Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I have so many sets of photos from the past week and a half that I haven't published yet, the biggest challenge for today was deciding which set to choose. I finally decided to use this set from my walk on Friday, February 3 at Crescent Bend Nature Park primarily because it was a misty, drizzly day that gives these images a softness that is something of a change of pace from the San Antonio River photos.
There was a small flock of Green-winged Teal on the creek that afternoon. They were very skittish; much more so than any of the ducks I have photographed on Salado Creek or the San Antonio River. Whenever I tried to approach closer to get better photos they would fly several hundred feet further away:
Monday, February 13, 2012
Today's photos:
After another half inch of rain fell overnight, both the San Antonio River and San Pedro Creek continue to flow swifter and deeper than normal. The walk today, heading upstream from the San Pedro Creek confluence, continues the river series from Wednesday and Friday last week.
The river ecosystem never ceases to amaze me. The butterfly in the photos above was probably the biggest surprise for today, especially since the weekend had been much colder than normal.
More rain is forecast for this coming Wednesday and Friday.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Today's photos:
I hadn't planned on doing another series of walks along the San Antonio River until the end of this month or the first week of March, but my experience on Wednesday's walk was a stark reminder of the power of the river, the ferocity of flash floods, the difficulties encountered in restoring a riparian ecosystem in a flood control channel and the awesome, constantly changing dynamics of this environment.
Today's walk gave me additional material for an upcoming post specifically dealing with these issues. But it was also another walk where the incredible diversity of wildlife in Bexar County was on full display. It is going to take some time to sort out and edit all of the photos. In order to get a post online tonight, the series above is a random selection of photos from this walk.
Feb. 11, 2012: I probably should mention that San Antonio received another third of an inch of rain early yesterday morning. This walk was below the confluence with San Pedro Creek. Both the creek and the river were at a higher level and were flowing much faster than I had expected.
