Humidity Saps Our Strength - Sunday, July 26, 2015

Bob was out the door before me to run with his marathon training group. He said he was going to do 2-3 miles with them, then he might meet up with Susan and I to walk with us on the River Walk.



Susan and I met at 7 a.m. at El Tropicano Hotel in San Antonio where the Volksmarch start box is located for the Museum Reach of the River Walk. We signed in and took off walking.

Juvenile yellow-crowned night heron

“Puente de Rippling Shadows,”
or “Bridge of Rippling Shadows,” by Rolando Briseño

Susan wanted to check out the Wyndham Garden Hotel because a Volkssport group will hold a meeting there in August. They will do the walk we're doing today, only starting from this hotel. The Wyndham Garden Hotel is very pretty.

Lobby at Wyndham Garden Hotel

Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen at Wyndham

From the Wyndham Garden Hotel, we took the steps down to the River Walk and continued past beautiful ponds and the San Antonio River. The flowers along the way were fantastic today.

Water lilies

Bee attracted to a water lily

Flowers framing falls at The Pearl

Bat-face cuphea (Cuphea llavea)
Look closely to see the bat face!

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

San Antonio River at The Pearl

The Pearl

We walked past The Pearl which used to be a brewery, but has been re-purposed into shops, restaurants and the Hotel Emma. Bob called at this point to find out where we could meet up. We decided to meet just north of The Pearl at the intake where excess San Antonio River water goes into a bypass system that keeps San Antonio from flooding when we have lots of rain.

Bob arrived just as we walked up to the area where he parked. The three of us then walked together north to and through Brackenridge Park, then back down Broadway. Bob left us near where he had parked his truck and Susan and I continued back to El Tropicano.

Three killdeer in a drainage ditch

Killdeer

One of the largest events in San Antonio is Fiesta in April. City-wide festivals take place over the course of ten days with music, dancing, food, drink, and entertainment on various stages. The Fiesta store, where you can buy T-shirts, pins, badges, and other souvenirs, is on Broadway.

We also passed by Sam's Burger Joint which Susan swears has the best onion rings, so good in fact, she won't eat onion rings anywhere else. Our walk took us through the Pearl shops and back to the River Walk.

Susan sniffing to find out if the Mexican olive tree
flowers have a scent. (They don't.)

Identifies what the pretty water area at The Pearl is called

Susan on the walkway at Pearl Springs

"The Grotto," by Carlos Cortes

Can you see the skull face? (This is at The Grotto)

The Grotto on Museum Reach of the San Antonio River Walk

San Antonio Museum of Art (housed in an old brewery)

Before I found out the name of the art installation on the McCullough Street Bridge (pictured below), I called it "Hands Across the Water."

“Puente de Encuentros,” or “Bridge of Encounters,”
by Rolando Briseño

When I say the humidity sapped our strength today, I wasn't kidding. We were all sweating and miserably hot. The temperature was probably 90 degrees but with the humidity, it felt like 100. We couldn't wait to get back into our air-conditioned cars.

Susan and I had planned to go to breakfast at the Guenther House, but our movie started at 10:30 a.m. and we didn't have time. So it was straight to the theater for us. We saw "Trainwreck."

After the movie, lunch was at 54th Street Bar & Grille just across the parking lot from the theater. By the time the movie was over, we were very hungry. I had a wonderful salad. After lunch we each headed home.

It was a great day of exercise, movie and a good meal. Just too hot to be walking.

A Shrike Strikes - Monday, May 18, 2015

One of my favorite things to do if I'm writing a blog during the day is to watch birds visiting our bird feeders. The usual suspects that crack into the safflower seeds are sparrows, house finches, cardinals, the occasional red-winged blackbirds, and the birds who pick up the seeds off the grass - Inca doves, white-winged doves and a couple of pigeons. I also have hummingbirds at the hummingbird feeder.

Imagine my surprise when I looked out and saw this bird sitting on the feeding pole...

Northern (or loggerhead?) shrike

This shrike kept looking at the ground.

