Basking on a Rock

The slider turtles were unusually skittish as I walked along beside the river. They slid into the water faster than I could aim and focus the camera:

Then I happened upon this Guadalupe Spiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera guadalupensis). Judging from its size, it looks like this one is old enough to have seen just about everything that could happen around its aquatic habitat. It continued basking on its rock while I captured its image from the opposite bank:

This set of photographs was taken along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River near the Roosevelt Park Trailhead on Thursday, October 31, 2013.

Pure Enjoyment of the Moment

Friday, July 5, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Confluence Park Trailhead downstream
to the 3.6 mile marker*

Today's photos:

On this long 4th of July holiday weekend, here is a set of photographs to celebrate life:

• The first photo is an Alamo Vine flower.
• The second photo is a Snowy Egret searching for food at the top of a riffle.
• The third photo is an inflorescence of Sideoats Grama (the State Grass of Texas). A tiny caterpillar of some sort has woven itself inside a web pulling the spike of the  inflorescence into an oval. I would have liked to have seen how the caterpillar accomplished this.
• The fourth and fifth photos are of a Little Yellow butterfly on Orange Milkweed flowers. These milkweed blossoms were attracting numerous butterflies. Another common name for this plant is Butterfly-Weed, for obvious reasons.
• The sixth photo is a Bordered Patch butterfly on the Orange Milkweed.
• The seventh photo is a Bordered Patch butterfly on a Maximilian Sunflower. The Common Sunflowers have been in bloom for a couple of months, but the Maximilian Sunflowers are just beginning to flower.
• The eighth and ninth photos are of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron.
• The tenth photo is a Killdeer.
• The eleventh photo is a Neotropic Cormorant.
• The twelfth photo is a Blue-fronted Dancer (Argia apicalis) damselfly I managed to photograph inflight. This damselfly was being very cooperative while I took its photo as it hovered in more or less the same location until I turned away.
• The thirteenth photo is a slider turtle sunning itself on the recently exposed bedrock along the riverbank. From this distance the rock appears to be a relatively soft limestone aggregate. This section of the bank on the west side of the River just south of the Theo Ave bridge was severely eroded by the May 25th flood, but it revealed this fascinating rock formation.
• The fourteenth through sixteenth photos are of Partridge Pea flowers.
• The seventeenth photo is a Standing Cypress that is still in bloom.

* Along the San Antonio River Greenway Trails, there are small, roughly three inch diameter circular bronze insets with a number embedded in the center of the trail generally every two-tenths of a mile. These numbers indicate the distance in miles from the center of Main Plaza downtown. So, the 3.6 marker on the east bank trail south of Theo Ave. is 3.6 miles along the trail from Main Plaza.

The mile markers, beginning with zero, also are located north of Main Plaza. If one started at the 2.4 marker north of downtown and walked downstream to the 3.6 marker south of Theo, the total distance walked would be six miles (2.4 miles + 3.6 miles).

Slipping Into the Timeless

Monday, April 1, 2013

Leon Creek Greenway, Buddy Calk Park Trailhead
downstream around the oxbow lake and back

Today's photos:

Looking back through my archived posts, I realized I haven't walked this section of the Leon Creek Greenway since the end of August. It doesn't seem like it has been that long ago at all. It feels like it could have just been last week, even though so much has happened since August.  Being close to Nature alters one senses, including the sense of time, in a positive way.

If the photos posted here had been all I had taken on this walk, it would have been a satisfying experience, but once again, this is only a general impression of the experience. There is so much more, but that can wait 'til later. The experience never grows old. It is timeless, after all.

• The first photo is a close up of a Lazy Daisy flower. There must be an interesting story about how the Lazy Daisy got its name, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. And that surprises me because Texans are (notorious) master storytellers.
• The second photo is a Dewberry flower. This must be a good year for Dewberries. I couldn't have asked for better or a more dramatic lighting than was illuminating this blossom.
• The third photo is a Common Buckeye butterfly. There will be more photos of the Buckeyes in an upcoming post.
• The fourth photo is the top of a Retama shrub with its recently set leaves glowing in the sun. The Retama is also known as the Paloverde.
• The fifth photo is a branch of a Huisache in full bloom. The Huisache are also having a very good year.
• The sixth photo is a Roseate Skimmer dragonfly skimming over the oxbow lake. There were quite a few of these skimmers flying over the lake, but none were perching.
• The seventh and eighth photos are a slider turtle. This one does not have the red stripe on its head that is supposed to be the definitive characteristic for the red-eared slider species. One of these days I need to meet with a herpetologist to see if I can get a positive identification for the various sliders I have photographed in Bexar County.
• The ninth photo is a Checkered White butterfly. This is the only one of the numerous Checkered Whites that paused long enough for a portrait.
• The tenth photo is a cluster of Prairie Verbena. There are more of these verbena in this section of Leon Creek than I have found anywhere else in Bexar County so far this Spring.
• The eleventh and twelfth photos are Dewberry flowers. In the tenth photo, a Mason Bee in the genus Osmia is gathering nectar. In the eleventh photo, what appears to be Sweat Bee in the genus Lasioglossum is on another Dewberry blossom.
• The thirteenth and fourteenth photos are snails. The shells of these snails litter the landscape. It's nice to see a couple of them alive. The best I can tell, these are Striped Rabdotus.
• The fifteenth and sixteenth photos are overviews of the trees and vegetation growing along the banks of the  creek just downstream from the Babcock Rd bridge. The two photos overlap with the sixteenth photo about a half frame to the left of the fifteenth photo.

Texture and Fluidity

Monday, February 11, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Concepcíon Park Trailhead upstream

Today's photos:

The weather changed again over the weekend, so today was more typical of mid-February here: a bit chilly, windy and overcast with scattered sprinkles that were too light to show up on the weather radar. However, compared to the destructive storms occurring in much of the rest of the U.S., our weather remains pleasantly mild.

As I was walking, I became particularly aware of the texture of the landscape; how it was reflecting the mood created by the weather, particularly with the wind rippling the surface of the river.

• The first photo is a little blue heron. I couldn't help but wonder if this is one of the pair we have been seeing further upstream or if there are more little blues along the Mission Reach.
• The second photo is a slider turtle sitting on a rock. It was an overcast day, so I don't think it would be correct to say it was "sunning" itself. As a matter of fact, this was the only turtle I saw the entire walk. What really fascinated me, however, was how the wind and the presence of the rock in the current affected the surface texture of the water.
• The third and fourth photos are a snowy egret.
• The fifth photo is a great blue heron flying over some power lines.
• The sixth through the eleventh photos are of a spotted sandpiper, once again with spotless winter plumage, searching for food without any apparent trepidation of the water current going over the weir and down the riffle.
• The twelfth photo is of water rushing down through a riffle. There aren't any birds or other creatures in the photo. The subject of the photo is the texture and fluidity of the scene itself.
• The thirteenth photo is a pair of gadwalls.
• The fourteenth photo is a fascinating tree branch pattern in one of the old pecan trees above the river in Concepcíon Park.

Publication update: As it turns out, the Sunday Special Edition that I had hoped to post this past Sunday still needs some more work, so it will be this coming Sunday's post. After all, life is a process that requires continuous adaptation.