On the Bright Side of the Rain

Saturday, May 21, 2016

The riparian meadow at the Mission County Park portal to the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River is very colorful thanks to all the rain so far this year:

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.

A Friday Bouquet of Riverside Flowers

Friday, March 15, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Mission Rd Trailhead upstream

Today's photos:

Today was another beautiful, if somewhat warm, day for a walk along the river. As usual, there was more than enough to see and photograph. For now, here is a small assortment of flowers blooming along the river bank.

• The first photo is an overview that includes both Pink Evening Primrose and Bluebonnets.
• The second photo is Firewheel, also known as Indian Blanket.
• The third photo is a cluster of Bluebonnets. The bluebonnets are really beginning to blossom in abundance.
• The fourth through the seventh photos are Phlox.
• The eighth photo is False Dayflower.
• The ninth and tenth photos are Bluebonnets growing among the large erosion prevention rocks on the edge of the river bank. 

I am working on a very special St. Patrick's Day post that I want to be sure is ready to go online Sunday morning, so I will post more photos from today's walk next week.

A President's Day Perspective On the San Antonio River Restoration Project

Monday, February 18, 2013

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

Today's photos:

On President's Day last year, I walked at Eisenhower Park, so this year it was Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt Park's turn. Teddy Roosevelt visited San Antonio on several occasions and always stayed at the Menger Hotel. His best known visit was in 1898 when he recruited the "Rough Riders" using the Menger Hotel bar as his "recruiting station."

Roosevelt's first visit to San Antonio, however, was in 1892 when he participated in a javelina hunt. Roosevelt was an avid hunter, but to the best of my knowledge (which is admittedly limited in this subject), there is no detailed record of where he hunted in the San Antonio area. I can't help but wonder if he spent some time hunting along the San Antonio River.

Of course, the habitat along the River has changed dramatically since Roosevelt's visits. One of the primary goals of the San Antonio River Restoration Project is to return the River to something of the character the River had around the time of Roosevelt's last visit to San Antonio about a hundred years ago.

This restoration process is still in the early stages. So here is a bit of what I saw and photographed today:

• The first photo is a Great Blue Heron.
• The second photo is a Little Blue Heron.
• The third, fourth and fifth photos are of a Spotted Sandpiper. If you look closely at its breast, the summer spotted plumage is beginning to return.
• The sixth photo is a Double-crested Cormorant.
• The seventh photo is an Eastern Black Nightshade. Like most nightshades, the fruit is toxic.
• The eighth photo is a Familiar Bluet damselfly.
• The ninth photo is a Firewheel flower. It is amazing the range of variation these flowers in the same species can have.
• The tenth photo is a pair of Red-tailed Hawks perched atop the old Lone Star Brewery smokestack.
• In the eleventh and twelfth photos, I had looked away from the smokestack for a minute or two and when I looked back, only the female red-tailed hawk remained perched at the top.
• The thirteenth photo is of two slider turtles sunning themselves on rocks in the River. This was a very warm sunny day and there were numerous turtles out on the rocks.
• The fourteenth photo is of a Texas Mountain Laurel in full bloom with a bee coming to gather nectar.
• The fifteenth photo* is an Anacacho Orchid Tree which is not actually an orchid, but a legume.
• The sixteenth photo is a male Gadwall.

* This post has been updated 2/19/2013 at 12:45 PM to provide the correct identification for the plant in this photo.

Beginning a New Year

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

My first walk of 2013 will be tomorrow. I'm not sure this evening where that walk will be, but it will probably be a trail I have walked in the past year.

There are a lot of miles of nature trails in Bexar County. I have seen varying numbers in different sources and I won't speculate on which is correct here. Whatever the number, I have walked a good many of the miles in the nineteen and a half months since beginning While on a Walk.

There are many miles of trails I have not walked yet, either because I just haven't gotten around to them, or because they recently opened. I am looking forward to walking these trails in this new year.

For today, here is another set of butterfly photos from my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Friday, December 7, 2012. This is a variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) along with a white checkered-skipper (Pyrgus albescens) on firewheel flowers (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.):

A Butterfly on Firewheel Extravaganza

Thursday, December 13, 2012

This past Friday when I walked along the San Antonio River, there were quite a few firewheel in bloom. This flower, Gaillardia pulchella Foug., is also commonly known as Indian blanket. The butterflies were having a feast on the flowers' nectar:

Keep in mind, these photos were taken a couple days before the arctic cold front blew through late in the weekend, bringing a couple nights below freezing with it. I thought about titling this post "Summer's Last Stand," but here in South Texas, summer rarely completely gives way to winter. Summer may go into hiding for a few days or even a couple of weeks, but it is never far away.