The Bluebird Song, A Sunday Special Edition

Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Bluebird Song

"Bluebird said to me, 'Get up my grandchild. It is dawn,' it said to me."  -  From the Navajo Nightway Ceremony

This set of photos of an eastern bluebird were taken on my walk on the Leon Creek South Greenway at Rodriquez County Park on Friday, January 11, 2013. This post is specially dedicated to my friend Courtenay "Bluebird."

From 1980 through 1985, I had the good fortune of working with and learning much about Navajo life and culture from Noël Bennett. As I was preparing this set of photos for posting, I recalled that in the Navajo Nightway Ceremony, the bluebird is a symbol for dawn. The Bluebird Song is the concluding chant of the nine day ceremony and is sung just before dawn of the final night.

I probably should mention that, here in South Texas, the bluebirds are all eastern bluebirds. This is about the western extent of their range. From the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas and westward across New Mexico and Arizona there are the very similar western bluebird and mountain bluebird.

Here is a beautiful rendition of the Bluebird Song by Lena Clark:

Additional Miles of Trail to Walk

Friday, January 11, 2013

Leon Creek Greenway South, Arvil Ave Trailhead downstream
and a short segment on the east end of the upland loop trail

Today's photos:

On December 7, 2012, The San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department had the grand opening of the newest segment of the Leon Creek South Greenway. This new section adds an additional 2.6 miles to the Howard W. Peak Greenway Trail System, bringing the trail system to a total of 41 miles. On my walk today, I covered about three quarters of a mile of this new trail

The new section of trail has trailheads in Levi Strauss Park and at Rodriguez County Park. Access to the Arvil Ave trailhead is actually off of Rodriguez Rd at the entrance to the county park, not by way of Arvil Ave, as the low water crossing over the creek on Arvil Ave has been permanently closed.

Included in this set of photos are: a fox squirrel, an Eastern bluebird, a Great egret, a female Northern cardinal and a very active Northern mockingbird. The photographs also show a very healthy riparian ecosystem along this section of Leon Creek.

As I have mentioned; the more I learn, the more I see and the more I photograph. That was very true, once again, on this foggy Friday morning walk along Leon Creek. I have more photos from the walk remaining to be published in a future post.

This next week I have a very busy schedule planned. I will be in a class at the San Antonio Botanical Garden all week (learning even more). I don't foresee having time for my walks during the week. So, as something of a heads up, I will be posting as many photos from my recent walks as I can throughout the week.

A Bluebird's Kind of Day

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Crescent Bend Nature Park

Today's photos:

In Bexar County, Winter went out with a vengeance Monday night and Spring entered with a torrent early Tuesday morning. As so often happens this time of year, the torrent was followed by a bright, clear, cool, windy day today. A curious bluebird looked down from its perch in the shade in a tree.