I was snapping away, taking photos of the shrike, when I should have been looking at the ground. This became very apparent when the shrike flew to the ground. There, dead as could be, was a sparrow. As I watched, the shrike picked up the dead sparrow in its beak and flew away with it. (The only reason I think this is a Northern Shrike is because of the obvious hook at tip of its bill. But it could be a loggerhead shrike because of the wider face mask and its range into south Texas.)

I immediately grabbed my Sibley's Field Guide to Birds and looked up Northern and loggerhead shrikes. It says, "Perches on high exposed branch or wire when foraging for small birds and rodents." I didn't see how the sparrow died, but I surmised the shrike had something to do with it. Many sparrows have eaten at my feeder, but none have died. As soon as I see a shrike, I see a dead sparrow. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway that was Mother Nature's lesson for today. I never would have believed the shrike could fly away with a sparrow, but I saw it with my own eyes. Wow.

I also have a couple of hummingbird photos to share:

Travel Bug out.

A Hairy Woodpecker Visited - Monday, March 16, 2015

I spent Monday, March 16 sitting at the table writing blogs and watching the birds at the feeder. The feeder had the usual house finches, sparrows, cardinals, brown-headed cowbirds, and red-winged blackbirds.

But it was a bird on a tree that caught my eye: the hairy woodpecker, which is rare in South Texas. It looks almost identical to the downy woodpecker, but what gave it away was a longer beak and a narrow longer white patch on its back (as opposed to the downy woodpecker).

Hairy woodpecker

Hairy woodpecker

Hairy woodpecker pecking

That's it for today. I just had to share this rare visitor to our area.

Some Questions Don't Have Easy Answers - Mon., Mar. 10

Why is it that car wash + one hour = heavy rain?

Why am I such a night owl?

Why are some wonderful people taken at a young age?

Why do cats disobey people rules?

What happened to San Antonio's warmish, sunny winter weather?

Why is the United States interfering in other countries' politics?

What happened to good manners?

Why don't the worst law-breaking, scofflaw drivers get caught?

What do we need to do to get our privacy back? (If you watched 60 Minutes on Sunday, Mar. 9, you'll have an idea what I'm asking.)

How much "stuff" is too much?

What if each person were able to read every book ever written, no matter the language? Would we be more enlightened, more confused, more empathetic, more strict, more loving, more willing to forgive, more willing to help, more suspicious, more open-minded, more hopeful, more crazy?

How much medicine is too much?

Do you feel a need to leave your mark on the world? If so, how would you do it, what would you do?

What upcoming inventions will make the biggest changes in our lives? (Past examples: vaccines, internet, TV, air travel, cars, robots)

Why is it some people are neat, tidy and like to keep things in good repair, while other people don't seem to care? (Think of the movie The Odd Couple.)

What would you do for a million dollars?

Where would you go if you had unlimited time and unlimited funds? (Maybe this one isn't so hard to answer.)

What is our brain's capacity? How can we find out?

These are a few of the questions that pop into my head when I've had enough sleep and time to sit and think.

By the way, these are rhetorical questions. No answer is expected unless you want to take some on. What questions would you like answered?

Heavy thinking done, moving on to the daily routine:

Today, I shopped at Wild Birds Unlimited...bought safflower seeds for the songbirds. Now I'm watching over 40 sparrows, two house finches, one cardinal, three white-winged doves and a red-winged blackbird eat. I guess they were hungry.

Also shopped at Walgreens and Target Supercenter. Got my car washed at the $5 car wash (at least it was cheap considering it rained an hour after the wash!)

The RV park is PACKED. Spring break is super busy here. Even short little 30 amp sites have big MHs in them. Wow! Oh, and did I mention it's raining??! And spring is starting?

Packing 'em in. See how the trees are greening up?

Close quarters!

When I joined Mitchell Lake Audubon Center, I had no idea I would receive the glossy Audubon magazine. The March/April 2014 issue arrived yesterday and I immediately devoured the following articles:

• "Have Lemmings Will Travel" by Scott Weidensaul is about the greatest snowy owl baby boom in half a century;
• "Flames at Our Heels" by Alan Kesselheim tells of a hiker's scary experience hiking when he literally walked up to a forest fire and had to turn around and run for his life;
• "Haven Preserved" by Tim McDonnell deals with how Paton's Birder Haven an hour south of Tucson, Arizona is being taken over by Tucson Audubon and American Bird Conservancy to keep this hummingbird hotspot humming along;
• "Hotel Kalahari" by Bernd Heinrich deals with sociable weaverbirds who build huge communal nests in the Namib and Kalahari deserts of southern Africa;
• "The EMU has Landed (in India)" by John Upton showcases the plight of emus which were sold to farmers in India. The whole emu swindle bankrupted some farmers and was not healthy for the birds; 
•  "Tunnel Vision" by Carol Richards is about a photographer who photographs birds through a spotting scope (lots of her photos included!)

