Widow Makers Are The Most Dangerous for Parks and Recreation

In normal times (pre-storm times) when seeing a widow maker, it was just second nature to flag down a parks and recreation guy to report the danger. Over the years, I've reported many widow makers. When the massive storm took out over 700 trees in early summer, just clearing the big majestic trees out of the way to open up roads, get power back on for traffic signals and then do the same day after day after day, only to have more break off and fall right where the guys had cleared a day or two beforehand. The crews were well organized and took every thing by stages as to tree sizes, whether entire trees were uprooted or in some cases where old growth were split right down the trunks or snapped off 40-50 feet up in the canopies. It wasn't these guys first rodeo by any means. This storm was by far one of the worse in years.

The Chipper was snacking on some pretty big branches

Cutting out the Dangers

Widow Makers Hanging in Trees

Driving through the park in that expanse of time, one could spot problems blocks away.When park goers saw supervisors riding around the trails in their golf carts, people were being unfair to even talk about the park crews needed to step up their game instead of riding around in their golf carts. It was hard to keep my tongue pinned down on my teeth while they talked their ignorance. White Rock has one of the best crews of maintenance workers the park system has. Most people don't even know that some are assigned to the west side of the lake while others are assigned to the east side and would not even recognize  the west crews when they are going to the barn behind Sunset Bay.

Today, after getting some of the most amazing shots of the large wing yellow Swallowtail butterflies, I parks and watched one crew clearing out a tangle of widow makers near the bike gates. One was as large a couple of feet across and it was wedged in other branches that were dead wood. With winds finally picking up today to near 20 MPH (they have been in the 5 MPH range) the danger of widow makers  danger increases significantly.

Meanwhile, the annual cutting of the meadows that have been marked as 'No Mow' zones has begun and is progressing faster than I had expected. These guys have been dealt every kind of maintenance hand by Mother Nature this year and they have not missed step one. In my book, these guys are super and I am thankful that they work at White Rock to maintain the park in top notch condition.

Many Thanks, Guys. Job Well Done.

Temperatures Are Still Summer But Signs Are Everywhere

It's been hot this summer. The heat has been relentless. It seems that the promise of changing weather patterns in the 10-day forecast just keep extending 10 days. Now, we are being told that the heat will be here until at least September 22. One thing for sure...it makes our fall shorter.

Fall, on that note, is showing up everywhere hot or not. This growing season, the wildflowers in the meadows have been exceptional and the project this year was to track the change from first bloom to the end of the season. Parks and Recreation's expansion of the natural grasses program in all aspects,it seems, has been an amazing success

August is always an early morning shooting schedule because of the sun's angle and how it hits the tall grasses and skeletons of the Queen Ann's Lace, or beautiful sunrises over the lake. This year they have been amazing and the florist that have the creative power in their design departments have been rushing to get the skeletons that can be painted or dyed for fall arrangements. Friday, I spotted a lone tractor in one of the high meadows. Instantly, Sunday morning's shoot would be the last as the tractor had begun its mowing of the 'restricted area for mowing'. The mowing is a must however for several reasons. One of those reasons seems to be the broadcasting of the seed pods that ensure the continued success of nature's beauty for the future coming years. The second reason is the migrating hummingbirds.

While the question  of  how many pelicans will arrive this October 12th at the lake after the death of 13,000 waterfowl at their primary nesting site for the Eastern Flyway in Molt, Montana at Big Lake. A freak hail storm with hail the size of baseballs caught the birds by surprise. The National Park Service said in it's release that there were many more that had been injured and would not make it following their injuries.

Berries have begun to turn in the scrubs and seem to be a bumper crow. The birds are already zeroing in on that fall change. More cardinals and blue jays have been noted than in other years.

Bumper Crop of Berries

Mowing of the High Meadows Is Under Way

The Skeletons of Queen Ann's Lace, Tall Prairie Grasses and Early Bloom Wildflowers.

