pausing to lay eggs on emerging milkweed — leave any volunteer milkweed standing for them. On the Gulf Coast and across the south, gulf fritillaries, cloudless sulphurs, sleepy oranges, American and painted ladies, and the first red admirals and common buckeyes brighten gardens and fields. Grass skippers begin in the meadows. Watch the dogwood, redbud, azalea, and wild plum blossoms for clouds of nectaring butterflies on warm sunny afternoons — the pollinator garden is waking fully now.
Trees This Month
March is the great flowering and leaf-out month for Alabama's trees, the green wave sweeping up from the coast to the plateau. The understory show defines the month: eastern redbud covers its bare branches in magenta, and flowering dogwood opens its white four-bracted flowers across the woods — the signature Alabama spring trees. The native red buckeye, fringetree, and silverbell begin to bloom in the rich woods, and wild plum and the cultivated Bradford pears foam white along the roadsides.
The canopy trees flower and leaf out fast: the red and silver maples set their winged samaras, the oaks and hickories push tassels of catkins and reddish new leaves, the black cherry, river birch, and sweetgum leaf out, and the tulip tree unfurls its distinctive leaves. The longleaf, loblolly, and shortleaf pines push pale candles of new growth and shed clouds of yellow pollen across the Coastal Plain. On the Gulf Coast and through the south, the woods are nearly full green by month's end, while on the cooler plateau the leaf-out is just beginning in the high coves.
Go deeper with the Alabama guides
The complete Alabama birding, native-plant, wildflower, and night-sky guides — or the whole year in one bundle.
Same month elsewhere: March in Arizona · March in Arkansas · March in California