“The modern dogma is comfort at any cost.”
― Aldo Leopold,
On February 11th at dusk it was a transitional period between day and night. It was a sunny day with temperatures at 72 degrees. It was mostly quite not much activity going on with most of the wild life was starting to settle down while it was still to bright out for the nocturnal animals to come out. Though I could hear the crickets chirping. Slaughter creek had already dried up there was a some water remaining forming a small lake. I went with my brother to show him they amateur skate park that the neighborhood kids have built by the concrete runoff. There we say a group of deer and two of them were male bucks who where fighting with their antlers there were other deer so I think they were showing off. Spring is in the air.
I missed one week due two bad weather so on February 18th I spent two hours. It was sunny day with temperatures at 59 degrees. As I was walking the trail I saw field mice scuttling in the grass. There was also a roadrunner who was running the trail I tried to get a picture but it got away. The trees in this part of the park were somewhat different with mesquite an juniper trees it was mostly shrub land. I did see move evidence of the parks former past there was a chard wooden building that I could only image use to be a shed of sorts. There was no water in the creek. I sat down on a bench and observed nature there were some songbirds and the occasional jogger. It was a very calm and relaxing place that even though it was a cool morning it became warmer as the day went on. Another thing that I noticed was all the dead trees in the park which were either killed by the drought that we are currently in or due to old age, yet in Leopold’s book it talks about how even dead trees are vital to a healthy ecosystem.
On February 28th I visited Bauerle Ranch Park on a cold and drizzly day with temperatures around 36 degrees I walked a bit but frankly it has been to cold to stay out to long. Though the birds and the wildlife continued their everyday activities. I did see some deer who were scuttling along and some songbirds chirping away who were out. Spring is is in the air with the trees dawning buds and the grass is coming back to life.