It's All Gone, Folks! Both of Them And Maybe Our Pelicans

Valley View Only A Memory

Life has long gone in cycles. The moon has two cycles. One that happens once a month, give or take a day. The second cycle is the 18 year cycle. Yet, another cycle is the annual move of the earth's Axis from the Tropic of Cancer to the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn and then back again giving us our seasonal changes we call the four seasons. I notice that more and more as I make my way on my 18-mile wagon wheel cycle covering the Metroplex. In that cycle, change is dramatic in the Metroplex. The growth factor drives a lot of it. But, it seems that Dallas, as well as the smaller cities are making changes that cost the loss of what once was in order to advance the future. It does not always agree with me, personally because I am, for better or worse, a traditional type of guy that loves old building and would much rather see them reused after a make over than to see them torn down and the property redeveloped. But, on the other hand, this is Texas and Texas puts more value on land than they do on buildings.

Currently, two malls of the 70s-90s era are falling and a beautiful old colonial Presbyterian Church fell this week, but the developer did agree to save the Chapel. The malls, of course, are Collins Creek in Plano just off 75 Central Expressway. It is now officially closed and up for redevelopment. The second mall is my favorite, the old Valley View that is still in the shadow of the Dallas Galleria at The Dallas North Tollway and LBJ 635 on the west to Preston Road on the East. I liked that mall for many reasons,but I also lost my favorite Bar-B-Que that lived in the atrium food court. It had, in recent years become a place where art shops lived and after having my leisure lunch, would walk both levels to see what was happening in photography, paintings, and other mediums. The latest that I had found technical interest in was a shop of 3-D printers that were churning out amazing things that were not only useful, but could match anything that could be reproduced with a drawing scan. Amazing.

So, on Sunday, the fist day of  fall on the meteorological calendar (Sept.1to Nov.30), I set out for a look at the demolition of the rest of Valley View after the fabled Sanger Harris (later Macy's)  had fallen first, then the Sears Store. The old J.C. Penny's followed by the parking garages where a large part of famed Dallas families had arrived to do their shopping. Pretty much all that remains now is the AMC 16, which is the only life breathing of the past structures. Redevelopment is reported to have spared the theater during the redevelopment and then it, too, will go for a new theater.

It was sad. but the sadness deepened when I saw the Casa Linda Presbyterian roof of the sanctuary crushed into the sanctuary, the massive white columns of the colonial structure's red brick also gone in organized form of confused rubble.

In one last cycle to list in this post is the most sad of all...

The American White Pelicans  that come each year around the 12th of October may not come back this year to greet the one lone pelican that remains here because of old injuries that keeps it from making the flight to the spring nesting sites.

It has been reported by main stream media, was well as the National Park Services Wild Life Section, that a sudden and unexpected hail storm with hail the size of baseballs had killed 13,000 waterfowl at Molt,Montana's Big Lake, which is one of the main nesting sites of the Eastern Fly Way's American White Pelicans. The pictures were disturbing at best. The majority of the casualties were pelicans, that were totally caught off guard. There are no trees around Big Lake, outside of Billings.

The nesting cycle this year may have gotten  the majority if not all of the 72-90 American Whites that arrive at White Rock Lake to spend the winter until the end of March when they leave for Molt. Because our birds are on the Eastern Fly Way, most of our birds go to Molt's Big Lake, a lake about the size of White Rock.Some that have bands have been checked show some have taken the odd ball nesting sites near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, but those have been some of the oldest of our flock of birds, I've been told.

So, while this post sounds more like Death and Destruction, it's just a part of life's cycles that we pay little attention to until something happens.

I saw two cars in the Filtration Building Parking Lot last week. One had New York plates and the other one was with California. Coast to coast like jam on toast! and then, The hurricane parked over the Great Bahama Island Nation off our East coast  and a boat full of underwater divers off the Channel Islands of California.

