Sunday Morning

The last thing my butt wanted to do at 7a this morning was straddle the saddle, so we--my butt and I--settled on a short ride not venturing too far from The Cave.

Beneath the Hampstead Bridge offers ready access to the Holliday Creek native communities, not to mention ample opportunity for voluntary maintenance along the H&B Trail.

Freshwater mussels and crayfish are two of the delicacies that attract raccoons and other mammals to the Holliday Creek buffet. Mallard ducks and cliff swallows have set up housekeeping under the bridge, while scissor-tailed flycatchers and kingbirds compete for airborne insects.

 

These Asian clam shells are fairly abundant at the water's edge. My thanks to Texas Master Naturalist Penny Miller (no relation) at Wild Bird Rescue for making the I.D. on these.

Life along the creek is challenging at best, as this eggshell attests. Prolonged, chronic drought isn't helping. How much longer will water continue to run through the creek bed if significant rain does not come soon?

After exploring a short stretch of creek and taking these pictures, two wallyworld bags (wwb) of liter were collected for removal. City Parks & Rec is tasked with H&B Trail upkeep, but their extremely limited dollars would stretch much farther and accomplish greater improvements if all of us helped keep the trail system clean and looking presentable. It is our city and our parks, right?

Dumping two wwbs before heading back to The Cave.