Things Natural, Wild and Free; A Sunday Special Edition

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Things Natural, Wild and Free

"Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television."  -  Aldo Leopold

The first challenge of birding is to spot a bird:

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Then the fun begins:

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This set of photographs was taken at the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center yesterday morning during an Alamo Area Master Naturalist training field trip. A special note of thanks goes to Tom and Patsy Inglet for their expert and enthusiastic guidance.

There are still quite a few birds I am learning to identify. Some I am more certain of than others. Going down the series from top to bottom:

• The first two photos appear to be of a Northern Harrier.
• Photos three through nine are of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with a swallow chasing it in the eighth photo.
• Photo ten I have yet to identify with any certainty.*
• Photo eleven is an Eastern Phoebe.
• Photo twelve appears to be either a Northern Harrier or an American Kestrel.
• Photos thirteen and fourteen are of a Crested Caracara.
• Fifteen and sixteen are of a very spectacular Vermillion Flycatcher.
• Seventeen is a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
• Eighteen is a Wilson's Snipe.
• Nineteen through twenty-two are American White Pelicans.
• Twenty-three is a flock of Double-crested Cormorants.
• Twenty-four appears to me to be a Lesser Yellowlegs.
• Twenty-five is a  Black-necked Stilt.
• Twenty-six includes Mallards, a Black-necked Stilt and American Avocets.

If anyone can provide an identification I have missed or a correction, please feel free to send me an email at dhewers@gmail.com.

* Update, January 10, 2013: Photo ten is a Least Sandpiper. When I first posted this I hadn't had time to verify the identity of the bird. Least sandpipers were present in great abundance, literally in the hundreds, the day these photos were taken.

A Change in the Weather

Friday, October 26, 2012

San Antonio River, Eagleland Reach

Today's photos:

A major cold front blew into South Texas last night dropping the temperatures into the upper 50s (F) for most of the day. This kind of front is typical for this time of year and had been forecast well in advance of its arrival. What wasn't in the forecast was a strong thunderstorm midday that brought very heavy rain and an urban flood warning.

As I have mentioned in a couple of previous posts of walks along the Eagleland Reach of the San Antonio River, this stretch of the river is relatively safe to walk given these weather conditions. It is within the elaborate flood control system that protects downtown San Antonio from major flooding.

A Small Assortment of Birds, Large Ones and Smaller Ones

Thursday, October 25, 2012

I really did manage to see more than the butterflies on the Leon Creek South Greenway on my walk on Monday, October 15. As a matter of fact, I saw a lot more, three blog posts worth. This is the second in that series of posts.

In the order of appearance in the sequence, these are: a red-shouldered hawk, a turkey vulture, a pair of mourning doves and a couple of barn swallows*:

* It can be a little difficult to distinguish barn swallows from some of the other swallows when they are inflight. I am basing the identification of these two on the deeply forked shape of their tales. 

A Walk in the Garden

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

San Antonio Botanical Garden, Texas Native Trail once around the pond

Today's photos:

There was much to see and photograph today at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, especially along the section of the Texas Native Trail (pdf map link) that circles the pond. This particular section of the trail emphasizes the plants of the East Texas Pineywoods region.

I would like to have had more time to spend walking today, but physical therapy for my shoulder took priority. As can be seen in the photographs, there is much more to the Botanical Gardens than just plants.

So that there is no confusion, the butterfly in the first photograph of the series is a Queen butterfly. It is one of at least a couple of butterfly species that closely mimic the appearance of the Monarch butterfly.