Wildlife at Mitchell Lake

For a field assignment in my Humanities 1301 class, we were required to take a trip to Mitchell Lake located here in San Antonio, Texas. Mitchell Lake is located off of 410 and Moursund. I took the trip to the lake on November 8 or so, although this blog was due on November 1st. I just wasn't able to make it out there any sooner, so here it is now. Mitchell Lake is a historic area here in San Antonio. It is now a natural habitat of sorts, although it was previously used as a dump for raw sewage when the city had no underground sewer system.

The city discontinued use of the lake as a waste dump in 1987 and has since become protected and cleaned. The lake is owned by SAWS, or San Antonio Water Systems. Instead of being a sewage site, the Lake is now a habitat for many sorts of birds. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of species of birds that occupy these wetlands during different times of the year. The variety is currently very slim, as most birds have migrated during this time of the year, but there are still some avian life to be observed.

Since the lake is located right off of Interstate 410, it is very accessible to tourists, natives, and anybody who loves nature or birdwatching. It is good to see that people really take an interest in this 1200 acre wetland because it means that the effort that the city and SAWS has put in to cleaning up the site has paid off.