Hornsby Bend

Arguably the best known birding site in Austin, Texas, is Hornsby Bend (below), a stone’s throw north of the airport. The site is part of the 1200 acre Austin Water Utilities and Biosolids Management Plant where three impoundments are surrounded by aquatic vegetation including mudflats in the West Pond. One can drive around the ponds and there are a couple of trails through riparian habitat to the south leading to the Colorado River.

Along the entrance road a dazzling Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (below) was hard to miss as it made short sorties to look for insects on the ground. A Western Kingbird worked a section between telephone poles and later an active ‘traills’ Flycatcher could be found near the observation blind path. Other passerines included the ubiquitous Great-tailed Grackles and Cardinals, Eastern Bluebird, Great Crested Flycatcher, a Mourning Warbler and many Yellow Warblers and Painted Buntings.

As Cliff Swallows flew close to the top of the water one could see a handful of waterfowl. The most striking being a couple of very handsome Eared Grebes (below). American Coots along with Shovelers made up the largest numbers along with pairs of Blue-wing Teal, Green-wing Teal, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck and Mottled Ducks, very uncommon this far north. Also of note was a Common Moorhen and Pied-billed Grebe.

Amongst the waders and shorebirds there were numerous Black-necked Stilts, Snowy Egrets as well as Little Blue Herons including a juvenile. We had a nice mix of shorebirds even with this being the tail end of migration. Sandpipers dominated with the majority being Pectorals (below) and Baird’s. There was a couple of White-rumped, a Stilt, a solitary Solitary, a Spotted or two as well as Lesser Yellowlegs.