Where Three Watersheds Divide

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Eisenhower Park, Cedar Flats > Yucca Trails

Today's photos:

Today's walk was through the southern, lower elevation half of Eisenhower Park. This park was the second in the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department system to be designated as a Natural Area. Friedrich Wilderness Park was the first with that designation.

Eisenhower Park is located in north central Bexar County within the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The park also occupies a unique and critical topographic location in that its rain runoff drains into three of Bexar County's five major watersheds. Rain water runoff that drains from the southeastern and southern boundary of the park, which is the major amount of runoff from the park, enters the Olmos Creek / San Antonio River watershed. This is the northern most direct source of that watershed.

Runoff that drains to the east from the northeast corner of the park enters the Salado Creek watershed. Runoff draining to the west from the northwest corner and western boundary enters the Leon Creek watershed. Of course, both the Salado Creek and Leon Creek are tributaries of the San Antonio River with confluences in south Bexar County, so all of the runoff eventually ends up in the San Antonio River.

The long range development plan of the Parks and Recreation Department includes the extension northward of the current Salado Creek and Leon Creek Greenway trails to have them converge at a common location in Eisenhower Park. The completion of that plan is a long way off in the future, but is something to look forward to having in place.

Today's photos are a brief glimpse of all the images that I have from this walk. There will be two more upcoming posts with more specific topics.

• If I had to select one photo that illustrates the vegetation of the Edwards Plateau ecoregion, it would probably be the first one in this series. Growing low to the ground in the foreground are several Twisted-leaf Yucca plants. This species of yucca is only found as a native plant on the Edwards Plateau. Behind the twisted-leaf yucca are several Sotol, another plant characteristic of the region. And behind the sotol is an Ashe Juniper sapling. To the right of the ashe juniper is the sapling of a deciduous hardwood, but I'm not certain which species it is.
• The second, third and fourth photos are a Shiny Flea Beetle (Asphaera lustrans). This is another creature where I wonder how it got its common name. It is obviously a shiny beetle, but it has nothing at all to do with fleas.
• The fifth photo is a snail shell. Based on personal observation, I know this is one of the very common snails in Bexar County and it has a beautiful shell, but that is about the limit on my knowledge of snails. It looks like a Striped Rabdotus (Rabdotus alternatus), but don't quote me on that.
• The sixth, seventh and eighth photos are of an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus). I have seen cottontails in Eisenhower Park before, but they have all been back in the brush. This one sprang across the trail right in front of me, stopped right as it entered the undergrowth and looked back at me for a minute or two before hopping off down the hill as if it had somewhere it needed to be.
• The ninth and tenth photos are of the ubiquitous Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos). I was thinking this was going to end up being a walk without a bird sighting, but this mockingbird was apparently waiting for me next to the parking lot wen I returned to my car. When a creature poses for a photo, I can't easily pass up the opportunity.

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow's post will be "A Bloomin' South Texas Winter."