Volksmarching Day and Evening - Tues., Dec.17

At the crack of 1:00 p.m., I started a 5K Volksmarch at Mitchell Lake Audubon Society. When I arrived in the visitor center, the volunteer told me that a long-eared owl had been spotted on the weekend. During the day it had been sitting in a tree on the Native Plant Trail by the Bird Pond.

Thinking I might get to spot this rare bird, I detoured off my route to look for the owl. I went to the exact spot where the owl had been seen on the weekend and looked and looked, but I could not find the owl. Bummer.

Today I did see a new bird (which is my goal every time I go). I saw a bird way across the Bird Pond that looked different from the rest. I zoomed in on it. When I got home, I found it was an American Wigeon. This is a new bird for me on my bird list. Click to enlarge and look at the pretty coloring on its head.

The day was beautiful and warm with swirled white clouds.

Trail along the Bird Pond.

Bird Pond.

Cool cloud formations. If you enlarge this, you can see
rainbow colors coming straight out the top of the center cloud.

There are two little popcorn-shaped clouds in the center.

Other birds were the usual suspects at Mitchell Lake...

Cinnamon teal (dabbling duck)

Double-crested cormorant

Can't tell what this bird is.

Killdeer and three male Northern Shovelers

????

Spotted sandpiper

Spotted sandpiper

Black-necked stilt.

So graceful (black-necked stilt)

The turtle was enjoying the sun.

A gorgeous bright-orange butterfly.

I spent 2-1/2 hours walking about 3-1/2 miles. It's relaxing and enjoyable to watch the birds.

This evening, the Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club had their Christmas party at River City Seafood & Grille in the Stone Oak neighborhood of San Antonio. About 45 people were there for dinner and a gift exchange.

A room full of Volksmarchers

One of the unwrapped gifts.

The dinner and party were fun. We had plenty to eat and a gift exchange that wasn't too cutthroat, although the chocolate, alcohol and a warm, fuzzy blanket were the most stolen gifts. I ended up with a Mini Countertop Grill, just right for cooking two burger patties or two chicken breasts. Susan and Darren were at the dinner. It was nice to know some of the people in the room, plus I met new people.

Yesterday, Bob and his son Randall drove from San Antonio to Houston to pick up a bounce house that had been ordered from China. Random wanted to have their own bounce house rather than renting one all the time. They were gone all day and into the night. Houston is about 3 to 3-1/2 hours each way. They had a care package of Christmas cookies from the cookie exchange on Sunday. Those were popular!

That's the way our days are looking. We will be busy right up until New Year's!

Tomorrow, Snelling is sending me out on to a new job which will be once per week, two to six hours each time I work. I will be working in a doctor's office for traveling physicians, opening up in the morning, checking in patients, setting up paperwork, changing paper on the exam room table between patients, and cleaning up and closing when all patients for the day have been seen.

Travel Bug out.

Hot Half Marathon, Bob Suffers - Sun., Nov. 17

After our wonderful cool temperatures earlier in the week, today turned out to be quite warm...to the tune of 88 degrees and high humidity. This weather is not conducive to running marathons or half marathons.

One time when Bob ran a full marathon in Kona, Hawaii (very hot, no shade), he passed out at the side of the road and mobile medics rehydrated and cooled him. He could not finish that marathon.

I called Bob 4-1/2 hours after his approximate start time and there was no answer. He didn't call for quite a while. Because the full marathon passed very close by our RV park, I kept hearing ambulances. Even though the half marathon didn't pass by here, hearing the sirens made me wonder if Bob was okay. If you know me, you know I worry. 

He finally called while I was walking at the Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands. (He hadn't taken his phone with him.) Apparently toward the end of the race, Bob was really dragging. After crossing the finish line he had to go to the medical tent for very low blood pressure and dehydration. He was treated with IV fluids and ice packs to his head. They kept him for a while. He was told by medics that quite a few people needed medical care today because of the high temperature and high humidity. Scary stuff. Three years ago, someone died on this course. After relaxing all afternoon, he is fine now.

Around 12:30 p.m. I headed over to Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands for a 10K Volksmarch. When I started out, it was hot, but there was a little breeze blowing. However, by the time I walked down the hill and into the trees, no more breeze. It felt almost as hot as a summer day and it was miserable. Not to mention that  spiders must have hatched because I kept walking through single-strand webs. Ugh! I hate spiders.

Today, the ducks were out in force! It's the first time I've seen so many ducks in the polders.

Hundreds of ducks in East Polder.

Explanation of polders.

Northern shrike

American avocet and ducks

Northern shoveler

Blue-winged teal

Cinnamon teal

American avocets eating

Two turtles

Spider with butterfly (?)

Checkered white butterflies mating.

Checkered white butterflies

Checkered white butterflies

When I looked up the above butterflies online, the description said they can only be found in Raleigh, NC. I beg to differ because these two were at the Mitchell Lake Wetlands Audubon Center in San Antonio, TX!!

Turtles on the opposite shore.

Great egrets and American white pelicans.

Snowy egrets

Black-necked stilt and two American avocets

Just plain hot trail.

Weird-looking beetle

Northern shoveler - adult male

Northern shoveler - adult breeding female

Ducks and American avocets

Ducks with small shorebirds.

I was very happy to finish this walk and hop into my car and blast the air conditioner on my way home!

