The San Antonio River, Park Segment, In the Light of Day

Friday, October 14, 2011

Today's photos:

The last time I walked the park segment of the San Antonio River on Wednesday, July 20 it was very late in the evening. As a matter of fact, the sun had set by the time I returned to the car. The light was getting rather faint to say the least. I returned to the park segment today while the sun was still high in the sky.

This section of the river flows through Brackenridge Park. Today I walked between Mulberry Ave and E Woodlawn Ave along the west side of the Brackenridge Park Golf Course service road.

It is a section of the river that has not been channelized for flood control, so, as much as is possible in the center of major urban development, it has retained its natural stream bed characteristics. However, there are a lot of invasive species in the area, the chinaberry trees being among the more prolific. Fortunately, the native elms still predominate.

Beyond that, I will, once again, let the photos tell their own story.

The Metalmark Butterfly

The metalmark butterfly is very common in Bexar County. There are many species of metalmarks. I'm not sure exactly which one this is. This particular butterfly appears to be either a Fatal, Rounded or Rawson's Metalmark. I'm in a bit of a quandary why the species, Calephelis nemesis, has the common name "Fatal Metalmark." Both the scientific name and common name sound quite ominous. 

The metalmark get their name from the metallic-like reflective markings along the outer bands of their wings. One of the things I find especially fascinating about the metalmark is that many, if not all, the butterflies in the Family Riodinidae have fine, hair-like fibers along the edges of their wings giving them a fringed appearance. These are very small butterflies, easily overlooked unless one happens to be paying close attention:

While somewhat visible in some of the other photos,
the namesake reflective markings are prominent in this photo.

This series of photos was taken on my walk, Friday, September 9 on the South Salado Creek Greenway in South Side Lions Park.

Leon Creek Greenway, Mainland Trailhead, North, Beyond Leon Vista Park On Towards O. P. Schnabel Park

Today's photos:

I returned to the Leon Creek Greenway, Mainland trailhead today to see how things look after last weekend's storm, and to walk the section between the Leon Vista Park trail cutoff and O. P. Schnabel Park that I hadn't walked previously. As can be seen in the photos, it is still quite damp three days after the rain. Most of the dirt side trails are soggy mud, but the ones that cover rocky ground are walkable.

While the creek is no longer continuously flowing, there are numerous extended sections with pools of water. It was good to see this much water in the creek bed. The Leon Creek watershed had received some of the heaviest rain early Sunday morning. From what I could see of the debris that marks the high water line, the creek, at least at this point, didn't get as deep as I had expected. There had been a flood advisory through Monday night for the Leon Creek further downstream.

Overall, today's photos tell the story far more effectively than I can write it.