Hanging Out Around a Thistle

Saturday, April 30, 2016

The bright reddish purple Texas Thistle is a popular pollinator hang out:

And when the pollinators have done their thing, the songbirds, especially Finch, will be coming to eat the thistle seeds.

These photos were taken along the Roosevelt Park loop trail of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Click on the first photo in a post to open the photos in slideshow view.

The Morning After A Brief Downpour

Thursday, April 28, 2016

A squall line blew through early in the morning yesterday with very heavy rain that lasted just long enough to put about a half inch of rain in the Olmos Creek watershed. It wasn't a tremendous amount of rain, but the runoff quickly adds up as it funnels south to the headwaters of the San Antonio River.

By the time I walked the Roosevelt Park loop trail about 7.5 miles downstream from the headwaters, the river had already significantly receded, but was still flowing well above the average daily base flow:

These photos were taken along the Roosevelt Park loop trail of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Click on the first photo in a post to open the photos in slideshow view.

Scissor-tails and Red-wings

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Unlike the egrets, herons and cormorants that are relatively large, some of the birds along the Mission Reach are much smaller, but no less important to the riparian ecology:

The Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are Spring through Fall residents that migrate south during the winter. They consume countless insects that are abundant in a riparian habitat. The Red-winged Blackbirds are year round residents. These blackbirds are omnivorous in that they primarily eat insects most of the year, but begin eating large quantities of seeds in the fall while the seeds are abundant.

These photos were taken on a walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River upstream from the VFW Blvd trailhead to Roosevelt Ave on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.

Click on the first photo in a post to open the photos in slideshow view.