There's a gem of a place just east of the Seattle metropolitan area,
near North Bend - the Cedar River Watershed Education Center. If you've
not been there, I encourage you to make it a destination soon. The
birding is good (I recently saw my first Northern Pygmy Owl there) and
the facility is award winning, especially the drums.

Each year the Center issues a catalog of offerings, many of which will
be of interest to birders and naturalists. For example, there's a bird
walk at Rattlesnake Lake for beginning birders on May 7, a lecture about
peregrines and osprey followed by a walk to observe fledged (or soon to
fledge) falcons and fishing osprey on June 25, a walk called Tots on
Trails for those Tweets with youngsters, a visit to the old growth
forest areas inside the watershed, an evening campfire program on bats,
and a day long nature/bird sketching class in August. Many are free or
have a minor fee.

The catalog can be found at
http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/util/stellent/groups/public/ at spu/ at rmb/ at shedmgmt/ at pubculted/documents/spu_informative/cos_004432.pdf


Georgia Conti
Seattle, WA