If you don’t know where Pond 1 West is located, please see the map on the Hornsby Bend website

The road on the dike around the NW corner of Pond 1 West IS NOT ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC. Also, you must enter the sewage ponds area by way of the road on the dike (signed “Public Entrance”). DO NOT TRY TO DRIVE ON THE LOWER ROAD between the ponds and the drying basins.

You will have to access the only viewing area for this bird by going west on the road on the dike on the north side of Pond 1 East, turning south on the dike between Pond 1 East and Pond 1 West, and then turning west again on the road on the dike on the south side of Pond 1 West. When you get to the SW corner of Pond 1 West, find the best parking possible OFF OF THE ROAD. Please DO NOT park by the wastewater facilities at the SW corner of Pond 1 West. There is some parking by the chained entrance between Pond 3 and the Greenhouse.

If you have to turn south on the road that runs along the south side of Pond 2 and drive until you find decent parking (even as far as the birding blind) and then have to walk back, PLEASE DO. If it is any way questionable that your parking place is interfering with plant business, PLEASE do the right thing and find another place that is absolutely, without question, OK.

You will need a spotting scope to have a realistic chance of seeing this bird. The best place to view the bird since Tuesday has been from the open gate in the chain link fence. Please DO NOT GO THROUGH the gate (not even a few feet, not even for a minute). If a facility vehicle approaches the gate, PLEASE get yourself and your scope ALL the way off of the road surface. This is a working facility and birders are guests of the facility and can be denied access at anytime. Kevin Anderson and all of the folks at Hornsby Bend have been great in allowing and working for birder access but please realize that it would be much less hassle and headaches for them to just not allow access to the facilities. PLEASE do not jeopardize this access for birders.

I know I am not the "Bird Police" and that this post is preachy, but I have seen too many normally rational birders do irrational things due to the excitement of seeing a cool bird. It would be a shame if such excitement led to Hornsby Bend being closed to birders. PLEASE help remind all birders at the site to behave responsibly when viewing the Reeve and help each other be aware of the movements of facility vehicles.