Bee-ing On The Sun

Saturday, February, 27, 2016

This European Honeybee is busy doing what only pollinators can do:

Bees, along with all the other pollinators, really are disappearing. Seeing only one bee in a patch of a half dozen or so Sunflowers where bees should be abundant even this time of year is frightening.

The web of life on this planet is exceedingly complex. It is dangerously naive to think we can keep eliminating species, intentionally or not, without dire consequence. At some point the entire system will collapse and take us with it.

Hopefully, we have not unknowingly passed the point of no return. Ecosystem restoration is beginning to be valued, but there is much work left to be done. We are in desperate need of a shift in paradigms.

Manicured, mowed lawns must be replaced with native landscaping and the use of pesticides eliminated except in very limited, highly targeted applications. Agricultural practices that degrade the environment must be replaced with ones that maximize ecological quality.

Generally, my goal is to keep While on a Walk upbeat and inspirational, but when confronted with this horrific and dangerous decline in pollinators, there is no choice but to make the message as blunt as possible: Prosperity and aesthetics that are lethal are neither prosperous nor beautiful.

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.

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.

Spring!!!!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

There is still almost a full month of winter left according to the calendar, but the bloomin' flowers along the trail tell a much different story:

This looks much more like Spring than Winter.

The Huisache are blooming right on time and I don't think it has been cold enough, long enough to prevent the Four-nerve Daisies from blooming all winter. The Anacacho Orchid tree is blooming about a month early, the Common Sunflower didn't wait 'til summer and the Eastern Gamagrass is about two months early.

And above all the others, Texas Mountain Laurel shouts "SPRING" the clearest of them all.

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

February "Snow" in San Antonio

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Snowy Egrets live year round in Bexar County. The Mission Reach of the San Antonio River provides an excellent restored habitat for these splendid birds. They find much to eat along the riffles, along the shallow banks of the river and in the quiet backwater of the embayments:

This February has been unusually mild so far, but weather can change abruptly here in South Texas, so with a month of winter left, I hope I'm not speaking too soon. It is highly unlikely we will see anything resembling real snow this winter. The Snowy Egrets are as close as we typically get to seeing anything "snowy" here in South Texas.

These photographs were taken on my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from the VFW Blvd trailhead this past Monday, February 15, 2016.

Green Lines, Translucent Patterns, Yellow Spheres

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Branching green lines (with thorns) of Retama...

Patterns of translucent leaves crisscrossed by dark branches and yellow spherical flowers of Huisache...

Both Retama and Huisache are small. multi-trunk trees growing abundantly throughout the hill and brush country of South Texas. The Huisache is one of the first trees to bloom each year, typically beginning in mid-February. From what I have seen the past couple weeks, it looks like the Huisache are set to bloom prolifically in the next week or so here in Bexar County.

These photographs were taken on my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from the VFW Blvd trailhead this past Monday, February 15, 2016.

Dynamic Adaptaion

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

One of the most fundamental and essential aspects of life is the ability to dynamically adapt to changes in the surrounding environment. Something just over a year and a half have elapsed since the last post was added to While on a Walk. The time has come to slowly resume the Walk.

The original intent of this blog as stated in its mission was and still remains: "The photographs in this project are about the sky, the earth, the plants and animals, and about the experience of being in their presence, the experience of their spirit, the experience of wonder and awe and delight. They are intended to be catalysts for contemplation, for leaving oneself open to allow wonder and delight to take hold and mature."

The only text I will include in posts going forward will be limited to the general location and any supplemental information needed to give the photographs a context. If the viewer is interested in flora and fauna identification beyond any included in a post, feel free to do your own research. In the meantime, leave yourself open to allow wonder and delight to take hold and mature, to appreciate the Earth for all its own innate beauty and spirit:

This set of photographs was taken on a walk yesterday, Monday, February 15, 2016, along the same section of the San Antonio River Mission Reach downstream from the VFW Blvd trailhead where I left off in the last post on July 9, 2014.

It was a rather warm, but beautiful mid-winter day. From the high cirrus clouds to the sky blue reflection on the surface of the river water, the river was as magical as ever.

As discussed in the July 9, 2014 post, this is the river healing and renewing itself. Continuous erosion and deposition dynamically reshape the channel. Black Willow, dormant for the winter, both stabilize the river bank soil and provide a perch for numerous smaller birds. Pairs of American Wigeons were abundant and actively feeding in the shallow areas of the river. And, of course, there are many more photos from this walk for future posts.