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. Not surprisingly, birds associated with water are especially well represented. Feather Lake is open to the public on weekends, October through April. Hours are 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and 2 p.m. to dusk on Sundays.
Admission is free.
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.