Monday, April 2, 2012
Jack Judson Nature Trail, Olmos Basin in Alamo Heights
Today's photos:
The trees in Olmos Basin at the Judson Nature Trail never cease to amaze me. This is truly a majestic urban forest.
One of the main features of the Judson Nature Trail is the purple martin birdhouse at the entrance to the parking lot. Purple Martins are in the swallow family. Today they were very active flying above the trees in search of insects.
Today's photos:
I returned to the Leon Creek Greenway, Mainland trailhead today to see how things look after last weekend's storm, and to walk the section between the Leon Vista Park trail cutoff and O. P. Schnabel Park that I hadn't walked previously. As can be seen in the photos, it is still quite damp three days after the rain. Most of the dirt side trails are soggy mud, but the ones that cover rocky ground are walkable.
While the creek is no longer continuously flowing, there are numerous extended sections with pools of water. It was good to see this much water in the creek bed. The Leon Creek watershed had received some of the heaviest rain early Sunday morning. From what I could see of the debris that marks the high water line, the creek, at least at this point, didn't get as deep as I had expected. There had been a flood advisory through Monday night for the Leon Creek further downstream.
Overall, today's photos tell the story far more effectively than I can write it.
Today's photos:
There are still trails I haven't walked yet in several of the parks I have previously visited. During my visit to Eisenhower Park on June 6, I walked the trails north of the Cedar Flats trail. So today, it was back to Eisenhower Park to walk the trails south of the Cedar Flats trail.
I have just a few observations to add to the photos. Rain lilies are blooming in great profusion throughout Bexar County following last weekend's rain. I found the juxtaposition of the rain lilies with the prickly pear cactus particularly fascinating. There were lots of dragonflies. Only one perched for a brief period. I tried many times to get photos of them in flight, but only the one photo came close to being successful. Finally, I have posted several photos of male cardinals, but today it was a female cardinal that was relatively cooperative.
There is one section of Eisenhower Park I have yet to walk: the northwest corner. Eventually I will return to walk those trails.
