The Ride: Day 9 -- Feeling the burn

Took some sun this morning at the top of spillway at Lake Wichita. This is about an hour from The Cave, pedaling a geezerly pace in granny gear and provided we're not getting that stiff southern wind.

Not much of interest going on in the shot above taken from the rest area at the top of the spillway. What appears to be dry ground, however, is actually mud and a few pools of standing water from last night's rain teaser. The showers amounted to less than a tenth of an inch as far as keeping records, yet it was mildly amazing how much the trail responded to that little dab of rain. I took this pic primarily as a marker for future reference of what the lake level was like on this date, because it is only gonna get worse, children.

Cliff swallows, scores of 'em, were making the most of this fleeting windfall to scoop mud for their digs on the underside of bridges down creek and no doubt across the lake and into Archer County. Clouds of them seemed to arrive from all directions, descend on the mud and then disperse as quickly and as noisily as they had come. Meanwhile, an entire daycare of juvenile swallows lined the top strand of fence, waiting for their keepers to bring them snacks.

This puddling of mallards seemed to be relishing the pickings just below the main body of the lake. A solitary snowy egret likewise searched these shallows just out of this shot to the right.

All told this rest area netted something over 100 swallows, a dozen ducks, a couple of scissor-tailed flycatchers, some red-winged blackbirds and a snowy egret for my eBird list. Yes, Virginia, I'm that kind of nerd, too; more kinds of nerd than are dreamt of in your philosophies. May have to add the spillway to my 'Hot List' of birding spots.

LOOK what I can DO!

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.