A Few Bright Blossoms and Brand New Leaves

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Even before the rain of this past week, the colors of early Spring were getting off to a good start:

Texas Redbud blossoms, Texas Baby Blue-eyes blossoms and the bright green, brand new leaves of a Box Elder are just a small sample of the colorful delight emerging this month. The rain over the past four days will certainly lead to a more colorful display of wildflowers throughout the natural areas in Bexar County in the coming weeks.

These photos were taken on a walk along the Mission San Juan, Mission Reach loop trail on Wednesday, March 2, 2016.

I probably should mention this loop trail is formed by a connector trail from the Yanaguana Nature Trail at Mission San Juan to a pedestrian bridge crossing the river to the main Mission Reach trail, then upstream to the Mission Road bridge and back to Mission San Juan.

Also, I added this note to the sidebar a couple weeks ago, but it is worth emphasizing here: to see the photos in each post in slideshow format, click on the first photo at the top of the post.

A Commonly Overlooked Common Native Plant

Thursday, March 10, 2016

When it comes to wildlife habitat, there really is nothing trivial about the Southern Dewberry, Rubus trivialis:

Frequently considered a weed, the Southern Dewberry, known in Spanish as zarzamora, grows abundantly in Bexar County providing beneficial shelter and food for wildlife. Dewberry's arching stems covered with abundant sharp prickles form dense mats that give protection from predators and shelter for numerous small animals. The white flowers bloom in March and April making them one of the important early Spring nectar sources for pollinators.

The ripe fruit is a dark reddish-purple berry resembling its close cousin, the blackberry. Before foraging recently went out of fashion, the Dewberry was a popular food item for people. It continues to be a critical food source for berry eating birds and mammals.

These photos were taken on a walk along the Mission San Juan, Mission Reach loop trail on Wednesday, March 2, 2016.

A Leap Day Stroll Along Salado Creek

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

About the only flowers blooming along the Salado Creek wetland on Leap Day this February were the Huisache fully covered with their fragrant yellow blossoms. Fortunately, there were more than enough birds and a few turtles to photograph. The Northern Shovelers, a pair of Black Vultures, Mallards with what suspiciously appears to be a Ruddy Duck mingling amid the flock, Red-eared Slider Turtles and a flock of Gadwalls had no idea it was Leap Day and could have cared less:

And while they are not the best photos of birds soaring I have taken, I thought these two were worth including here just to show more of the avian diversity present along Salado Creek this time of year. The first is a Caracara and the second one flying into the frame is a Red-shouldered Hawk:

These photographs were taken along the Salado Creek Greenway trail between Lady Bird Johnson Park and the end of the boardwalk near Wetmore Rd on Monday, February 29, 2016.