By Karen Gleason
830 Times
The song of a Northern Cardinal filled the warm morning air as I parked near the San Felipe Creek on FEMA property owned by the city near the intersection of Barron and Guillen streets Sunday morning.
I took some time walking along the edge of the mowed meadow, looking for butterflies and dragonflies and listening to the birds singing. In addition to the cardinal, I could hear an Olive Sparrow singing deep inside the carrizo hedge along the creek and a Brown-crested Flycatcher vocalizing in the pecan limbs above my head.
The morning sky was a clear and flawless blue, and the warmth of the sun promised another hot, hot Del Rio day.
I found several Bordered Patch butterflies fluttering close to several globe mallow plants sporting pale purple blooms, though occasionally the butterflies alighted on the stalks of grass and opened their brilliantly patterned wings toward the light of the rising sun.
I eventually made my way down Barron Street to the Rincon Del Diablo and parked near a small grove of pecans on the north side of the site.
Northern Cardinals were singing in the Rincon, too, along with a male Summer Tanager.
Chimney Swifts twittered in the sky above the creek, as they dipped and dove toward the tops of trees and other vegetation. The swifts sip the morning dew from the taller vegetation, and it is always a treat to watch their expert aerobatic maneuvers.
Great Kiskadees flew busily back and forth along the creek, occasionally visiting a large anacua bush carrying a bumper crop of bright yellow berries. Many of the birds in the Rincon, including House Finches, Golden-fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Summer Tanagers, Brown-crested Flycatchers, Long-billed Thrashers and Black-crested Titmouse seem to love the berries from this huge bush.
A male Cooper’s Hawk flew over the Rincon, briefly silencing the songbirds that saw its passage, and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron winged its way upstream above the creek.
I found a small patch of Texas Frogfruit growing along one of the Rincon’s paved roads. About a dozen Bordered Patches were nectaring on the small flowers of the frogfruit. I also found several other species of butterflies – fritillaries, blues and hairstreaks. I don’t know butterflies as well as I do birds, but took photos of them for later identification.
After another hour or so of happy wandering, I began to feel the effects of the hot morning sun and decided it was time to go.
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Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
