Trying (and failing) to beat the heat

It is a few degrees cooler out on the river, but when the only shade is made by the bridges you go under, it's still awfully hot down here in South Texas in August.

But we weren't the only ones heading for the river in hopes of some respite yesterday. There were lots of bikers, walkers, and even some joggers along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River, up on the trails above the stream.

Of course, we were right down on the water, where I imagine we were a little cooler than those joggers!

please excuse smudge on lens

We put in at Padre Park and then headed upstream for a while. The handy chutes that the River Authority has constructed make it fairly easy to do this: you just get out and walk/line your boat up the chute. Although after a while, as the morning heat intensifies, even these easy transits start to be a burden. (And there was one place where a naturally-made chute—a result of some spring flooding—caused us some minor problems.)

Several of us went all the way up to the chute just upstream from the Roosevelt Avenue bridge, but others were content to turn around earlier.

It was smart to do the harder work first; that meant that as it got hotter, we could just turn around and coast downstream. Yes, the chutes aren't too hard to manage going upstream, but they are a lot less work—and more fun!—when you're going down them.

As I noticed on our last trip in this area, the birds are coming back to the refreshed ecosystem in impressive numbers. The loveliest of these creatures, I think, are the Great egrets*. And I was able to get a few reasonably good pictures of these magnificent birds...

I was particularly pleased with the picture below. I took a little too long get my camera out and turned on, and the sun was so bright I couldn't see if I had the bird framed in the shot or not. I just hit maximum zoom and pointed it in what I hoped was the right direction...and I just barely caught it!

As much fun as it is to see these birds, and as nice as it is not to have to drive for an hour to paddle, I think I'll wait for cooler weather before joining another Mission Reach excursion. Maybe in October? November?

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*Thanks to Henry for insisting I be more specific than just saying "egret." And by reading the Audubon description, I learned that what we had always called "common" or "American" egrets (we have a very old edition of Birds of North America) are now called "Great egrets." A much more fitting name for these regal-looking birds! They might not be rare (I saw at least half a dozen yesterday) but they certainly don't look "common."