"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.

A President's Day Perspective On the San Antonio River Restoration Project

Monday, February 18, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, "Teddy" Roosevelt Park Trailhead,
once around the loop trail

Today's photos:

On President's Day last year, I walked at Eisenhower Park, so this year it was Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt Park's turn. Teddy Roosevelt visited San Antonio on several occasions and always stayed at the Menger Hotel. His best known visit was in 1898 when he recruited the "Rough Riders" using the Menger Hotel bar as his "recruiting station."

Roosevelt's first visit to San Antonio, however, was in 1892 when he participated in a javelina hunt. Roosevelt was an avid hunter, but to the best of my knowledge (which is admittedly limited in this subject), there is no detailed record of where he hunted in the San Antonio area. I can't help but wonder if he spent some time hunting along the San Antonio River.

Of course, the habitat along the River has changed dramatically since Roosevelt's visits. One of the primary goals of the San Antonio River Restoration Project is to return the River to something of the character the River had around the time of Roosevelt's last visit to San Antonio about a hundred years ago.

This restoration process is still in the early stages. So here is a bit of what I saw and photographed today:

• The first photo is a Great Blue Heron.
• The second photo is a Little Blue Heron.
• The third, fourth and fifth photos are of a Spotted Sandpiper. If you look closely at its breast, the summer spotted plumage is beginning to return.
• The sixth photo is a Double-crested Cormorant.
• The seventh photo is an Eastern Black Nightshade. Like most nightshades, the fruit is toxic.
• The eighth photo is a Familiar Bluet damselfly.
• The ninth photo is a Firewheel flower. It is amazing the range of variation these flowers in the same species can have.
• The tenth photo is a pair of Red-tailed Hawks perched atop the old Lone Star Brewery smokestack.
• In the eleventh and twelfth photos, I had looked away from the smokestack for a minute or two and when I looked back, only the female red-tailed hawk remained perched at the top.
• The thirteenth photo is of two slider turtles sunning themselves on rocks in the River. This was a very warm sunny day and there were numerous turtles out on the rocks.
• The fourteenth photo is of a Texas Mountain Laurel in full bloom with a bee coming to gather nectar.
• The fifteenth photo* is an Anacacho Orchid Tree which is not actually an orchid, but a legume.
• The sixteenth photo is a male Gadwall.

* This post has been updated 2/19/2013 at 12:45 PM to provide the correct identification for the plant in this photo.

Harbingers of Spring and a Few Other River Scenes

Friday, February 1, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Roosevelt Park Trailhead
once around the Roosevelt Park loop trail

Today's photos:

Yesterday and today I assisted the San Antonio River Authority with a Mission Reach education program for high school students. Since I was already at Roosevelt Park this afternoon, it made sense to go once around the loop one more time for my walk today.

The first photo is a red-tailed hawk.

The second, third and fourth photos are bluebonnet plants, the State Flower of Texas, that will soon be blooming.

The fifth photo is a red-eared slider turtle.

The sixth photo is an orange sulphur or one of its close cousins.

The seventh photo is one double-crested and two neotropic cormorants.

The eighth photo with the top of the Tower of the Americas in the background is of a hawk. It is soaring high above the river at a good distance upstream from where I was walking. I think this is the red-shouldered hawk that nests close to the Alamo St bridge.

The ninth photo is of four slider turtles squeezing onto a single rock as slider turtles are prone to do to soak up the warmth of the sun.

The tenth photo is a mealy blue sage in the process of blooming.

The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth photos are of a gulf fritillary gathering nectar from a cultivated variety of scarlet sage.

The fourteenth and fifteenth photos are a huisache tree at the intersection of Lone Star Blvd and Mission Rd. This huisache is in full bloom.

The sixteenth photo is of an Anacua tree, more commonly known as a sandpaper tree because of the very rough undersurface of the leaves. The leaves of the anacua have actually been used as a fine grit sandpaper.