Island in the Lake

Friday, March 22, 2013

Elmendorf Lake, On the large island
(with some photos from and back to the parking lot)

Today's photos:

This past Tuesday (March 19) I attended the Elmendorf Lake Park Conceptual Design Workshop cosponsored by the San Antonio River Authority and the City of San Antonio. At this meeting, the design team contracted to create a master plan for improvements to Elmendorf Lake Park (pdf link) presented initial design concepts and received community feedback for further consideration in the design process.

I am particularly interested in several items in the conceptual plan, such as a farmers' market and a community garden, but the one item that particularly caught my attention is the possibility of developing the "Island as Classroom." This part of the plan would improve the natural habitat on the island, incorporating specific teaching facilities for environmental and ecological studies and a dock for aquatic habitat studies. This concept for the island's improvement has tremendous potential.

So, for my walk today, I returned to Elmendorf Lake to take a closer look at the island.

• The first and second photos are views of the Our Lady of the Lake University Main Building and the Sacred Heart Conventual Chapel as seen looking across from the east side of the lake. One of the primary goals of the park improvement master plan is to preserve and enhance the historic connection between the University, Elmendorf Lake and the surrounding community. This goal will be accomplished in part, by preserving existing sight lines such as the one illustrated by these two photos and by creating new visual corridors.
• The third photo is a view from the east bank of the lake looking northwest at the southeast end of the large island. The trees on the island are primarily Huisache, which are currently in full bloom, Bald Cypress and Black Willow.
• The fourth and fifth photos were taken from the east bank of the lake looking south along the edge of the island. The fifth photo is a close up of the Huisache seen overhanging the lake on the left end of the fourth photo.
• The sixth photo is one of numerous Fox Squirrels that live in the park.
• The seventh photo is a view of the smaller "Bird Island" as seen looking west from the northwest end of the large island. As can be seen in this photo, "Bird Island" is a rookery for countless egrets and cormorants. All of the egrets I could clearly identify when I took this photo were Snowy Egrets, but there are also some Great Egrets nesting on this island. The cormorants include both Double-crested and Neotropic species. This island is a critical nesting site for these birds and I certainly hope its preservation as such is included in the master plan.
• The eighth photo is a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. This swallowtail was much more cooperative than the one I photographed Wednesday in Padre Park.
• The ninth photo is a young Bald Cypress setting new leaves. This tree is growing on the bank of the southeast end of the large island.
• The tenth photo is a view taken from the southwest bank of the large island looking north up the lake towards Commerce St. The vegetation growing along the banks of both the lake and the island are primarily Cattail and Elephant Ear. Both are very prolific and effectively stabilize the soil along the bank, but the native Cattail needs to be thinned out and the Elephant Ear, a non-native invasive plant, needs to be replaced with native plants such as Switchgrass or something similarly effective at bank stabilization.
• The eleventh photo is a large Mexican Honey Wasp nest high up in a Bald Cypress on the bank of the lake. Mexican Honey Wasps are fairly common in Bexar County and are one of the most important native pollinating insects. They are one of very few species of insects other than bees capable of producing honey.
• The twelfth photo is a close up of a Bald Cypress branch with freshly set new leaves.
• The thirteenth through fifteenth photos are close ups of Black Willow flowers. The Honey Bees were taking full advantage of this ample supply of nectar.
• The sixteenth photo is a Great Blue Heron on the large island as seen looking across the lake from the east bank. While the heron provides a visual point of interest in the photo, my primary reason for including the photo in this series is because it effectively shows how the landscape on the island is currently highly manicured in traditional park-like fashion. If the island is eventually developed as a classroom for environmental studies, the landscape should be wildscaped instead of manicured. 

As with my walk at Elmendorf Lake on January 7, I was again impressed by the number and diversity of species of birds around the lake. I took numerous photos of the birds and will publish them in two or three more posts in the near future.