I T READS LIKE a who's who of the avian world: Canada goose, green-winged teal, mallard, northern shoveler, gadwall, American widgeon, red-tail hawk, American kestrel, killdeer. On it goes. Thirty names in all, jotted down by bird-watchers on a chalkboard inside the photo "hide" along the edge of Stewart Pond in west Eugene. Take a walk down a trail skirting the pond and you're also likely to see a majestic great blue heron in nearby Bertelsen Slough, to flush a ring-necked pheasant from the tufted hair-grass or to observe the handiwork of beavers. Like most of Eugene's wetlands, Stewart Pond offers residents an opportunity to view wildlife, hike trails and enjoy the outdoors, all within the city limits.

Many of these pockets of nature are right next to factories, warehouses and bustling city streets. It's not a wilderness experience. But for pure convenience, Eugene's wetlands are hard to beat, especially between October and June, when water levels are higher and wildlife is more active.

"You can connect with nature without having to get in your car and drive for an hour," says Tom Pringle, head of the West Eugene Wetlands Friends, an environmental group. "A lot of people go there (Stewart Pond) during their lunch hour, to use it as an escape," says Jock Bell, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's west Eugene wetlands coordinator. "People can feel like they're getting away from it all, yet they are less than a half-mile from a very busy commercial center."

Only recently have government agencies begun to take advantage of the wetlands' potential as a place to enjoy the outdoors.

The BLM, city of Eugene and others are starting to build viewing platforms, interpretive displays, bike paths and trails through the city's wetlands. Each year, thousands of schoolchildren visit more than 1,800 acres of Eugene wetlands preserved in public ownership.

The most ambitious recreational effort to date is the $3.3 million, 2.5 mile extension of the Fern Ridge Path. That project, completed last week, opens up several hundred acres of wetlands for bicyclists and walkers. It includes interpretive displays, benches and other amenities between Seneca Road and its end near Terry Street, behind PSC Scanning Inc. (formerly Spectra-Physics).

City officials plan eventually to extend the west Eugene bike path all the way to Fern Ridge Reservoir, following Amazon Creek.

So where else can you go to look at wetlands and wildlife? The city of Eugene just published a handy guide, complete with maps and directions for how to get to each site. (Call 682-2739 to get one).

Here's a sampling of some of the more prominent wetland sites:

* The Nature Conservancy's 335 acre Willow Creek wetlands preserve is off West 18th Avenue, just east of Hyundai's new factory. It has one of the last large tracts of undisturbed "wet prairie" wetlands left in the Willamette Valley. Before white settlers came to the valley, there were 200,000 to 300,000 acres of wet prairie; less than 1,000 acres exist today.

It also has the highest concentrations of native plants and the healthiest populations of many rare plants, such as Bradshaw's lomatium and Kincaid's lupine, which is the only source of food for the rare Fender's blue butterfly.

The Willow Creek preserve also has plenty of forested wetlands and some great beaver dams along the creek. All can be seen from a trail that loops through the property.

Ed Alverson, manager of the TOP

conservancy's preserve, says the site "is not just a place to go to get some exercise. It's a learning experience as well."

The site is open to the public for hiking, and the conservancy conducts restoration work parties on the second Saturday of every month. Dogs are not allowed.

* The BLM is developing the old Danebo airport site at West 11th and Danebo Avenue, as well as the swale-like area just south of the agency's wetlands office on Danebo Avenue.

An interpretive boardwalk is being built, with future plans for a viewing platform. The new bicycle path runs past the site.

* The Eastern Gateway site is just behind the Fred Meyer store and is an example of the city's efforts to restore wetlands to make up for the loss of wetlands elsewhere due to economic development.

A trail leads off from West Seventh Place, past an ash woodland and wet prairie to an observation deck next to a pond and marshy area. More than 30 native plants were seeded on the site.

* Dianna's Pond is just off Northwest Expressway, at Maxwell Road, and is the home of the rare western pond turtle, a disappearing species in the Willamette Valley. It includes the Spring Creek Turtle Preserve, where the critters can be found nesting from April through October. They're best viewed from a distance with binoculars.

* Delta Ponds, wedged between Goodpasture Island Road and the Delta Highway, offer a trail through the sloughs that were a part of the Willamette River before it changed course. The ponds feature a wide variety of wildlife and are used frequently as a resource by schools and other nature educational programs.

Fall and early spring are great times to visit the ponds.

* Then there's the Mother of all West Eugene Wetlands: Fern Ridge Reservoir. Although not in the city limits, it serves as the anchor for the entire Willow Creek-Amazon Creek basin.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as state and federal wildlife agencies, manage this 19-square-mile area created in 1941 with the construction of Fern Ridge Dam.

The eastern and southern ends of the reservoir provide plenty of marshy areas where wildlife can be viewed. Launch a canoe where Coyote Creek crosses under Highway 126 and head upstream or downstream.

Upstream, you'll see western pond turtles along the shore and on logs; downstream, there's an important osprey nesting area.

As Eugene grows, wetlands experts and advocates say the 1800 acres in public and Nature Conservancy ownership will provide much of the open spaces in west Eugene.

The area is fast filling up with warehouses, factories and commercial businesses.

"Those west Eugene wetlands are going to be a jewel," says Ruth Koenig, coordinator of the Eugene Stream Team, a city-funded program that recruits volunteers to do cleanup and wetlands restoration projects.

"People talk today about how there was a vision decades ago to set aside land for Hendricks Park, of how there was a vision to create the Ridgeline Trail. This will be another one of those things where people in the future will say, aren't we lucky that in the 1990s, people had the vision to set aside this wonderful habitat.