The Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Trail isn't your standard trail -- a beginning, an end and a twisty dirt path in between.

Think of it instead as a necklace of 65 viewing sites linked by roadways. Hiking trails, roadway pull-offs and state refuges are all included.

The guide to the trail -- available for $8.95 at bookstores or free online -- pulls together a wildlife bonanza that's particularly popular now that spring has migratory birds flocking back to Alaska.

Already, half the 14,000 copies are gone.

On May 20, the Kenai Watershed Forum will host the opening of a wildlife viewing platform at the Kenai River mouth, a site on the trail. In recent weeks, the platform has doubled as great place to watch Mount Redoubt's burps.

Written by former newspaper reporter Doug O'Harra with contributions from Fish and Game staffers, the sites detailed in "Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Guide" were nominated by local communities and such organizations as the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies, the Kenai Watershed Forum, business owners and the Kenaitze Native Tribe.

"It was fabulous," O'Harra said. "I started out not knowing much about birds. I had to learn to identify them. By end of the summer, I became a novice birder."

Minnesota travel writer Jim Williams spent a week on the trail last summer and came away wowed by places like Gull Island in Kachemak Bay.

"Thousands of gulls and seabirds filled our eyes, ears, and without doubt our noses," he said. "This is an intense place during breeding season, with courtship beginning in May and young birds screaming for food well into the summer.

"Slowly circle Gull Island and you have 20,000 birds all demanding attention one way or another."

Black-legged kittiwakes are the dominant species and they're everywhere.

"Kittiwakes nesting, calling, circling above us.

"Glaucous-winged gulls are here, with pelagic and red-faced cormorants, horned and tufted puffins and a few pigeon guillemots. Surf scoters float in flocks 10 birds wide by 200 birds long.

"Where do I look next?"

Or, for that matter, where does one go next?

Gull Island is just one stop on the trail, which is largely focused on birds. Published by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the guide lists 256 bird species.

Heading south from Potter's Marsh, the trail extends to Seward, Kenai, Homer and Seldovia.

"It's doing well," said retired Fish and Game biologist Ken Tarbox of the guide he helped coordinate. "It's getting a lot of feedback from people -- even some long-term residents saying they didn't know so much was available."

O'Harra may have been among them.

"I found that you can go out to various spots and if you spend some time and glass the mountainsides, you can see sheep and bear with some regularity," he said.

Tarbox told O'Harra one of the best places to run across bears was Skilak Lake Road. So the two men drove it together, and in less than an hour spotted three bears. O'Harra was impressed.

"Though I've done it a couple of times since," O'Harra allowed, "and not been so lucky."

Tarbox said the guide can be particularly useful for Alaskans besieged by visiting relatives.

"Just hand 'em the book and say, 'go,' he suggested. "We have lots of friends visiting us, and I can tell you the guide works. They can find these spots, and it's road accessible."

According to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, some 48 million Americans are bird watchers. "Bird watching has never been more popular," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director H. Dale Hall.

And potentially profitable. The Fish and Wildlife Service said birders spent roughly $31 billion in 2006 on wildlife watching experiences, including binoculars, field guides, bird food, bird houses, camping gear and such big-ticket items as boats.

Avid birders might even save a little money with the guide. Instead of flying to the Aleutian Islands to see rock sandpipers, a devoted birder can find them wintering at the mouth of the Kasilof River.

Reporter Mike Campbell is at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

The guide "Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Guide" is available at bookstores and visitor centers, or for free on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Web site. Visit www.kenaipeninsula.org to view the guide online and for details on ordering a printed copy.

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