Nature Watch For September

If you think television has a great fall lineup, wait until you see what Mother Nature has planned.

Migrating shorebirds continue making their annual stops along Washington's coast this month as they travel to their much warmer and drier, winter homes.

Black bears and marmots are out and about, trying to bulk up for that long winter snooze.

And it's a good time of the year to watch falcons and hawks.

Here are some tips on what to look for in September:

What to watch for: Where to look:

Grebes, Western sandpipers, Pacific harbor seals (Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge near Sequim)

Great blue herons, river otters, beavers (Mercer Slough)

Western sandpipers and other migrating shorebirds; bald eagles and peregrine falcons (Padilla Bay, Skagit County)

Marmots, blacktailed deer, black bears (Paradise at Mount Rainier)

Rocky Mountain elk (Sunrise at Mount Rainier)

Prairie falcons, Swainson's hawks (Red Top Mountain near Wenatchee)

Blacktailed deer, beaver and river otters (Skagit Wildlife Area)

Spawning coho salmon (Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, Seattle)

Information compiled by Lisa Pemberton-Butler, The Seattle Times, from: "Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year," by James Luther Davis; "Washington Wildlife Viewing Guide," by Joe La Tourrette, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Park Service.