Winter Clouds

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed."         Albert Einstein

Two days before the winter solstice,

I stood in awe when I saw this cloud formation above the river.

This set of photographs was taken looking north from the VFW Blvd Trailhead on the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Thursday, December 19, 2013.

A Burst of Color, Part 2

Building on yesterday's post, there are many pollinators, including butterflies, able to survive our rather unpredictable winter weather. Daily average temperatures don't mean a lot here except as a benchmark. The average high temperature for yesterday (December 19) is 63º (F), the actual high was 77º and the record high was set last year at 82º. The record low temperature for yesterday was 18º set in 1996.

There are also a few flowers that survive our winters. The point is, where there are flowers, especially during winter in South Texas, there will likely be butterflies:

In the first two photos, a Little Yellow stands out with a beautiful color contrast to the Mealy Blue Sage. In the other five photos, a Sachem was more difficult to see, but spent a much longer time feeding on the sage's nectar.

This set of photographs was taken along the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.

A Burst of Color, Part 1

We have had a few beautiful warm days following the arctic blast at the beginning of the month. It seems appropriate to celebrate these warm days with a little burst of color:

The Mealy Blue Sage (Salvia farinacae) begins to bloom around mid-spring and continues until the first hard freeze. Even with the arctic blast, we still haven't had a hard freeze in the city. I haven't been back to the river since it has warmed up a bit, but I suspect the Mealy Blue Sage are still in full bloom.

This set of photographs was taken along the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.

Publication note: For those who may have been expecting me to continue today with the series "A Brief Introduction to a Very Thorny Subject," I ask for your patience. The subject of spines is even a bit more complex than that of true thorns. I need to get out and take a few more photos in order to complete the series.

A Very Prickly Subject, Nature's Barbed Wire

At the beginning of November I began a series of posts with "A Brief Introduction to a Very Thorny Subject." Briefly, a true thorn is a sharp pointed modified branch, a spine is a sharp pointed modified leaf and a prickle is a sharp pointed outgrowth of the epidermal layer of the stem.

Since prickles grow from the surface of the stem and don't have a deeper connecting tissue as do spines and thorns, they can be broken off the stem with relative ease by (carefully) pushing them from the side. The brown patches on the stem in the third photo below are where prickles have broken off revealing the deeper layer of tissue inside the stem.

Probably the best known plant with prickles is the rose bush in the Genus Rosa, Family Rosaceae. Technically, all roses are thornless, but that doesn't mean a prickle won't leave any less a lasting impression. Dewberries and blackberries in the Genus Rubus, Family Rosaceae are also fairly well known for their prickles, especially by those who have gathered the berries.

Then there is "nature's barbed wire." Anyone who has tried to walk through a Texas woodland where Greenbrier, also known as Catbrier, is growing, knows the origin of the name nature's barbed wire. It is just about impossible to walk through a thicket of Greenbrier without a machete or shears and come out the other side unscathed:

Greenbrier berries do serve as an important food source for many birds and small mammals. Greenbrier thickets also provides excellent cover for many small animals. The tender new growth of the Greenbrier is frequently used to make a high vitamin C tea and as a salad ingredient. The older leaves become tough and bitter.

This set of photographs was taken along the Rio Medina Trail at the Medina River Natural Area on Tuesday, November 19, 2013

"Birds of a Feather Flock Together"?

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, there is a stand of trees along the San Antonio River Mission Reach not far downstream from the U.S. 90 bridge where birds of many kinds tend to congregate. To the left of the Red-tailed Hawk and below it on the same snag, sat a Northern Mockingbird. I'm still not quite sure what to make of this coincidental pair of "birds of prey":

If you think a Mockingbird (The Official State Bird of Texas) is NOT a bird of prey, you've likely never seen one swoop down and grab an insect off the ground, not to mention seen one attack a larger animal (including people) that it felt was threatening its territory.

This set of photographs was taken along the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.

River Raptors. Part 3 of 3

So, further upstream from where I photographed the Red-tailed Hawk, approaching the U.S. 90 bridge, there is another stand of trees where birds of many kinds tend to congregate. There'll be more about the birds congregating in tomorrow's post. In this stand of trees at the top of the river channel above the trail, a snag stands out from the trees behind it.

I was delighted to find another Red-tailed Hawk perched in this snag. This hawk was smaller than the one in yesterday's post. It obviously was keeping a close eye on what I was doing. If one looks close enough at the first seven photos, one of the hawk's talons looks like a silver hook on the end of its yellow toe:

This set of photographs was taken along the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.

River Raptors, Part 2 of 3

A large pecan tree with a dead branch stands at the top of the river channel a short distance upstream on the opposite bank from where I had photographed the Red-shouldered Hawk. The dead branch has remained on this tree for at least the past two and a half years. This is significant because this branch provides an ideal location for raptors to perch and view the riverbank and surrounding terrain below.

I have acquired the habit of specifically looking for the branch when I walk by to see if a raptor has taken advantage of the high perch. The branch is visible for a fair distance. One disadvantage, photographically, is the closest the trail comes is at least 300 feet away.

When I first saw the branch on this walk, I thought a large plastic trash bag or some similar piece of trash had blown into it, got stuck and was hanging from a limb. It wasn't until I was nearing the closest approach I realized it was a very large bird. With the backlight, I couldn't tell what species it was, but as soon as I saw the photos on the computer monitor, I realized it was a very large Red-tailed Hawk:

This set of photographs was taken upstream from the confluence with San Pedro Creek along the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.