Birders' Top Spots: Beacon Rock State Park

Location: Columbia Gorge, Skamania County.

Habitat: 4,690-acre park with coniferous forest, rock cliffs and wetlands on Columbia River.

Best seasons for birding: Spring and summer.

Birds commonly seen: Few individuals but many species. Shrubs shelter lazuli buntings and rufous hummingbirds, and conifers host Western tanagers, black-headed grosbeaks, black-throated gray and hermit warblers, Pacific-slope flycatchers, Cassin's vireos and pileated woodpeckers. Band-tailed pigeons eat August elderberries.

Viewing: Two trails. At lower picnic parking area, enter forest at "trail" sign for 1-mile loop. At campground trailhead, take Hamilton Mountain Trail. At .25-mile, 0.4-mile Little Beacon Rock loop trail begins.

Getting there: From Highway 14 at Milepost 34.9, turn north onto unnamed road, drive 0.3 mile up hill to lower picnic area, or continue 0.3 mile farther through campground to trailhead parking.

More birding: From Highway 14 at Milepost 34.2, turn south onto Beacon Rock Moorage Road. Drive 0.4 mile, bearing left. Park at moorage walkway. Set up scope on dock, find white spot on south side of Beacon Rock to watch nesting Peregrine falcons from February to mid-July and great blue heron colony on nearby islands.

Source: Audubon Washington, Great Washington State Birding Trail maps. To order maps (Cascade Loop, Coulee Corridor, Olympic Loop or Southwest Loop), go online to www.wa.audubon.org. Call toll-free, 866-922-4737, for more information.