Today's photos:
What an absolutely beautiful afternoon for a walk! My biggest challenge was trying to decide which of at least a half dozen trails I would most like to see the day after it had rained three days in a row in San Antonio.
We were well into the drought when I had walked the Water Loop Trail at Hardberger Park on July 6. The summer heat was just beginning to take its toll, but I could tell then that the Water Loop Trail is one of the best nature trails in the area. More than any of the other trails I have walked, I really wanted to see what impact the rain had on this trail.
The weekend rain hasn't ended the drought by any means. In spite of the 2.79 inches of rain that fell this weekend, we are still short of the average September rainfall and about thirteen inches below the annual normal rainfall to date.
The South Texas ecosystem is remarkably resilient. This resilience was clearly evident along the trail this afternoon. All of creation seemed to be celebrating the rain.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Today's photos:
I woke up this morning to the sound of heavy rain falling outside. I quickly realized I wasn't dreaming. The rain fell primarily in central Bexar County. Much of the eastern and western parts of the county didn't get any rain at all.
For most of this week, I have been planning on walking the section of the Salado Creek Greenway from the Lady Bird Johnson Park Trailhead towards Wetmore Rd today. This is the section of the greenway that goes through where the wildfire burned this past Sunday. I received conformation from the San Antonio Park Police Department this morning that the trail had reopened since the fire. I will have a post about the wildfire's aftermath next Tuesday or Thursday.
Most of the rain this morning fell in the Olmos Creek watershed, but enough fell along Salado Creek to leave pools in the wetland area through which the Morningstar Boardwalk section of the trail passes. This made for another remarkable set of photos, especially the clouds, the dragonflies and the ripple distorted reflections in the pools. The highlight for today was by far the family of deer that were moving downstream through the wide open area of the wetland.
I think I have mentioned somewhere that on my walk through Bamberger Nature Park and the Leon Creek Greenway on Wednesday, August 24, it seemed like every creature and its cousin was showing up for my camera.
There is a dirt trail that goes north off the paved trail in the park just before it intersects the main greenway trail. As I was passing this dirt trail, I happened to look up to the tops of the trees. Sitting at the top of one of the tallest trees were two crested caracaras.
I had seen a caracara in the creek bed on my walk the Monday before. According to the literature, caracaras are falcons that spend most of their time on the ground. While caracaras generally build their nests at the tops of tall trees, from what I could see, these two were no where near a nest.
The two seemed to be surveying what was happening around them and, I would like to think, enjoying the view:
