A Change in the Weather

Friday, October 26, 2012

San Antonio River, Eagleland Reach

Today's photos:

A major cold front blew into South Texas last night dropping the temperatures into the upper 50s (F) for most of the day. This kind of front is typical for this time of year and had been forecast well in advance of its arrival. What wasn't in the forecast was a strong thunderstorm midday that brought very heavy rain and an urban flood warning.

As I have mentioned in a couple of previous posts of walks along the Eagleland Reach of the San Antonio River, this stretch of the river is relatively safe to walk given these weather conditions. It is within the elaborate flood control system that protects downtown San Antonio from major flooding.

A Small Assortment of Birds, Large Ones and Smaller Ones

Thursday, October 25, 2012

I really did manage to see more than the butterflies on the Leon Creek South Greenway on my walk on Monday, October 15. As a matter of fact, I saw a lot more, three blog posts worth. This is the second in that series of posts.

In the order of appearance in the sequence, these are: a red-shouldered hawk, a turkey vulture, a pair of mourning doves and a couple of barn swallows*:

* It can be a little difficult to distinguish barn swallows from some of the other swallows when they are inflight. I am basing the identification of these two on the deeply forked shape of their tales. 

A Walk in the Garden

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

San Antonio Botanical Garden, Texas Native Trail once around the pond

Today's photos:

There was much to see and photograph today at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, especially along the section of the Texas Native Trail (pdf map link) that circles the pond. This particular section of the trail emphasizes the plants of the East Texas Pineywoods region.

I would like to have had more time to spend walking today, but physical therapy for my shoulder took priority. As can be seen in the photographs, there is much more to the Botanical Gardens than just plants.

So that there is no confusion, the butterfly in the first photograph of the series is a Queen butterfly. It is one of at least a couple of butterfly species that closely mimic the appearance of the Monarch butterfly.

A Beautiful, Lush Autumn Afternoon; The Butterfly Edition

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The butterflies weren't anywhere near as numerous at Eisenhower Park yesterday as they had been at Pearsall Park a week ago on Monday, October 15. I had to be more observant to  photograph them. There was, however, a variety, from the brilliant orange of the Gulf Fritillary to the well camouflaged Rawson's Metalmark. Orange Sulphurs, Common Mestras and others appeared along the trail: