Medina River Natural Area, A Long Walk Through the Woods and Along the River

Friday, December 9, 2011

Today's photos:

For the first time in over a week, the weather today was absolutely beautiful; a perfect afternoon for a long walk. In South Texas, there generally isn't much of a transition from one season to the next. One day it's summer and the next it's winter. The past week has been very wintery by our standards here. Today actually felt and looked like autumn.

The photos tell the story very effectively, but I need to add one side note. I haven't seen many vultures the past couple months and have wondered where they have gone. My speculation has been that the weather is going to be colder than what has been forecast for this winter and the vultures have headed further south. So far, December has had temperatures well below normal for this time of year.

Today, I stumbled across at least a partial answer as to where the vultures disappeared. As I passed the Nogales Trail cutoff from the Rio Medina Trail, I looked up at the electrical lines along the utility easement there. This is what I saw:

There are at least thirty vultures in this photo. From what I can tell, they are all black vultures. And there were more along the easement. I have no idea why they have all congregated in this one location, but there was a very large number of them. Again I am speculating on this, but where the river basin is cooler than the surrounding area in the summer, it is probably warmer in the winter, thus attracting the vultures to gather here.