Fascinating stuff. 

This week I'll be working two days as office assistant at an insurance office and my regular two days at the RV park office.

I must take a moment to welcome Betsy as a new follower. She writes not one, but two, blogs: Diary of a Pair of RV Virgins and Betsy's Blah Blah Blog. From the few of her blogs I've read, I can see she's a hoot to get to know. And she's not afraid to mention their boo boos. Welcome, Betsy, I look forward to getting to know you better.

Enjoy your week. I look forward to hearing from you. (Now that we're back in San Antonio, I'll have more time to respond to your comments!)

Dinner time!

Safe travels. Travel Bug out.

For the Birds - Tues., Nov. 12

Not working for four days in a row has given me new energy. Three days in a row, I have been walking. Today, I revisited Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands a few minutes from our RV park for a 5K (3.1 mi) walk.

I had a late start to my day because I didn't go to bed until late, then the cats woke me up at 4:00 a.m. Long story short, I finally slept until 1:00 p.m. The Audubon wetlands close at 4:00 p.m. I hustled over there by 2:30 p.m. and I had 1-1/2 hours to walk, take photos and leave.

Each time I go to the wetlands, I strive to find different birds, i.e., ones that might be passing through or ones I haven't seen before. Today, I felt lucky to see two new birds for my list: the Northern shrike and the ruddy duck.

A definite cold front is passing through south central Texas. The wind was chilly, but it was a sunny day. I had on a T-shirt, fleece sweater and jeans. The temperature was wonderful for walking. Tonight, however, the temperature is supposed to drop to 34 degrees and there will be a wind chill making it feel even colder. The propane furnace will be running tonight!

Anyway, back to the walk. I enjoy walking in nature so much. The more I do it, the more content I am in my life. Beautiful and interesting scenes keep me going back.

Mitchell Lake Audubon's "office" and gift store.

Take a close look at the bird house below. Does it remind you of the office building above? Pretty cool bird house.

Audubon bird house.

A small bit of fall color: seed pods.

Looks like an invasion of UFOs.

Bird blind

Bird Pond.

Northern shrike - note the hooked upper beak.

Mourning dove.

Least grebe.

I want to hang out here!

American pelicans.

Northern shoveler

American avocet

Great egrets

As I walked (or ran) along, flurries of fritillaries flew up from the bushes beside the trail. In the photo below, I found four fritillaries, one open and three closed. Can you see them?

American avocet eating.

Ruddy ducks - I've never seen these before.

Northern shrike.

Because I love taking photos, I knew 1-1/2 hours wouldn't be enough for my 3.1 mile walk in order to make it back to my car by closing time. Every time I stopped to take photos, I ran for a couple of minutes to make up time. If you know how much I hate running, you will then know that I love taking photos that much more.

I made it back to my car at 3:59 p.m. At home, I had checked the location and time of "Gravity 3D." It started at 4:30 p.m. and I knew I could make it there in time. I hopped in the car and had freeway all the way to the theater. Just before I got out of the car, I was going to grab my credit card so I wouldn't have to fish for it at the ticket window. Epic fail. I forgot to put my credit card or cash in my fanny pack before I went walking. So, no movie today.

Tomorrow, I plan to walk in the morning, see my hairdresser at 1:00 p.m., and meet Bob to set up an account at a Texas credit union. U.S. Bank, where we have banked for years, is not in Texas.

Update: Jim and Peri whose 5th wheel was totaled by the flooding in San Marcos, Texas, now have a new-to-them 5th wheel and are all moved in. That was really quick. They found a used 5th wheel (in almost new condition) in Marble Falls, Texas. Congratulations, Peri and Jim!

Travel Bug out.