Leave Only Footprints, Take Only Photos; A Sunday Special Edition

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Leave Only Footprints, Take Only Photos

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before."  -  Robert Wilson Lynd

The first and most fundamental rule of nature hiking is to "leave only footprints and take only photos." It occurred to me when I was editing the photos from my walk in Mud Creek Park Friday (January 25, 2013) that vultures are the epitome of this maxim: "leave no trace."

I am very tempted to climb on the soapbox and go off on a tangent here, but I suspect I would only be preaching to the choir. Put very simply, carelessly discarding plastic beverage bottles and cans is disgraceful. Tagging is abhorrent.

Anyway, I could never have imagined referring to anything related to vultures as "cute", and maybe that isn't quite the right word here, but this pair makes me think of a couple that has been together for a very long time sitting on a park bench. The interaction between the two says more than I could ever hope to write. I will let the photos of this pair of black vultures tell their own story. 

Soaking In Some Sights Along Mud Creek

Friday, January 25, 2013

Mud Creek Park

Today's photos:

The next park upstream along Mud Creek from McAllister Park is Mud Creek Park. Mud Creek Park is a 67 acre flood control retention basin and Edwards Aquifer recharge site with at least 1.4 miles of nature trails (pdf). This was the first time I have been to this park and I only walked a portion of the trail along the eastern most part of the loop trail.

The flora and fauna in this series of photos are too numerous to list all of them, but here are a few of the highlights: Whitethorn Acacia, Huisache, Live Oak, Ashe Juniper (a.k.a. Mountain Cedar), an Orange Sulphur butterfly, Spanish Dagger Yucca, Sotol, Twisted-leaf Yucca, a Black Vulture, Bluewood Condalia and Wafer Ash seeds.

There is one additional set of photos from this walk that will be featured in the upcoming Sunday Special Edition

Another American Kestrel Sighting

Thursday, January 24, 2013

This set of photos of an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) perched in a distant tree overlooking the San Antonio River was taken on my walk along the Mission Reach of the River on Wednesday, January 9, 2013:

South to San Juan Dam

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

San Antonio River, Mission Reach, VFW Blvd Trailhead
downstream to San Juan Dam at Padre Park and back

Today's photos:

The newest segment of the San Antonio River Greenway from VFW Blvd downstream to San Juan Dam at Padre Park opened a short while ago. Today was my first opportunity to walk this new section of the Greenway Trail. With each new section of trail that opens, the enormous scale of the River Improvement Project becomes more apparent and more impressive.

In this set of photos, there are:

An European honey bee,

A neotropic cormorant (Phalacrocorax brsilianus) fishing. In the last photo of that series, the cormorant has just resurfaced with a small catfish grasped firmly in its beak,

A lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes),

My friend, the red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus),

A slider turtle,

And an orange sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme).

The second to the last photo is a view of the new river segment looking downstream from Mission County Park toward San Juan Dam.

The last photo is a view of the Mission San José bell tower and dome. This was taken from about the center of the VFW Blvd bridge looking toward the west southwest. One of the primary purposes of the River Improvement Project is to re-establish the historic link between the River and the Missions. The process of nominating the River Greenway and the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park as a World Heritage Site is well underway. Achieving that status will be an important recognition for both the site and for the San Antonio community.