The last life at Valley View, for now.

Facing Preston Road near Spring Valley

Presbyterian at White Rock's Casa Linda

The cycle theme seemed to have raised its head and said," I'm not done with cycles, yet!"

Observing A Key Fall Indicator for the 18th Year And May Be The Last

One thing that I remember from my grandparents is their wisdom on everything from health solutions to nutrition to signs from animals and what the sky will tell you in advance before something happens. Some of those things I still observe today and without fail, they have produced results right on time and on the money.

With the latest heat wave increasing our total days of triple figure heat from one through all of July to 12 as of today, this most likely will be our last triple digit day this season. At any rate, even if one more were to sneak in somewhere down the road, the summer has not been as hot as our run of 42 straight days a few years back. It must be stated that the humidity has been the biggest problem with this latest wave of heat.  In fact, today was the hottest of the season with the official temp at DFW International Airport (the official reporting station for the National Weather Service) hit 102 degree F. and a heat index of 109---some places at 111-112 were measured.

Yellow Leaves Turn on this tree with a record of being the earliest and first to show that annual change. This is the 18th year running and it may be the last.

 

A mark for the chain saws and wood chippers.

Some blue marking mean the same thing as the red. Eitherway, it will be another loss for long-term  park goers over the years that will miss this beauty!

Shooting from the car is not always the best, yet, for hummingbirds and butterflies and other song birds, shooting from the car will get you closer than you would if you were on foot---even if you slow step your way closer. But, when the heat is as hot as it has been, I don't break the cycle of not shooting at all. Although, there are some blank days in my file logs which indicate I did not shoot that day. The other change is that during the summers, shooting very early in the day is another alternative, which I use. It gives practice with the light shifts and angles of the sun. It also gives one a whole different way that we/they perceive a subject. Some of my best feather shots on songbirds has come from that shift from time, angles and perceptions. 

While using one of those days in the early morning hours to check on my old buddy that has not failed me for all those years, a sign stood out in the morning sun and I got out of the car and started to eye the tree for more signs. They were there and not all were positive. So, here are my limit of shots for this post. Mother nature has that perfect time on her alarm clock and it's ringing like crazy.

Lizards, Hummingbirds and What?

Even though it has been a tad cooler in the mornings than having the 80 degree F temps to start, it's been a couple of mornings of 78 with a that old Texas summertime friend----h-u-m-i-d-i-t--y still stuck in oppressive mode. The biggest problem has been no wind! Nothing to stir the air up. Five MPH just ain't cutting it this time of year.


The good news is that on Saturday, the average daily high temperature begins its descent toward wintertime levels. It starts out with a drop of only 1 degree but by end  of September, the drop will be 13 degrees less than it is now--97 degrees F. So, for us Texans, that Saturday event is always a major mile stone in activities as fall festivals and the like gear up for the State Fair at Fair Park.

With a major section of roadway on both sides of the lake closed, albeit East Lawther's water line work in its present state will not be ongoing much longer, the closed section near Fischer Road and West Lawther is going to take a while. And with that, the East Lawther section from Garland Road (highway 78) is nearing its completion, having been closed to Winfrey Point for almost two years.

The down side of that is that the closures have the bikers frustrated and the park goers that use the park regularly and have the attitudes of some bikers (not all, thank goodness) raising tempers from those that never complain about anything. The pressure on City Council, State Game Wardens, Park Rangers, and Park personnel to start enforcing the codes that are displayed on the signs that the city has posted before the situation gets out of hand. And, the stress is growing much faster than even I had realized.

I try to take it in stride and to tolerate the worse offenders that don't want to share the park with anyone else. It has always amused me that the city spent $42 million on hike and bike trails and 90 percent still use the roadways for both. In fact, posted on the information boards is the little subtle suggestion by city parks:

HAVE YOU OUTGROWN TRAILS?

If your speed or style endangers other users,seek

alternative routes better suited to our needs..

