Hornsby Bend

On Saturday, Feb 4th, I made my first visit to Hornsby Bend with Terri and a couple of friends. Hornsby is one of the most popular birding spots in Austin. It's a water treatment plant with 4 large containment ponds. It sits on the Colorado River in SE Austin. We arrived early and spent most of the time on the river trail. In all, we identified about 20 different birds. Pictures were hard to come by, but I managed a few. A word of warning....... depending on how the wind is blowing, it can smell pretty nasty around the ponds.

If you want more information about Hornsby, check out this link - http://http://www.hornsbybend.org/

Black Vulture

We found this vulture sunning himself on a low perch. He didn't seem bothered by the 4 of us taking lots of pictures. 

Northern Shoveler

One of thousands of nothern shovelers in the 4 containment ponds. There were also quite a few grebes and scaups. 

Snowy Egret

We found this egret wading the shallows of the Colorado River. The river runs right next to Hornsby Bend. The snowy egrets are the only egrets with black legs and yellow feet, so they are aren't too difficult to identify.