Slipping Back to December

I have taken a lot more photographs than there will ever be time to publish. However, my schedule so far this month has not given me much time to get out on the trail to take more photos. One advantage to that is it will give me time to catch up on some series that I haven't had time to publish yet.

The Gadwalls are another one of the ducks that winter here in South Texas. They have returned again in substantial numbers this winter:

This set of photographs was taken between Mission County Park and Padre Park along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Thursday, December 19, 2013.

A Haunting Expression

I was going to post a different set of photographs this evening, but there was something about this Snowy Egret's appearance and expression that has haunted me all afternoon:

The three ducks seen almost in silhouette in the first photograph are Gadwalls, another species of birds that have migrated back to South Texas for the winter.

This set of photographs was taken from the Roosevelt Park Trailhead on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Thursday, January 2, 2014.

Why We Celebrate Rain Around Here

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A much needed widespread, soaking rain fell overnight and into this afternoon. I took a much needed day off from a walk today. In case you haven't noticed, we do tend to celebrate some of the small things in life here, like rain. Water, after all, is one of the four necessary requirements (water, food, shelter, space) in a habitat.

The water level in the oxbow lake on Leon Creek was higher than I had anticipated it would be this past Monday (April 1, 2013). In spite of the lower than normal rainfall this year, the water table seems to be remaining reasonably well saturated.  Where there is water in Bexar County, there will likely be a diverse range of fauna:

Following the rain today, I suspect this small lake is now a little bit deeper.

• The first two photos are a small slider turtle that has climbed fairly high up a branch that had fallen into the water.
• The third photo is a male Gadwall. Its mate was just a little too far to the side to get both in the photo.
• The fourth photo is an "armada" of slider turtles, some with only their heads sticking up out of the water.
• The fifth and sixth photos are an American Coot on the left and a Pied-billed Grebe on the right.
• The seventh photo is a closer view of the Pied-billed Grebe.
• The eighth through tenth photos are the American Coot.
• The eleventh through fourteenth photo are a male Black-bellied Whistling Duck. He apparently wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon as he pulled his right leg up and tucked it out of sight against his body.
• The fifteenth photo is the male Black-bellied Whistling Duck with its mate to the right in this photo.

Wind Blown

Monday, February 25, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Concepcíon Park Trailhead
the downstream loop trail

Today's photos:

The weather story today here in Bexar County was the high wind. This afternoon while I was walking, the wind was blowing at about 28 mph sustained with gusts between 40 and 45 mph. There were a few grass fires around the area (one with fatalities), but falling trees and blowing debris were the bigger problems.

It seemed to me the River greenway trail was probably the safest place for a walk. The primary disadvantage was there are few windbreaks along the open river channel. Holding the camera steady enough to take the photos was quite a challenge at times. But then, just standing up in the higher wind gusts was also a challenge.

In spite of the wind, I still took at least as many photos on this walk as I usually do on any walk along the River. This is just a sample. There are enough photos for two more posts in the near future.

• The first two photos are Purple Threeawn. The wind was furiously lashing the grass around almost flattening it to the ground at times.
• In the third and fourth photos, the tall dense stand of Cattail provided a windbreak on the river bank. A couple of Northern Shovelers, a few Gadwalls and a Little Blue Heron took advantage of a respite from the wind in its shelter.
• The fifth and sixth photos are of a Pink Evening Primrose. Like all the other plants, this flower was taking a fairly severe beating as the wind whipped it around.
• The seventh and eighth photos are a Snowy Egret.
• The ninth through thirteenth photos are two Lesser Yellowlegs. There were several lesser yellowlegs feeding in the wind whipped water flowing down one of the riffles.
• The fourteenth and fifteenth photos are a male Gadwall swimming in the rough, wind blown water at the center of the River channel.
• The sixteenth and seventeenth photos are of three Killdeer. Along with the lesser yellowlegs, there were numerous killdeer. In the sixteenth photo, the killdeer that was flying higher above the water was having some difficulty navigating a wind gust, but it landed on a rock without any apparent difficulty. (They showed some planes landing at SA International Airport on the evening news. The large jumbo jets seemed to be having similar problems as they approached the runway.)
• The eighteenth photo is a Loggerhead Shrike. It had a tight grip on the tree branch. If shrikes are concerned about such things, this one was definitely having a "bad feather day."

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.