FEATHER LAKE WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

Feather Lake is a wildlife sanctuary managed by the El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society. It occupies 43.5 acres, including a 40-acre wetland. The wetland is actually a City of El Paso stormwater-detention basin, built in 1969. Since 1976, Audubon has leased this land from the City and managed it for wildlife and as an environmental education area.

Feather Lake is located at 9500 North Loop Dr. in El Paso's lower valley. To get there, take I-10 east to Americas Ave., then go right for 1 mile on Americas to North Loop. Turn right onto North Loop and go 0.4 miles to the stoplight at Bordeaux St. The Feather Lake entrance is on your left at this intersection.

The wetlands, riparian woodlands, and desertscrub-grasslands at Feather Lake support a diverse wildlife community. Walk the 1-mile path around the lake on a spring day, and you might see Muskrats motoring across the water surface, Spiny Softshell turtles and Pond Sliders basking on clumps of vegetation in the marsh, and Little Striped Whiptail lizards skittering ahead of you on the trail.

But Feather Lake is best known for its birds. Over the years, 191 different species have been observed at the sanctuary. Not surprisingly, birds associated with water are especially well represented. Among the annual highlights: hordes of Yellow-headed Blackbirds in early fall, up to 4,000 ducks in mid-winter, squadrons of White-faced Ibis in spring, and Least Bitterns in summer. Historically, Least Bittern was a fairly common nesting species in the wetlands of the river valley; today, it is known in the El Paso area only from Feather Lake.

Feather Lake is open to the public on weekends, October through April. Current hours are 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday and 2 p.m. to dusk on Sunday. Admission is free. To arrange for classroom, group, or individual visits at other times, please contact the Audubon Society at 915/757-1876 or 915/584-8768.

The Audubon Society also has regularly scheduled workdays at Feather Lake. The highly productive natural wetlands and riparian woodlands once found along the Rio Grande in the El Paso area have virtually disappeared. At Feather Lake workdays, volunteers carry out an ongoing habitat-management program that aims to restore examples of these habitats at the sanctuary. Call 915/545-5157 to learn the date and time for the next session.

Visit the El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society's page.

Commentary courtesy of John Sproul.