Mitchell Lake Audubon Center

   This bird sanctuary, located on the north end of Lake Mitchell, was a wastewater treatment plant for many years. When the plant shut down in 1987, the San Antonio Water System collaborated with the National Audubon Society to preserve the holding ponds and basins to be used by more than 300 species of migrating and native birds. We don’t know much about birds but I think that most of the ones that we saw were fairly common ducks, geese, pelicans, shorebirds, and song birds.

   The road from the entrance to the main parking is paved but some portions are potholed or humped and uneven. All of the other roads are hard packed sand. The main road through the center of the ponds is the only one that doesn’t have a lot of grass growing in the middle which is difficult to push through.

   The entrance road is gated with a push button to open it. The visitor center lot is big enough for small RVs. It may be possible to park larger ones parallel to the road. Stop and get a map then continue to the main parking lot and the trails around the ponds. During our winter visit vehicles were permitted to continue along the center road to access the ponds and the lake.  Center
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