Friday, August 3, 2012
Eisenhower Park, Cedar Flats > Upper Shady Creek > Hillside Trails
Today's photos:
The effects of the continuing drought are very apparent at Eisenhower Park right now. We have had a fairly wet year since December, but we need a lot more rain to make up for the lack of rain the previous year.
A surprising number (at least to me) of the junipers have died in the past year. Many of the larger deciduous trees are clearly stressed. On the other hand, much of the understory and ground cover vegetation is doing quite well.
I found myself taking a variety of photos as I walked along the trails. The impact of the drought could easily have been the theme for today's post, but in the editing this evening, once again the photos of the little things I encountered particularly stood out.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
The photos from my walk yesterday were taken in and around Culebra Creek. Like many, if not most, of the creeks in Bexar County, the Culebra is ephemeral meaning that it only has water flowing in it for a short time after it rains as it drains the runoff from its watershed.
There is a section of the Cathedral Rock Park Connector Trail that drops down into and zigzags along the creek bed for almost a quarter mile. The following photos were taken along that section of the trail:
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Leon Creek Greenway, Cathedral Rock Park Connector Trail
along Culebra Creek to Lindsay Pl Trailhead and back
Today's photos:
It's August. It's South Texas. It's hot. It's the same every year, but people still complain about it.
The normal high temperature this time of year is 96º (F). 100º isn't that much above normal and can be quite typical. The high yesterday was 100. This is the peak of summer.
When Stephen F. Austin was trying to attract settlers to Texas in the 1820's, he advertised that there are only two bad months of weather here: August and September. It was hotter than blazes this time of year back then, too.
By the end of 1825 when Texas was a Province of Mexico, Austin had brought 300 families from the United States to live in his colony. I don't know what time of year these families arrived in Texas, but I have no doubt that every August following their arrival, they complained about the heat.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
"A duck, a heron and an egret" sounds like a lead in to a lame Riverwalk joke. But there's no joke here, just a typical evening on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River. This is another set of photos from my walk this past Friday, July 27.
The duck is an older juvenile. I'm not completely certain which species it is. It had just come out of the water and was settling in for the night. Then there is the yellow-crowned night heron getting a bite to eat just downstream from the U.S. 90 bridge. Finally, the snowy egret with its feathers ruffled by the wind was on the weir dam upstream from the greenway pedestrian bridge.
