Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Today's photos:
I began today's walk in O. P. Schnabel Park. I walked the natural surface trails to the paved trail that goes down to the Leon Creek Greenway trail. I stayed on the paved trail walking south to a point about a mile north of the Leon Vista Park Trailhead, then walked the dirt trail in the creek bed back north towards the O. P. Schnabel Park trail.
The deer were out in droves, but for the most part were too deep in the brush to get a good photo. As can be seen from the photos, I still managed to photograph a few of them. I was tempted to leave out the vulture photo because I have published so many photos of them already, but the one pictured above made the lowest pass over my head of any vulture to date. I figure it deserves publication.
The drought continues. There is a cool front approaching the area that may bring some scattered showers in the coming days. Any rain we get won't come soon enough. The Bexar County Fire Marshall issued a reminder today that the high fire danger will continue at least through the next week whether we get scattered showers or not.
I might have mentioned it in a previous post, but I am surprised how well dragonflies and damselflies appear to be doing in spite of the drought. As a matter of fact, I have so many photos of them, I will be doing several more posts that feature these fascinating creatures.
Almost all the photos I have of them are when they are perching. I'm getting better at photographing them in flight, but it isn't easy. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that their average flight speed is about 25 mph and can reach speeds up to 50 mph. Trying to follow, much less focus, a telephoto lens on an insect flying at those speeds is quite a feat.
This series of photos of dragonflies (no damsels in this series) was taken on my walk on August 24 on the Leon Creek Greenway south from the Bamberger Nature Park Trailhead:
Today's photos:
This morning was a beautiful morning for a walk even if it got hot again this afternoon. This is definitely a desert type air mass. I walked from the Fox Park Trailhead on Hausman Rd north to UTSA Blvd and back to the parking lot. This section of the creek is a large "S" shaped meander. Or, I guess more correctly, a backward "S" from east to west in the downstream direction.
I'm not sure how much it had to do with the weather and how much with the proximity to the UTSA campus and Valero Energy's corporate headquarters, but there were more cyclists and joggers on the trail than there had been on any of my previous walks. A few are lost in their own iPod world, but most are very friendly, acknowledging each other with at least a passing greeting.
The disadvantage to that is it tends to send any larger mammals and birds into hiding. I saw a white-tailed deer doe and a roadrunner, but neither stuck around long enough for me to get their photo. However, I in no way intend that to sound like a complaint. A cheerful, "Good morning!" from a total stranger is amazingly refreshing.
As can be seen in today's photos, their presence didn't distract me from getting some really amazing photos. The mockingbirds and doves aren't intimidated at all by a human presence. One jogger even paused to see what I was photographing when I was taking the photo of the yellow elm leaf which had fallen perfectly upright into the spines on top of a prickly pear pad. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable walk. I hope that joy comes through in the photos.
Drought and Wildfire Update:
Yesterday (Sunday, September 11) another wildfire burned about 125 acres in San Antonio in the Salado Creek Greenway area just east of Wetmore Rd. It was apparently started by sparks from an electrical line. A San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson pointed out that given the area burned, it's amazing no structures were burned.
Fortunately, the wind was relatively light and variable. While not the geographic center of the San Antonio metropolitan area, this was very close to the demographic center. The previous fires last week were all outside Loop 1604.
The drought continues with no end in sight. While the Texas cedar elm tends to turn yellow and drop its leaves earlier in the fall than other trees, this is happening much earlier this year. And I have been seeing more plants like prickly pear and yucca that are highly drought tolerant beginning to dry up at an alarming rate.
One of the residents close to yesterday's wildfire was quoted as saying he was fed up with the wildfires. There really isn't much that can be done other than to educate the public on the need to be extraordinarily careful. There are still idiots thoughtlessly throwing lit cigarettes out of car windows.
