Location: Whatcom County.
Habitat: A 100-acre preserve with grassy banks by braided channels of Nooksack River, and wetland sloughs lined by alders and cedars.
Best season for birding: Good year-round; December for bald eagles.
Birds commonly seen: Many bald eagles gather here in winter to feed on salmon carcasses. In spring, look for spotted sandpipers, yellow-rumped warblers and harlequin ducks. Spotted towhees, bushtits, American dippers, Steller's jays, dark-eyed juncos, house finches and evening grosbeaks are seen anytime.
December 16, 2004
Location: Town of Chelan, Chelan County.
Habitat: Family-friendly municipal park where the Chelan River flows out of Lake Chelan.
Best seasons for birding: Good year-round.
Birds commonly seen: In fall and winter, look for common loons, belted kingfishers and pied-billed, horned and western grebes.
Spring and summer bring American goldfinches, yellow-rumped warblers and cliff, barn, tree, and violet-green swallows. Townsend's solitaires migrate through in spring and fall.
December 2, 2004
Location: Five miles south of Blaine, Whatcom County.
Habitat: A 194-acre park with gravel beach on saltwater shoreline, Terrell Creek and freshwater marsh.
Best seasons for birding: Spring, fall and winter.
October 21, 2004
Location: Near Moses Lake, in Eastern Washington.
Habitat: About 3,100 acres of the Bureau of Reclamation/Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife North Potholes Reserve with open-water wetlands, mature willow trees and seasonal mud flats. Listed as an Important Bird Area by Audubon Society.
Seasons for birding: Year-round; now is good time to observe migrations of passerines and shorebirds.
October 7, 2004
Location: Near Cashmere, Chelan County.
Habitat: A 25,000-acre U.S. Forest Service area with an extremely large stand of ponderosa pine; also coniferous/deciduous forest and riparian area. Designated an Important Bird Area as part of a worldwide program to identify sites most essential for healthy, long-term bird populations.
Best seasons for birding: Summer and fall.
September 16, 2004
Location: Everett.
Best seasons for birding: Year-round.
Habitat: A 412-acre island in Snohomish River estuary surrounded by trees and saltwater- and freshwater sloughs. Owned by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Snohomish County.
September 2, 2004
Location: Near Winthrop, Okanogan County.
Best seasons for birding: Spring through fall.
Habitat: Popular 580-acre state park with large lake and sandy beach surrounded by dry hills with shrubs and scattered groves of trees.
Birds commonly seen: More than 136 species have been recorded here, with reliable sightings of eagles, hawks, owls and warblers.
Watch also for occasional American redstarts, Lewis' woodpeckers, Clark's nutcrackers, black swifts, red-eyed vireos, Brewer's sparrows, veeries and lazuli buntings.
August 12, 2004
Location: Everett.
Habitat: Municipal marine/estuarine park with island half-mile wide by 2 miles long.
Best season for birding: Summer.
Birds likely to be seen: Jetty Island hosts 45 species, highlighted by nesting pairs of Caspian tern and glaucous-winged gull. Others include pigeon guillemot, greater and lesser yellowlegs, black bellied and semipalmated plover, short billed dowitcher, killdeer; and spotted, western and least sandpiper.
July 15, 2004
Location: Northeast of Wenatchee.
Habitat: Part of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's 19,200-acre Swakane and Entiat Wildlife Areas. Rugged, shrub-steppe canyon walls with ponderosa pine, and narrow band of deciduous foliage along creek.
Best seasons for birding: Spring through fall.
June 24, 2004
Location: Near Wenatchee.
Habitat: Large riparian and wetland complex at confluence of Wenatchee and Columbia rivers.
Best seasons for birding: Year-round.
June 10, 2004
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