Springtime Awakens Along the Lower Medina River

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Winter transforming to Spring in the South Texas brush country:

These photos were taken on a walk at the Medina River Natural Area on Friday, February 26, 2016.

Springing Up in the Basin, Part 1

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Hondondo Creek Trails (Judson Nature Trails), Olmos Basin in Alamo Heights

Today's photos:

About three years ago, the City of Alamo Heights began consideration of ways to improve and expand the nature trails along Hondondo and Olmos Creeks. These trails have been maintained by the San Antonio Audubon Society as the Jack Judson Nature Trails. The non-profit organization, The Friends of Hondondo Creek Trails was formed soon after Alamo Heights began the planning process. In conjunction with the San Antonio Audubon Society, they have begun initial work on improving the trail system.

• The first photo is a Huisache tree in full bloom near the entrance to the trail system.
• The second through fourth photos are close ups of the flowers on a Rough-leaf Dogwood tree.
• The fifth photo is a Honey Bee on a Baby Blue-eyes flower.
• The sixth and seventh photos are a Fox Squirrel that seemed to be as interested in what I was doing as I was interested in photographing it.
• The eighth photo is a Scarlet Sage.
• The ninth photo is of newly set Sugar Hackberry leaves brilliantly illuminated by the sun.
• The tenth photo is a Pearl Crescent butterfly. The two small yellow flowers  are Straggler Daisies. This tiny daisy is a very common native ground cover. They are frequently considered lawn weeds, but actually make an excellent drought and shade tolerant ground cover that rarely require supplemental watering.
• The eleventh through the fourteenth photos are close ups of Mexican Buckeye flowers and newly set leaves.
• The fifteenth and sixteenth photos are Baby Blue-eyes. These native flowers also do very well growing in the shade. They are typically found as ground cover in wooded areas.

This series of photos is continued in part 2.

Somewhat More Than a Trickle

Monday, March 11, 2013

Salado Creek Greenway, Oakwell Trailhead downstream

Today's photos:

The primary reason I walked this section of the Salado Creek Greenway today was to see how much, if any, water was flowing in the creek following Saturday night's rain. As can be seen in the series of photos of the Great Egret, the water in the creek isn't particularly deep, but there is something of a substantial flow remaining about a day and a half after the rain.

I have only included two photos of the Dewberry flowers here, but that isn't a fair representation of how abundant dewberry is in the ground cover along this section of the creek. I had noticed some patches of dewberry here on previous walks, but now that it is blooming, it is obvious the dewberry is one of the more prevalent plants. There are white dewberry flowers everywhere along the creek right now.

• The first two photos are the Dewberry flowers. There is a Honey Bee on one of the flowers in the first photo. The honey bees were almost as abundant as the flowers. Dewberry is in the Rose Family. The thorns (more correctly referred to as prickles) can be seen on the stems below the flowers in the first photo.
• The third photo is Baby Blue-eyes. They are one of the most common wildflowers blooming here right now.
• The fourth through ninth photos are a Great Egret that has been attracted to the creek by the flowing water.
• The tenth photo is a Phaon Crescent butterfly.

Highlights of a Phenomenal, Grey, February Day

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Brackenridge Park, from Mulberry Ave upstream
along the bank of the San Antonio River and back south
along the western half of the Wilderness Loop Trail

Today's photos:

The sky was completely overcast with fairly dense clouds, but the mood on my walk was definitely not "grey." Birds were very active. Trees are budding out. Flowers are blooming. Insects are appearing. Even though there wasn't any direct sunlight, the turtles were out on logs in the river.

The lighting was perfect. I almost always prefer doing nature photography with the diffuse light of a cloudy sky. I couldn't have asked for much more. (Well, a good soaking rain would be welcome now, but that is a topic for another day.)

It really was an amazing experience and these are only a few highlights from the multitude of photographs I took:

• The first photo is a female Northern Cardinal.
• The second, third and fourth photos are a male Northern Cardinal.
• The fifth and sixth photo are a male Mallard.
• The seventh photo is a point bar that has formed, as they typically do, on the inside of a curve in the River. The branch that had fallen on the gravel provided a perfect visual accent in the photograph to complement the vegetation beginning to grow at the downstream end of the bar.
• The eighth and ninth photos are Baby Blue Eyes. These flowers are blooming profusely along the Wilderness Loop Trail.
• The tenth photo is a Cedar Elm tree beginning to set its leaves. Compared to the other cedar elm in the park, this one tree was apparently ahead of schedule.
• The eleventh photo is a False Dayflower also known as Widows Tears. These flowers are also beginning to bloom in abundance.
• The twelfth photo is a Red-eared Slider turtle. This is one of the largest red-eared sliders I have seen.