Second Spring 2013, Part 1

Autumn days don't get much better here in South Texas than it was this past Thursday. Early in the afternoon, the temperature was in the mid-70s (F). The sun was bright and pleasantly warm in a deep blue sky with a few scattered clouds. Recent rain has the vegetation refreshed following the dry heat of summer. As I mentioned in a few posts this time two years ago, this is our "second Spring."

The Yanaguana Nature Trail at Mission San Juan was vibrant on Thursday:

• The first two photos are the top of a very tall Huisache tree against the beautiful clouds dotting a small section of the sky.
• The third and fourth photos are a Tievine flower with the inflorescence of a Southwestern Bristlegrass in the upper right-hand corner of the photos.
• The fifth and sixth photos are of Goldeneye. There is an European Honeybee on the flower in the sixth photo. I am becoming increasingly disturbed by the sparse number of bees, both European and native. These flowers should have a very large number of a wide variety bee species attracted to their nectar.
• The last two photos appear to me to be Rough Sunflower (Helianthus hirsutus). They are similar to the Goldeneye, but these flowers are larger and the leaves are somewhat different than the Goldeneye.

This set of photographs was taken on the Yanaguana Nature Trail at Mission San Juan in the the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park on Thursday, October 17, 2013.