Medina River Greenway, Upland Trailhead, West

Today's photo's:

The Upland Trailhead on the Medina River Greenway (pdf map link) is on Applewhite Rd. at the intersection with Old Applewhite Rd. The trail east of this trailhead toward Pleasanton Rd, even though it is fairly new, is currently closed for repairs. This morning's walk took me west toward the Medina River Natural Area, El Chaparral Trailhead.

I managed to walk about 1.25 miles (2.5 miles roundtrip), or about a third of the way to the El Chaparral Trailhead. ("…the El…" seems unnecessarily redundant, but since I am writing in English and not Spanish, I'll leave it that way.) This section of the trail meanders through both dense riparian woodland and the upland chaparral.

There are subtle changes in the sky, the air, the feeling of the breeze, and the quality of the light indicating a change of seasons is in its very early stages. I included the two cloud photos as illustration of this. When we start getting these high cirrus clouds, change is on the way, even if it is still hotter than blazes on the ground.

One other note on the photos: there is an intentional lack of scale in many of them. The first lizard, a Texas Spotted Whiptail, was one of the largest lizards I have seen in the wild. It is at least six or seven inches long from snout to end of tail. On the other hand, the second lizard of which there are two photos was very tiny, maybe two inches long at the most. It is probably a Texas Rose-bellied lizard, but I'm not sure about that.

The photos of the insects are obviously very close-up macro photographs. If there are flowers, there are likely going to be insects somewhere close by, especially during a drought.

A Vortex of Vultures

One of the most common birds in this part of Texas is the vulture. On Friday, August 5 at the Crescent Bend Nature Park, when I got to a point near the back of the park which is an open savanna, a fairly large vortex of vultures circled by overhead.

There were at least seven and probably more; a mix of both black vultures and turkey vultures which is fairly common in this large a group. According to WhatBird.com, "A group of vultures has many collective nouns, including a 'cast', 'committee', 'meal', 'vortex', and 'wake' of vultures." "Vortex" seems most appropriate for when they are in flight and it is perfect alliteration for the title.

The first three photos are black vultures and the others are turkey vultures. Black vultures have a grey head with white primary and black secondary wing feathers. Turkey vultures have a red head with white primary and secondary wing feathers. Also, the two have different wing positions when soaring. The black vulture's wings are nearly flat, while the turkey vulture's wings are in a characteristic dihedral curve.

I'm not sure why, but my experience has been that vultures like to pose for the camera when in flight. Perhaps, they just have an innate curiosity about what the human on the ground with the shiny object (the camera lens) is doing.

My first experience with this was at the Hill Country State Natural Area in 2002. I was walking from the parking lot into the woods. A turkey vulture kept circling low overhead as I walked along the trail. I was starting to get a little unnerved by this, so I raised the camera and took a photo of it. As soon as I snapped the shutter, the vulture flew off. I am convinced it was giving me every opportunity to take the photo and circled patiently until I did.

Whatever the reason, I can almost always count on them to make at least one low pass overhead when I am photographing them. Yesterday, August 17, at the Medina River Natural Area was no exception:

While they may not be the most beautiful bird up close and personal, in flight, they are a wonder to behold.

Medina River Natural Area; El Chaparral > Olmos Spur > (Upper) Rio Medina Trails

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Today's photos:

Some schools started back this week and the rest begin next week. I'm not sure how much that had to do with it, but, other than the employees, I had the entire park to myself this morning. And not encountering any other people on the trails seemed to add a whole new dimension to the experience.

I began the walk along the El Chaparral Trail. One thing I learned from my previous walks at the Medina River Natural Area is that the tree canopy along this trail is thin and in many sections nonexistent, so it is better to walk this section early. Also, the Olmos Spur Trail is a steep descent from the El Chaparral to the Rio Medina Trail. Even though it has been stepped, it is easier to descend than ascend.

I walked back towards the park entrance when I reached the Rio Medina Trail, so I was on the upper level of the loop above the river. However, at the end of the loop, the trail follows the river bank back most of the way to the park entrance, so there are a few more photos along the water's edge.