Selecting the right location is safer and more

enjoyable for everyone. 

Bicyclists are required to follow traffic laws---City Code  9

Signs that Stress Is Building with this Sticker on a Stop Sign in more than one place as even the Park publishes the rules that are city ordinances and yet won't enforce those rules and ordinances.

City made a point and tickets were issued for about a week. They stopped and everything has returned to the way that it was before.

Today, I had to laugh. In front of this sign was a Mercedes and a Grand Cherokee  parked  off road, in the grass. The same that got others tickets a few weeks ago, but it seems that the there are those that can pretty much do as they wish and not be held responsible. Oh, My!! Can it be?

Time Stamp This Morning:8:46AM,08-11-2019

Because of the heat, it was out the door very early this morning. After a quick stop at Micky Dee's to grab a senior coffee and a sausage biscuit, it was to my favorite spot at Dreyfuss Club and the picnic tables where the length of the lake can pretty much be see looking toward the dam. It's a great place to put down the camera on the wood picnic tables and drink my coffee and eat the sausage biscuit, while watching for the osprey and the eagle.

Much to my surprise, as I came down the drive from the hilltop and made the shoreline drive on the way out toward the stone picnic tables, there was already three photographers lined up at the eagles most favorite tree to perch. I pulled into the parking spot, walked over to where the guys were not even shooting so they had been there for a while already. Sure enough, there he set with that big white head and white outline around that beautiful black and grey body. I didn't even give the auto focus a chance to set before I clicked off three shots, wished the guys good shooting and headed back to the car. After all, I had seen this eagle and his mate when they first got here from the hatch release center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My brother had given me a heads up on the release and within a month, I had spotted them some five---now more like six--- years. I'm more interested in the osprey than the eagles. But, to each, their own.

American Bald Eagle at Dreyfuss Club, White Rock Lake at 8:46AM 2019-08-11

Damselfly laying eggs

I like these little guys better than the eagle, actually. Eagles eat Salmon. I eat Salmon. Damselflies eat mosquitos and I want them to eat all they want.

It's Bound To Have Happened

Up until yesterday, there had only been one day of 100 degree temps in the Dallas Metroplex this year. For the hottest time of the year for us (last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August) that is a good thing. Today, brought in the second of those 100's and for the next 7 days, it will be 100,102,103, with heat indices of 105 to 110 (That is just bite the bullet and get through it) .

The way we handle that is like most people of Australia---you close up the house and stay inside until after sunset, then you venture out. The only problem this year is that the over night lows are stuck at 80-81 degrees F. Not bad, but, with dew points in the 70s it's still feels like 100 at 10 o'clock. That heat index is a killer, especially from 105 to 110 degrees F and the weather service has posted warnings.

That big High is moving back over us for the weekend and the hottest days of the summer will rule this weekend before it slides on out of here. It has blocked the Jet Stream and all the storms that can bring rain and cooler temps is running all across the Great Lakes latitudes.

This morning, I made one lap of the lake and birds and butterflies were trying to stay cool and a couple of ducks were fishing under the docks of the marinas where it was cool shade. On the lap out of the lake, it was a quick stop at Aldi's for some Moose track ice cream and a water melon (my second of the season). So, it's inbound and down while this heat cooks every thing from tires to pavement. The water trucks were out watering down the runways at DFW to keep them cooler. When plane tires hit that 140 degree surface at 135-50 MPH, rubber is left on the runways in greater amounts and besides that, the plane weights and hot surfaces can cause buckles that can shut down runways. Therefore, spraying water on the runways is not a waste of water by any means. It is something that must be done. I watched the web cam of the the 18's being sprayed as I cooled down in the AC with an ice cooled drink of water in a glass bottle that I keep chilled in the freezer. It makes a difference on the length ice cubes stay solid in the glass.

It looks cool.

He seems cool.

His first summer in Texas