The Birds Of Mitchell Lake

I was very fortunate to spend a few days (during three separate trips) birding at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center (MLAC) in San Antonio, Texas. The first trip was in April of 2006; the second in October 2006 and once more again this week (January, 2007.) This page contains pictures from all three trips. Despite the fact that there is never enough time, I was still able to get a great number of photos of a large variety of species. This incredible bird sanctuary has been reclaimed from an extinct San Antonio "sewerage treatment" facility. This part of Texas gets a great number of birds (both eastern and western) on migration while the MLAC property also provides an exceptional breeding habitat for many species. There were well over a thousand American White Pelicans there last October but only about thirty this visit. Also, this week, I saw but did not photograph the following: one unknown Accipter, American Kestrel, American Robin, American White Pelicans, Black Vultures, Buffleheads, Common Yellowthroat, Couch’s Kingbird, Double-crested Cormorants, European Starlings, Great Blue Herons, Harris Hawk, House Sparrows, Little Blue Heron, Orange-crowned Warbler, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawks, Red-winged Blackbirds, Ruddy Ducks, Say’s Phoebe, Snowy Egrets and Spotted Sandpipers. As a matter of fact, timing is everything in the bird world. We even saw a January rarity for both MLAC and Texas...an Eastern Kingbird.

I want to thank Susan Albert, Iliana Peña and Georgina Schwartz at the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center and Malcolm Mark Swan of the The Nature Conservancy for their very special hospitality. The Mitchell Lake Audubon Center is a must destination resource for birders everywhere!

Also, please don't forget to click on the Thumbnails or captions to see a larger image...thanks!

Revised February 2, 2007 7:00AM                       © Howard B. Eskin 2007          Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index