Monday Along the Salado Creek

Monday, April 15, 2013

Salado Creek Greenway, Lady Bird Johnson Park Trailhead,
Morningstar Boardwalk

Today's photos:

I am preparing this post for publication on Saturday evening (April 20th) in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion. I first heard about the Boston bombings when I returned to my car following this walk on Monday.

I wrote the paragraph I am using as the Mission Statement for While on a Walk about a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, thus the inspiration for the concluding sentence: "In the tormented, torn world we live in, this project is a testament to the power of the human spirit to find delight in God’s awesome creation and to communicate that delight to others, to share in the discourse of revelation and healing."

In this spirit, I dedicate all the posts dated the week of April 15, 2013 to the victims of both the Boston attacks and the West, Texas explosion.

To be clear, the delay in the publication of the posts for this week has nothing directly to do with these events. Purely and simply, I finally ran up against the limits of my stamina. However, I did manage three walks for the week.

The walk presented in this set of photos is from the Salado Creek wetland along the Morningstar Boardwalk. For reasons I have yet to explain fully understand, this section of the Salado Creek isn't as wet as it has been in the past, even during the 2011 drought. I suspect there are multiple underlying causes for the drier creek channel, but until I am able to verify any or all of them, I will refrain from speculation.

• The first two photos are of Turk's Cap flowers. These are excellent plants for nativescapes. They grow particularly well in shaded areas. This relative of the hibiscus has numerous common names including Manzanilla and Mexican Apple. The leaves, flowers and fruit are all edible.
• The third photo is Silver-leaf Nightshade, also known as Trompillo. This plant is NOT edible. As with almost all plants in the family Solanaceae, all parts of this plant are poisonous. (Tomatoes and potatoes are the two best known edible nightshade exceptions.) (I was reminded after publishing this that egg plant and peppers are also edible exceptions.)
• The fourth photo is Wild Onion. These are growing in great abundance along the eastern end of the Morningstar Boardwalk. I probably should mention I have read mixed reviews on how safe it is to eat these onions.
• The fifth photo is a Venus' Looking Glass. 
• The sixth photo is Pink Evening Primrose. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the flowers can range from pure white to a deep rose pink. The two flowers in this photo are an example of the deep rose pink variety.
• The seventh and eighth photos are Scarlet Pimpernel. This plant originated in Europe and North Africa, but now has a worldwide distribution.
• The ninth and tenth photos are a pair of Mallard ducks. Mallards are the origin of all domestic ducks except Muscovy ducks. Anyone who has spent much time on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio has likely witnessed the relatively tame nature of these birds. Mallards can be downright persistent and not the least bit shy with any human willing to share a bite to eat.
• The eleventh and twelfth photos are Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. The twelfth photo is the male. Males and females look almost identical, but the males are somewhat larger.
• The thirteenth and fourteenth photos are a Familiar Bluet damselfly. 

The Emerging, Thriving Ecosystem of the Mission Reach

Friday, April 12, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Roosevelt Park Trailhead, around the loop trail

Today's photos:

My week along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River was rather overwhelming to say the least. This morning I was learning about the grasses growing along this section of the River. I returned in the afternoon for another walk around the loop specifically to photograph.

This set of photos is just a small sample of all the photos I have from this walk. The entire set of photos is only a random sample from the ecosystem taking hold and flourishing along the Mission Reach:

• The first two photos are a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. These night-herons began migrating back into the area a couple weeks ago, returning from their winter home farther to the south.
• The third photo is a Great Blue Heron.
• The fourth photo is an overview with a Great Egret, a Neotropic Cormorant and a gathering of slider turtles on the rocks near the side of the River.
• The fifth photo is a Mexican Hat. These flowers can range from solid dark red-orange to solid yellow with a wide range of variation in between.
• The sixth and seventh photos are a pair of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers perched in a young Sycamore tree.
• The eighth photo is a Red-tailed Hawk soaring high above the River.
• The ninth photo is a Gray Hairstreak butterfly on a Bluebonnet. The Bluebonnets are beginning to go to seed.
• The tenth photo is a Tropical Buckeye butterfly on a Bluebonnet.
• The eleventh photo is a Common Carp (pdf link). There are a wide variety of fish species living in the River. The carp is one of the biggest of these fish. The Common Carp was introduced to Texas in 1881 and is not a native fish.
• The twelfth photo is a Killdeer.
• The thirteenth through fifteenth photos are the seed heads of Eastern Gamagrass. This is one of the desirable native grasses growing along the River. This grass is monoecious. It has separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The Eastern Gamagrass is related to corn and the seeds resemble corn kernels.
• The sixteenth photo is a damselfly in the genus Argia. It appears to be a female Aztec Dancer (Argia nahuana).
• The seventeenth photo is a Mexican Prickly Poppy.
• The eighteenth photo appears to be an Elm Sawfly (Cimbex americana) or similar species.
• The nineteenth photo is a ripening Dewberry.
• The twentieth photo is a Corona de Cristo Passionflower. There is a flower bud just beginning to open to the left of the fully open flower.

Flight of the Cliff Swallows

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Cliff Swallows have returned in large numbers this Spring along the San Antonio River. They generally nest under the bridges. Cliff swallows can easily be confused with barn swallows, however, the shape of their tails easily distinguish the two species one from the other. The barn swallow's tail has a distinct fork shape, where the cliff swallow's tail is squared.

The swallows are fascinating birds to watch. They live in colonies, so there will almost always be a large number of them in an area at the same time catching insects in flight. These birds fly at a fairly fast speed and make sharp turns abruptly without slowing:

This set of photos is from my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River yesterday (Wednesday, April 10th).