As promised here is a photo of my hair. It's very blonde and very short. She chopped off my sideburns which I wasn't happy about. (Are they called sideburns on a woman??)

Cheesy selfie, but you can see my hair.

Tonight Bob took me out for dessert at Olive Garden as a pre-birthday celebration. I had Black Tie Mousse Cake and he had Chocolate Mousse Seven-Layer Cake. Very decadent.

Tomorrow, I am going to see "12 Years A Slave" with Sharon from our RV park. She's as much a movie buff as I am, so we'll probably be seeing lots of movies together.

Enjoy your week before Thanksgiving. Safe travels everyone.

Goldeneye -- Sun., Jan. 6

Bright sunshine and cool temperatures reigned in the climate department today. Good walking weather! 

The main repercussions of our two 10K walks yesterday, were the four huge blisters I sported last night. I could hardly walk on my feet because of the blister pain. So, I popped and drained them all, put Neosporin and Band-aids on them overnight. By this morning, I could walk on them again with only minimal pain.

The RV washers came back and finished up waxing Rigamarole this morning. I slept through all of it. Bob finally woke me up at 11:20 a.m. and said, "Did you want to go walking today?"

"Of course," I replied. "I want to go to Audubon's Mitchell Lake Wetlands." 

When the RV washers finished up, we paid them and headed out at 12:55 p.m. The Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands are only seven miles from our RV park. Easy peasy. We were greeted by this:

This must be the most secure Audubon site we've ever seen! We were ready for this, though. On the American Volksport Association website walk description, it told about this locked gate. All you have to do is drive up to the gate, press on the intercom button and the attendant opens the gate for you (weekends only). Admission to the wetlands is $2/per person.

Audobon Center--pay admission here.

 

We went inside, paid admission and I signed up for my Volkswalk. (Note: I'm the only one who walks for Volksport credits, so Bob didn't need to sign in.) We were on the trail by 1:15 p.m. 

Having grown up on the West Coast, many birds in south Texas are new to us. The bird most people are looking for at this time of year is the goldeneye duck. They have been spotted regularly; however I'm not sure we saw any today. The ducks that looked like them kept flying away any time we got close.

We did have a wonderful walk, though rushed. Bob wanted to be home by 3:30 p.m. to watch the Seattle Seahawks football game. In the time that we had, I did my best to spot birds, get photos, then talk to the gentleman in the visitor center afterward about the birds we saw.

I didn't even have time to read the signs at the visitor center. Bob read them while I was signing in. Here's the short version. From 1901-1973, the city of San Antonio needed somewhere to send their sewage. The technology for sewage treatment plants had not been developed back them. So, ponds, settling basins and sewage sludge ponds were used, right here, at Mitchell Lake. 

"Ewwwww!" You might be saying right now.

Not so fast. The City of San Antonio declared the lake a refuge for birds and wildlife. Since 1984, the San Antonio Audubon Society has been doing regular birding trips to the area. You see, all the nutrients that filtered out of the sewage were really good for the birds. 

"All of that biologically active input still fuels a food chain that provides a rich feast for local and migrating birds..." 

so said Eric Brierley, Past President of the San Antonio Audubon Society, in a 2007 article for BirdWatchingDaily.com. There is still a symbiotic relationship between the Audubon Society and the San Antonio Water System.

Here's  a photo journey through the Audubon Wetlands.

Mexican ducks.

Northern shoveler at Bird Pond

East polder.

Caracara--Mexican eagle.

Black-bellied plover (winter plumage)

Snoozing turtle.

Double-crested cormorant

Turkey vulture (had been feeding on dead opossum on the trail)

Our "trail."

American white pelicans on Mitchell Lake

American white pelicans.

Yes, you guessed it...American white pelican.

Black-bellied plovers

Long-billed dowitchers.

Pelicans in Sparkleland (Mitchell Lake)

Birder's delight: Great egrets, black-crowned night herons and ducks.

Northern shoveler.

West polder.

For inquiring minds, a polder is described by Encyclopedia Brittanica Online as: 

 tract of lowland reclaimed from a body of water, often the sea, by the construction of dikes roughly parallel to the shoreline, followed by drainage of the area between the dikes and the natural coastline. Where the land surface is above low-tide level, the water may be drained off through tide gates, which discharge water into the sea at low tide and automatically close to prevent re-entry of seawater at high tide. To reclaim lands that are below low-tide level, the water must be pumped over the dikes. If a sediment-laden stream can be diverted into the polder area, the sediment may serve to build up the polder bottom to a higher level, thus facilitating drainage.

The polders at Mitchell Lake are the original settlement ponds from the sewage treatment years. There are also five basins, some with water in them, some without.

We also saw, but couldn't get photos of, bufflehead ducks and lesser scaups. Once we were past the last polder, I speed walked back to the Visitor Center. It was already 3:30 and the Seahawks game was about to start. We made it back to the 5er by 3:55. Bob made a quick trip to the RV park office and propane tank to get our empty tank filled. I poured him a Corona with lime, cooked left-over chili over left-over mashed potatoes and served it with left-over Southwestern cornbread. What a yummy dinner. He sat in comfort watching the Seahawks hand it to the Washington Redskins. 

Now Bob is napping until the Oregon/Oregon State basketball game. I'm off to watch the new season of "The Biggest Loser." And Jillian is back! Woo hoo.

How was your weekend?

Travel Bug, with ow-ies on her feet, out.