Watching the River Flow

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Sometimes even the Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron and Yellow-crowned Night Heron like to just stand and watch the river flow by:

The Great Blue Heron shown above really does have two legs. Most bird species, not just Flamingos, will stand on one leg and tuck the other leg up against their body when they remain standing for an extended period of time. It is an efficient way to conserve energy.

These photographs were taken on my walk along the Roosevelt Park loop trail of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Monday, February 22, 2016.

The Statuesque Great Blue

The National Audubon Society's website aptly describes the Great Blue Heron as "statuesque." They do have a habit of standing quite still for long periods of time watching what is going on around them. This Great Blue ignored the two cormorants nearby, but kept a wary eye on what I was doing as I photographed it.

The herons generally get a bit skittish when people approach. When this one decided I was getting too close for comfort, it flew off upstream:

This set of photographs was taken at the riffle between the VFW Blvd trailhead and the VFW Blvd bridge on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Thursday, December 19, 2013.

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.

The Measure of Success, A Brief Reprise

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The emphasis in the previous post, "Ecosystems Are Not Abstract Concepts," was clearly on the wildflowers currently blooming along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River. The riparian habitat restoration began with the reconfiguration of the geomorphology of the river channel. This was quickly followed by establishing a diverse growth of vegetation to stabilize the soil and provide food for a wide variety of fauna.

As I pointed out in the post on Sunday, February 3, 2013, "The Measure of Success, A Sunday Special Edition," both the total number of birds and the high diversity of their species now living along the river are among the best indicators of the effectiveness of this process thus far.

Also, one primary objective of the restoration process is to provide habitat for the migratory birds along the Central North American Flyway.  The Blue-winged Teal and Yellowlegs are two birds that are in this category.

Here are four of the numerous species of birds I encountered on my walk yesterday: 

• The first three photos are Blue-winged Teal. These teal will soon likely be headed north for the summer, but a few are content to remain in the area year-round.
• The fourth through sixth photos are a Lesser Yellowlegs. This is another bird that will likely be searching for cooler weather to the north for the summer.
• The seventh through the ninth photos are a Killdeer. The killdeer are content to put up with our crazy weather year-round.
• The tenth through fourteenth photos are a Great Blue Heron. The great blues also stay year-round. From what I have seen, these birds are the most territorial of all the river birds. I have a feeling they put up with our weather all year simply because they aren't about to risk losing a prime nesting site to any other bird. Whenever I see a great blue up fairly close, I always get the impression they are the "angry old man" shouting "Get off my lawn!"

The Great Blue Herons at Elmendorf Lake

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

When I walked around Elmendorf Lake on Monday, January 7th, there were quite a few Great Blue Herons. I was able to definitely identify four individuals. I saw more than that, but wasn't sure how many great blues I saw two or more times. These very large birds ruled and occasionally fought over the tops of the bald cypress on the main island in the center of the lake: