"Bird Island"; Birds at Elmendorf Lake, Part 4

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

There are two islands in Elmendorf Lake. The main island is a fairly large, thin island. While I didn't walk over to this island, it is accessible by a pedestrian footbridge.

The second island is relatively small by comparison and is inaccessible. This smaller island is a short distance east of the SW 24th St bridge.

I don't know if this smaller island has a name, but if it doesn't, it undoubtably should be named "Bird Island." In this first photo, the "bird island" is in the foreground, the large island in the background and just to the right of center in the distance is the Tower of the Americas, a major San Antonio landmark located in downtown to the southeast of the lake:

A large number of cormorants, primarily double-crested but with a few neotropic mixed in, nest in the trees on this island. Numerous great egrets and black-bellied whistling ducks can be seen on the ground under the trees.

This set of photos was taken on my walk around Elmendorf Lake on Monday, January 7, 2013. Here are links to additional posts from this walk: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and the Vermillion Flycatcher. There will be at least one more additional post in this series.

Amid Winter Trees

Monday, January 21, 2013

Salado Creek Greenway, Oakwell Trailhead upstream

Today's photos:

Amid winter trees…

The temperature rose to a high of 72º (F) today, while a week ago the highs were in the upper 40s. The high temperatures for the next few days are forecast to be in the mid to upper 70s. This is South Texas, after all.

Milkweed pods ripen and go to seed propagating more milkweed vine. Milkweed is the host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars and the preferred source of nectar for adult monarchs. Put very simply: if there's no milkweed vine, there will be no monarchs. Period.

A black vulture soars high above.

A rock squirrel scampers through the underbrush along the bank of the creek.

A small amount of water flows through the creek. There is enough water from the rain a couple weeks ago remaining in the water table to continue the flow a few more days. Even when we get too much rain too fast, we always need more rain in South Texas.

White-winged doves were very active flying from tree to tree.

Live oak trees remain evergreen.

The Bluebird Song, A Sunday Special Edition

Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Bluebird Song

"Bluebird said to me, 'Get up my grandchild. It is dawn,' it said to me."  -  From the Navajo Nightway Ceremony

This set of photos of an eastern bluebird were taken on my walk on the Leon Creek South Greenway at Rodriquez County Park on Friday, January 11, 2013. This post is specially dedicated to my friend Courtenay "Bluebird."

From 1980 through 1985, I had the good fortune of working with and learning much about Navajo life and culture from Noël Bennett. As I was preparing this set of photos for posting, I recalled that in the Navajo Nightway Ceremony, the bluebird is a symbol for dawn. The Bluebird Song is the concluding chant of the nine day ceremony and is sung just before dawn of the final night.

I probably should mention that, here in South Texas, the bluebirds are all eastern bluebirds. This is about the western extent of their range. From the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas and westward across New Mexico and Arizona there are the very similar western bluebird and mountain bluebird.

Here is a beautiful rendition of the Bluebird Song by Lena Clark:

High Water, White Water; More River Scenes Following Last Week's Rain

Friday, January 18, 2013

After a week of very intense classes, I will be returning to my routine walking and posting schedule on Monday. In the meantime, here is another set of photos from my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Wednesday, January 9, 2013.

Keep in mind these were taken in the afternoon following 2.5 inches of rain that had fallen in the prior two days:

Flying Over Turbulent Currents

Thursday, January 17, 2013 *

I still have at least two more sets of photographs to post from the Elmendorf Lake walk, but it is going to take a while longer to get the next post ready for publication.

The following set of photos are from my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Wednesday, January 9, 2013, just over a week ago. The river was flowing swift and deep with turbulent currents due to rain that had fallen the previous two days.

The female mallard (pictured here) and her mate flew a short distance downstream, remaining low over the surface of the river. Based on prior observation, had the river been calm and flowing at its normal rate, I assume the mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) would most likely swim the relatively short distance they traveled. They probably flew this time in order to avoid swimming through the turbulent current: 

* Due to the full schedule I have this week taking a class, all posts for the week will be from previous walks.