From the main parking lot you can view the largest portion of the lake. A scope will help you find a Bonaparte's Gull with the Ring-billed Gulls that are common morning and evening in winter. A loon is expected in winter, as are ducks such as Shoveller, Ring-necked, Bufflehead, and Lesser Scaup. Boats are a deterrent, of course, compensated by ice: the aeration pump in the middle ensures open water. Caspian Tern may show up in fall; Black and Gull-billed Terns were reported in July, 1975; and Sabine's Gull occurred in October, 1976.

The area around the dam is usually rich with sparrows and finches, swallows, Bluebird, and raptors. Common Raven and both vultures are seen, and Osprey pass through. The trail around the lake has been widened for joggers, bicycles, and horses, the circuit being seven miles. To the left you will cross the creek and a bridge over a long cove. To the right there will be a logging thicket and two attractive tributaries within the first mile.

To find mergansers and Pied-billed Grebe, and Prothonotary Warbler in summer, you may want to try the upstream end. Linville Rd. is an exit from Bus. I-40 and will cross to Reynolds Park Rd., but there is no parking lot. Salem Lake can be good for warblers and anything else you haven't found yet, such as Brown Creeper or Great Blue Heron. For wildflowers, butterflies, or fall color, it is worth the hike.