Saturday, April 18, 1998 | 10 a.m.
HENDERSON -- Lance Lomprey killed the engine on his city vehicle and scanned the brush-shrouded ponds at the Wastewater Reclamation Facility.
The supervising operator -- a cellular phone clipped to his uniform and a rolled-up map in his hand -- stepped onto the unpaved road to take a closer look at the ponds.
Something definitely was amiss.
"There should be a heron and an egret around here somewhere," Lomprey said, studying a bird preserve map and glancing up at the pools.
For Lomprey and his fellow plant operators, a day's worth of work at the Moser Road treatment facility no longer consists of merely testing water and repairing equipment.
What their duties now include is, well, for the birds.
Something has happened to these city workers who once tore across the gravel roads in their trucks. They drive slowly. Some carry bird-watching pamphlets. And once in awhile, they even stop in the middle of the road to put down bright orange markers.
"For some reason, some birds like to build nests on the road," Lomprey said. "The guys put cones out to protect their little nests."
Even wastewater treatment plant operators are caught up in the variety of species that frequent the city facility, making it a destination spot for Audubon Society members nationwide.
It's no wonder birds frequent the wastewater plant ponds -- combined, they are the third largest body of water in Southern Nevada. Nobody knows, however, exactly who discovered the birders' paradise.
"A woman came in one day and asked if she could go out and look at the birds," Lomprey said. "She started telling friends who told other friends. Before we knew it, we were on a bird registration."
It's not unusual for plant workers to field a flurry of phone calls from excited birders when word gets out that a special species has landed in Henderson.
"The Audubon people spotted some bird out here that had never before been seen west of Colorado," Lomprey said, adding that the sighting made the Society's website. "People were calling us asking if the bird was still here. There are a lot of birds here; we're not that into it.
"These things were so small you could probably fit a half-dozen of them in your hand. I don't even know how they saw them."
That's because while city workers are into the birds, they aren't professionals. The birders who are experts are those who frequently sign in at the old wastewater office at daybreak.
Sally Mills heads for the ponds a couple times a month or whenever the Audubon Society's rare bird alert sounds. The rarest birds she has spotted are black skimmers, seen last summer.
"They are Pacific Coast birds; you don't see them that far from either coast," Mills said.
The Audubon Society also has conducted studies on shore birds for the Point Reyes, Calif., Bird Observatory -- an ironic task considering the Las Vegas-based society does its birding in the desert.
"Any time you put water in the middle of the desert, you've created a migration trap," Mills said. "You get birds traveling north and south."
The number of birders who flock to the Henderson plant has increased over the years. Now, plant workers like Lomprey spend time showing people the bird park rather than conducting the not-so-popular wastewater tour.
"We joke that pretty soon, we're just going to be tour guides for the birds," Lomprey said.
While the area has been an informal bird park for decades, in July the Red Rock Audubon Society finally convinced the city to convert about 40 acres of the 200-plus-acre plant into a bird preserve. The newer portion of the plant will be solely for wastewater treatment.
The city's Park and Recreation Department is working with the Audubon Society and Montgomery Watson engineers to build benches, hidden piers, restrooms and a parking lot for visitors. The bird preserve, which is open seven days a week, is scheduled to officially open May 8.
"It's kind of funny, we were always battling the brush along the lagoons," Lomprey said. "In fact, we just bought a piece of equipment to get rid of the brush; now they're saying leave the brush alone."
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