Friday, September 2, 2011
Today's photos:
The O. P.Schnabel Park Trailhead is near the west boundary of the park, so to get to the Leon Creek Greenway (pdf map link) trail one must first walk east and south through the park. This is a good distance to walk in and of itself. Once I got to the greenway trail, I walked north on the paved trail to Prue Rd and returned on a dirt trail most of the distance back to the park trail. This section of the trail goes through riparian woodland that is very different from the trail north of Prue Rd.
It was another intense walk filled with any number of encounters that embody this blog's theme of inspiring wonder, awe and delight. Once again, I will let the photos speak for themselves. There were a couple more encounters I will present in upcoming Tuesday / Thursday posts. All the encounters: the dove walking across the trail, the flycatcher peeking out from the mesquite tree, the white-tailed deer and more, were literally unexpected, because I can never truly anticipate what will appear along a trail on any given day.
The Leon Creek Greenway (pdf map link) has a bridge that crosses high over the creek between the Bamberger Nature Park and the Fox Park trailheads. When I crossed the bridge walking north on Monday, Aug 22, there was one small pool of water remaining in the creek just south of the bridge. There were numerous small birds: cardinals, doves and mockingbirds, on the ground around the edge of the pool:
When I crossed the bridge again on my return walk south towards the trailhead, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Crested Caracara by the pool:
The Crested Caracara (a.k.a. Northern Caracara or Mexican Eagle) was the stuff of legend throughout pre-European contact in South and Central America. I haven't been able to find an authoritative website that discusses this, but there are numerous discussions on various websites. For example, the flags-flags-flags.org website has the following:
"According to Aztec legend the people were wandering in Mexico in search of a sign that their god, Huitzilopochtli, had given them. He commanded them to find a Crested Caracara perched on top of a cactus, devouring a snake. After two hundred years of wandering, they found the promised sign on a small island in the Lake Texcoco. Their search and wandering ended and they founded their new capital, Tenochtitl."
The Crested Caracara is actually in the falcon family, but unlike other falcons, spends most of its time on the ground. Its legs are very well adapted for walking and running.
Editorial comment:
In the interest of full disclosure, I will point out that I digitally removed a plastic cup that was among the debris in the creek bed from several of these photos. With the exception of the post on digital variations, this is the first time I have digitally altered any photos that have appeared in this blog. As a matter of editorial policy I will always indicate if a photo has been altered beyond correcting brightness levels and color correction.
The very prestigious National Geographic Magazine has been caught on several occasions publishing altered photographs that are supposedly straight documentary images without any indication to the audience of the alteration. Perhaps their most notorious example of this was the repositioning of the Great Pyramids of Egypt to make a horizontal photo fit the vertical format of the cover. Other major publications have also published significantly altered photos without indicating the alteration.
The Geographic's justification for the pyramid rearrangement was that they were "digitally repositioning the photographer." In other words, the rearranged photo is the way the pyramids would look if the photographer had taken the photo from a different angle.
Perhaps my justification for digitally removing trash is no better, but I'm digitally cleaning up the visually distracting and environmentally degrading trash that litters the trails and creeks. For the above series of photos, I want the emphasis to remain on the crested caracara, not the trash. In the photos, I can remove the visual distraction, but in reality, the environmental degradation remains.
In most cases, as I also mentioned in the post, "Nature and the Human Presence, A Few Reflections," I have been able to minimize distracting elements from photos either by selective framing or cropping. I will discuss creek bed debris and greenway trail trash in more detail in an upcoming editorial post.
Today's photos:
Most of the paved Leon Creek Greenway trail from the Buddy Calk Trailhead on Babcock Rd south to Prue Rd is on higher ground above the east side of the creek. It is more or less at tree canopy height for the trees growing along the creek banks. There are dirt trails on the west side of the creek bed that are at or close to the creek bed level.
This morning, I walked south on the paved greenway trail and returned to the trailhead on the dirt trail. Almost all of the photos presented here are from the dirt trail. The weather was beautiful. It was only 91 degrees at 1 pm and there was a nice breeze blowing.
It is difficult to tell from these photos how desperate we are for rain. There are many large trees along the creek that are beginning to die from lack of water. These trees are usually the last to begin to show drought stress, because the ground water usually lasts longer along waterways, even intermittent ones. On the other hand, many of the late summer flowering plants seem to be doing okay in spite of the drought. Hopefully, rain will return soon.
I haven't posted a photo of a cardinal in a while in spite of the fact they are probably the most common bird I have encountered on my walks. The photo posted above is long overdue. Once again, I took more photos today that will be included in upcoming posts.
