The Ospreys, Part 1

During my long afternoon walk on the San Antonio River on Friday, September 30, there were quite a few vultures soaring on the thermals above the greenway. In the distance, I could see a bird that was about the same size as a vulture, but its wing position when it soared and the way it was flying was definitely not like a vulture.

I had a suspicion what it was, but it was too far away to tell for sure. Once it was closer, its color pattern confirmed my suspicion. It was an Osprey. As a matter of fact there are at least three, and probably more, ospreys either migrating through on their way south to Mexico, or preparing to winter over along the river. I'm hoping for the latter. The osprey is a large, majestic raptor in the same order as hawks and eagles. In some places, they are called sea hawks and other places, fish eagles.

There are two ospreys in this post. The first one made a couple of passes circling near where I was standing before flying off out of sight upstream. The second one is carrying a fish in a manner characteristic of the species. It flew straight up the river channel and landed in a tree with dense foliage on the opposite side of the river.

I also encountered the ospreys on my subsequent two walks along the river and will post those photos as part 2 in the series.

And the second osprey carrying the fish. They always carry the fish with the head pointing forward:

The San Antonio River, Eagleland Reach, Not Exactly What I Expected

Today's photos:

We finally had a county-wide gully washer across Bexar County over the weekend. It is the first time we have had rain of this magnitude since I began my walks in May. I'm not sure how long it takes the SA Parks and Rec Department to clean up the Leon and Salado Creek greenway trails after a rain that fills the creek channels to overflowing, and I didn't want to spend the day driving around the city looking for an open trail to walk, so I headed to the Eagleland Reach of the San Antonio River Greenway.

This section of the river trail is at the top of the flood control channel except for the relatively short portion that goes behind Brackenridge High School and under the Union Pacific Railroad trestle. I was reasonably certain this trail would be open both because of its height above the river and because it is at the southern end of the elaborate flood control system that protects downtown San Antonio from all but the most extreme flooding.

I was quite surprised to find that this portion of the river was significantly lower than its usual depth today. As it turns out, the San Antonio River Authority had lowered the level in order to make some repairs just above the weir dam upstream from Lone Star Blvd. So the area, which I had walked on June 13, wasn't as picturesque as usual, but in some cases it made the animals, especially the turtles, easier to photograph. I should also note that there have been monarch butterflies in this and last week's series of river posts because it is the time of year when they are passing through San Antonio on their annual fall migration back to Mexico.

The San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Confluence Park Trailhead, North, Total Sensory Overload

Today's photos:

The one phrase I can't get out of my head that summarizes today's walk is "total sensory overload." For a nature photographer, the San Antonio River with its ongoing restoration is nothing less than phenomenal, a constant binge of image opportunities. It almost makes nature photography too easy. Not that I am complaining.

Today I covered the section between Confluence Park and Roosevelt Park. This part of the river primarily passes through an industrial area of the city, but other than the short section that parallels the U.S. 90 bridge, it's easy to overlook the environment beyond the river channel.

Once again, the photos are something of a random sample from all that I took today so that I can get this posted in a timely manner. There will be several more posts from all three of my walks this week.