Slipping Into the Timeless

Monday, April 1, 2013

Leon Creek Greenway, Buddy Calk Park Trailhead
downstream around the oxbow lake and back

Today's photos:

Looking back through my archived posts, I realized I haven't walked this section of the Leon Creek Greenway since the end of August. It doesn't seem like it has been that long ago at all. It feels like it could have just been last week, even though so much has happened since August.  Being close to Nature alters one senses, including the sense of time, in a positive way.

If the photos posted here had been all I had taken on this walk, it would have been a satisfying experience, but once again, this is only a general impression of the experience. There is so much more, but that can wait 'til later. The experience never grows old. It is timeless, after all.

• The first photo is a close up of a Lazy Daisy flower. There must be an interesting story about how the Lazy Daisy got its name, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. And that surprises me because Texans are (notorious) master storytellers.
• The second photo is a Dewberry flower. This must be a good year for Dewberries. I couldn't have asked for better or a more dramatic lighting than was illuminating this blossom.
• The third photo is a Common Buckeye butterfly. There will be more photos of the Buckeyes in an upcoming post.
• The fourth photo is the top of a Retama shrub with its recently set leaves glowing in the sun. The Retama is also known as the Paloverde.
• The fifth photo is a branch of a Huisache in full bloom. The Huisache are also having a very good year.
• The sixth photo is a Roseate Skimmer dragonfly skimming over the oxbow lake. There were quite a few of these skimmers flying over the lake, but none were perching.
• The seventh and eighth photos are a slider turtle. This one does not have the red stripe on its head that is supposed to be the definitive characteristic for the red-eared slider species. One of these days I need to meet with a herpetologist to see if I can get a positive identification for the various sliders I have photographed in Bexar County.
• The ninth photo is a Checkered White butterfly. This is the only one of the numerous Checkered Whites that paused long enough for a portrait.
• The tenth photo is a cluster of Prairie Verbena. There are more of these verbena in this section of Leon Creek than I have found anywhere else in Bexar County so far this Spring.
• The eleventh and twelfth photos are Dewberry flowers. In the tenth photo, a Mason Bee in the genus Osmia is gathering nectar. In the eleventh photo, what appears to be Sweat Bee in the genus Lasioglossum is on another Dewberry blossom.
• The thirteenth and fourteenth photos are snails. The shells of these snails litter the landscape. It's nice to see a couple of them alive. The best I can tell, these are Striped Rabdotus.
• The fifteenth and sixteenth photos are overviews of the trees and vegetation growing along the banks of the  creek just downstream from the Babcock Rd bridge. The two photos overlap with the sixteenth photo about a half frame to the left of the fifteenth photo.