On the Bright Side of the Rain

Saturday, May 21, 2016

The riparian meadow at the Mission County Park portal to the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River is very colorful thanks to all the rain so far this year:

These photos were taken on a walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from VFW Blvd on both the west and east bank trails on Monday, May 16, 2016.

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

Birds of Crescent Bend, Part 2

Monday, January 14, 2013 *

Today's photos are from my walk at Crescent Bend Nature Park on Monday, December 17, 2012:

There are 437 species of birds listed on the San Antonio Audubon Society's checklist of birds that have been reported to have been sighted in Bexar County. I am fairly good at spotting and photographing the birds, but I am still learning to identify many of the species.

I find the sparrows especially difficult to distinguish one species from another. With that in mind, I think the first bird in this series is a savannah sparrow. The next two birds are an eastern phoebe and a house finch. The fourth bird is another sparrow that I think is a Lincoln's sparrow.

The two photos following that are of the same bird. The best I can tell, it appears to be a house wren. Then there is a black-crested titmouse, a northern cardinal and a northern mockingbird.

The last five photos are all of the same sparrow. It appears to me to be another Lincoln's sparrow.

* Due to the full schedule I have this week taking a class, all the posts for the week will be from previous walks.

A Celebration of Rain on a Day Between Storms, Part 1

Monday, May 7, 2012

Leon Creek Greenway, Between Mainland Trailhead and Leon Vista Trailhead

Today's photos:

The total rainfall in San Antonio in all of April was 0.03 inches, barely enough to moisten the bottom of a bucket. It appeared the weather pattern was reverting to the same as during last year's exceptional drought. Vegetation was beginning to dry out along with the soil.

Finally, early Sunday morning the clouds opened up dropping 1.73 inches of rain, more or less, across Bexar County. Another storm rolled through this evening as I was preparing this post for publication with an additional 0.61 inches of rain with considerably more on the west and south sides of the county. This week is forecast to continue with more rain.

On my walk today, all of nature was celebrating the return of the rain. There was so much to photograph, this is the first of a three part series.