An Adolescent Out for a Stroll

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Little Blue Heron juveniles are white for their first year. Then adolescence happens:

This is the closest a Little Blue Heron has allowed me to approach before flying off. I know they are fairly large birds, about two feet long from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail, but their size is even more impressive when they are up close and personal.

These photos were taken on a walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from VFW Blvd on both the west and east bank trails on Monday, May 16, 2016.

Click on the first photo in a post to open the photos in slideshow view.

Meditations Along the River

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

ten meditations

arising within a riparian domain

"We must begin thinking like a river

if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life

for future generations."

- David Brower

These photographs were taken on a walk on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. The walk began with a short segment of the loop trail at Roosevelt Park. The majority of the photos, however, are from a longer walk a bit later in the day between Confluence and Concepcion Parks.

Little Blue

Anyone who has payed much attention to the herons and egrets probably won't be at all surprised to learn that the Great Egret and Great Blue Heron are cousins in the Genus Ardea. Likewise, the Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron. are cousins in the Genus Egretta. There is an obvious difference in the color of their plumage, but the over all size and body confirmation of the Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron are similar.

One difference between the two species that may not be as obvious as their color is the way they go about hunting their prey. The Snowy Egret is a very active and aggressive hunter, constantly moving, often with the appearance of being very agitated. The Little Blue, as they are frequently referred to by birders, is much more laid-back, walking slowly and calmly along in shallow water as it hunts.

This set of photos was taken on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from the Roosevelt Park trailhead on Friday, September 13, 2013. This Little Blue is walking on the edge of the gravel point bar on the inside of the curve in the river upstream from the pedestrian bridge.

Birds of Elmendorf Lake, The March Edition

Thursday, April 18, 2013

This set of photos was taken on my walk at Elmendorf Lake Park on Friday, March 22, 2013. As I mentioned in that post, this walk was a few days after the San Antonio River Authority and the City of San Antonio presented a conceptual design workshop regarding future improvements for the park.

Elmendorf Lake is an excellent location for birding. In the post dated Tuesday, April 16, 2013, I presented a series of photos of a Ruddy Duck that I had photographed on this walk. Today's post is the second of three posts of the birds I photographed on March 22:

• The first three photos are American Coots.
• The fourth photo is a Great Blue Heron "hiding" high up in one of the numerous Bald Cypress  in the park.
• The fifth through eighth photos are a Little Blue Heron with the typical non-breeding plumage.
• The ninth and tenth photos are a Little Blue Heron with breeding plumage. The birds swimming in the Lake in these two photos are a pair of Northern Shovelers.
• The eleventh through thirteenth photos are Great Egrets.
• The fourteenth and fifteenth photos are a Snowy Egret.

Wind Blown

Monday, February 25, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Concepcíon Park Trailhead
the downstream loop trail

Today's photos:

The weather story today here in Bexar County was the high wind. This afternoon while I was walking, the wind was blowing at about 28 mph sustained with gusts between 40 and 45 mph. There were a few grass fires around the area (one with fatalities), but falling trees and blowing debris were the bigger problems.

It seemed to me the River greenway trail was probably the safest place for a walk. The primary disadvantage was there are few windbreaks along the open river channel. Holding the camera steady enough to take the photos was quite a challenge at times. But then, just standing up in the higher wind gusts was also a challenge.

In spite of the wind, I still took at least as many photos on this walk as I usually do on any walk along the River. This is just a sample. There are enough photos for two more posts in the near future.

• The first two photos are Purple Threeawn. The wind was furiously lashing the grass around almost flattening it to the ground at times.
• In the third and fourth photos, the tall dense stand of Cattail provided a windbreak on the river bank. A couple of Northern Shovelers, a few Gadwalls and a Little Blue Heron took advantage of a respite from the wind in its shelter.
• The fifth and sixth photos are of a Pink Evening Primrose. Like all the other plants, this flower was taking a fairly severe beating as the wind whipped it around.
• The seventh and eighth photos are a Snowy Egret.
• The ninth through thirteenth photos are two Lesser Yellowlegs. There were several lesser yellowlegs feeding in the wind whipped water flowing down one of the riffles.
• The fourteenth and fifteenth photos are a male Gadwall swimming in the rough, wind blown water at the center of the River channel.
• The sixteenth and seventeenth photos are of three Killdeer. Along with the lesser yellowlegs, there were numerous killdeer. In the sixteenth photo, the killdeer that was flying higher above the water was having some difficulty navigating a wind gust, but it landed on a rock without any apparent difficulty. (They showed some planes landing at SA International Airport on the evening news. The large jumbo jets seemed to be having similar problems as they approached the runway.)
• The eighteenth photo is a Loggerhead Shrike. It had a tight grip on the tree branch. If shrikes are concerned about such things, this one was definitely having a "bad feather day."