Monday, February 11, 2013
San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Concepcíon Park Trailhead upstream
Today's photos:
The weather changed again over the weekend, so today was more typical of mid-February here: a bit chilly, windy and overcast with scattered sprinkles that were too light to show up on the weather radar. However, compared to the destructive storms occurring in much of the rest of the U.S., our weather remains pleasantly mild.
As I was walking, I became particularly aware of the texture of the landscape; how it was reflecting the mood created by the weather, particularly with the wind rippling the surface of the river.
- The first photo is a little blue heron. I couldn't help but wonder if this is one of the pair we have been seeing further upstream or if there are more little blues along the Mission Reach.
- The second photo is a slider turtle sitting on a rock. It was an overcast day, so I don't think it would be correct to say it was "sunning" itself. As a matter of fact, this was the only turtle I saw the entire walk. What really fascinated me, however, was how the wind and the presence of the rock in the current affected the surface texture of the water.
- The third and fourth photos are a snowy egret.
- The fifth photo is a great blue heron flying over some power lines.
- The sixth through the eleventh photos are of a spotted sandpiper, once again with spotless winter plumage, searching for food without any apparent trepidation of the water current going over the weir and down the riffle.
- The twelfth photo is of water rushing down through a riffle. There aren't any birds or other creatures in the photo. The subject of the photo is the texture and fluidity of the scene itself.
- The thirteenth photo is a pair of gadwalls.
- The fourteenth photo is a fascinating tree branch pattern in one of the old pecan trees above the river in Concepcíon Park.
Publication update: As it turns out, the Sunday Special Edition that I had hoped to post this past Sunday still needs some more work, so it will be this coming Sunday's post. After all, life is a process that requires continuous adaptation.
(Hither) Friday, February 8, 2013
Medina River Natural Area,
El Camino > Rio Medina > El Chaparral Trails
Today's photos:
My day began Friday with docent training from the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department in the Medina River Natural Area. I didn't have time during the day for a separate walk around the trail from the one we took for the training, but I was able to get a selection of photos:
- The first two photos in this series are of an Eastern fox squirrel munching on a bald cypress cone. This squirrel is sitting atop the trunk of a large cypress that had fallen across the Medina River and created a bridge all the way across from one bank to the other.
- The third, fourth, fifth and sixth photos are of a Red Admiral butterfly. The red admiral butterflies are one of the most common butterflies to remain active during a mild winter. This butterfly's hind wings are a bit ragged, but that is not unusual for this time of year and it is still capable of flying very well.
- The seventh and eighth photos are of a Polydamas Swallowtail butterfly. I haven't seen many, but over the past couple of weeks have sighted four or five of them at various locations around Bexar County.
- The ninth photo is of an American Snout. I think I have seen more American snouts at the Medina River Natural Area than I have at any other location in the county.
- The tenth photo is an orange and brown millipede. My knowledge of millipedes, which are Arthropods in the Class Diplopoda, is on par with my knowledge of snails. One thing I discovered is there even less authoritative information on the web about millipedes than there is about snails. I was more than a bit frustrated trying to search for more information.
Friday afternoon, after the docent training, I had to leave for a trip to La Grange, TX about 125 miles over yonder east-northeast of San Antonio:
(Yonder) Saturday, February 9, 2013
Colorado River at La Grange, Fayette County, TX
TX Hwy 71, Public access boat ramp
Today's photos:
Other than the photograph of my grandfather in one of the very early posts of While on a Walk, all of the photos I have posted on this blog have been taken in the 1,257 square mile area of Bexar County. That's more than enough territory to keep a wildlife blogger busy for a long time to come.
I didn't take my dSLR camera with me on this weekend trip to La Grange primarily because I knew there would be little time for photography. Saturday morning I did have a few minutes to make a stop at the public access boat ramp next to the Tx Hwy 71 bridge on the Colorado River.
The only camera I had with me was my cell phone camera, so the two photos above are not of the best quality, but they are an adequate representation of the scenic beauty of the Colorado River. These are looking upstream from the boat ramp. The bridge in the distance is the Union Pacific railroad bridge.
As can be seen in these two photos, the Colorado is a much larger river than either the Medina or the San Antonio River here in Bexar County. One can also get some idea of the difference in the riparian ecosystem along this section of the Colorado with its dense growth of deciduous hardwood trees. There was a great egret along the bank of the river and a yellow-rumped warbler in a tree next to the boat ramp, but I wasn't able to get a photo of either with the cell phone camera.
Publication update: I do have a Sunday Special Edition in the works. Hopefully it will be ready to go online before Monday evening.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
One of the things I found very interesting, but not at all surprising, on my walk at Eisenhower Park yesterday (Wednesday, February 6, 2013) was the number of flowers that are beginning to bloom. We have had a very mild, if all too dry, winter so far this year in South Texas.
Temperatures have been running seven to ten degrees (F) above normal. A heavy rain fell south and east of Bexar County early yesterday morning, but we missed it completely here. The last significant rainfall in the county was about a month ago. Of course, this being South Texas, the weather could change drastically in a heartbeat. Our average last freeze is March 1st and the record latest freeze is April 3 set in 1987. It's not time to pack up the jackets and plant freeze sensitive plants just yet.
Most, if not all, of these flowers are blooming right on schedule, or just a bit early. However, I think the mild weather has perhaps increased their abundance a bit:
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- Photos 1 and 2 are a little bit of a challenge to identify. The little white and little yellow asters are to flower identification what sparrows (the little brown birds) are to bird identification. I am reasonably certain these two flowers are Fleabane in the Genus Erigeron, but they could be any of several of the numerous species in that genus. I made the mistake of not including their leaves in the photos. Leaves can be critical in differentiating species. I probably should stop while I'm ahead, but I'm going to venture on and say these are probably Spreading Fleabane (Erigeron divergens Torr. & Gray), primarily because this species is one of the earliest to bloom. If I am wrong, I am certain one of my friends who knows much more about plant taxonomy than I do will correct me.
- Photos 3, 4, 5 and 6 are much easier to identify. I had come around a bend in the trail and saw the Redbud branch sticking out from among the ashe juniper and was stopped in my tracks by the unanticipated beauty. I probably even uttered an audible, "Wow!" This Redbud tree is just beginning to flower. It is a bit early, but not by much. In addition to the flower buds, another definitive identifier for this tree are the seed pods still on the branches that can be seen in the sixth photo. There are two varieties of Redbud that grow in this area, the Eastern and the Texas, but without the leaves, I can't tell which this one is.
- Photos 7, 8 and 9 have to be Catclaw Acacia. That is the only plant I have ever seen with this type of thorns. The young blossoms are also typical of an acacia.
- Photo 10 is a Golden-eye Phlox. This plant with a single flower was blooming all by its lonesome, even though this is typically a flower that blooms in abundance in the late winter and into spring. Sometimes they even hang around into the early fall.
- Photos 11 through 17 are Wind-flower (Anemone berlandieri Pritz.). This is another common winter blooming wildflower in Bexar County. As can be seen in the photos, they range in color from white through red to deep purple.
- Photo 18 is Agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata (Maric.) Fedde). These winter blossoms will mature through the spring and produce red-orange berries in the summer that make delicious jelly. Of course, harvesting the berries from this shrub with very sharp prickly leaves can be a challenge, but well worth the effort.
