Birders' top spots: North Potholes Reserve / Job Corps Dike

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.

Birds commonly seen: Watch great blue herons, double-crested cormorants, black-crowned night-herons, and great egrets fly back and forth to rookeries. Other nesters include spotted sandpipers, Wilson's phalaropes, downy woodpeckers, black-headed grosbeaks, tree swallows, Bewick's wrens, Bullock's orioles and eastern kingbirds. Summer brings flocks of non-breeding American white pelicans. Fall migrants include Baird's and solitary sandpipers, and greater and lesser yellowlegs, plus many species of waterfowl.

Viewing: Park and walk back along dike. Colonial nesting birds to north are sensitive to disturbance; please stay on dike. At reserve boundary, watch eagles fly in to roost after 3 p.m. on winter afternoons.

Getting there: From Interstate 90, take Exit 174 (Mae Valley/Hansen Road). Drive west 2.3 miles on frontage road on south side of I-90. Turn left (south) at Public Fishing/Public Hunting sign onto unnamed gravel road. Drive 2.5 miles roughly following power lines. (Note Potholes Wildlife Area sign on right at 0.3 mile.) At 3-way intersection, turn right (west). Drive 1 mile. At Y intersection, turn right (west). Drive 0.9 mile to game reserve boundary. Drive 0.6 mile west across earthen dike to parking area.

Source: Audubon Washington. For free maps of Washington birding sites, call 866-922-4737 and ask for Great Washington State Birding Trail maps ("Cascade Loop" or "Coulee Corridor") or request online at www.wa.audubon.org.