{"id":1239,"date":"2025-02-18T06:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2025-02-18T06:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:50:17","slug":"will-i-or-will-i-not-venture-out-into-a-local-park-ever-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/will-i-or-will-i-not-venture-out-into-a-local-park-ever-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Will I or will I NOT venture out into a local park ever again?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am transformed when photographing nature behind the lens, much like a hunter stalking its prey.\u00a0 Of course, I am searching for beauty, but I am also super mindful of the harsh reality of my surroundings.\u00a0 I never wear my earphones nor do I ever pull out my phone.\u00a0 My senses are in tune to everything and everyone that can do harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Late winter, I typically drive down to San Antonio, Texas, to see family.\u00a0 My mother, no longer living out in the hill country, now lives in San Antonio proper, sending me to the local parks nearby in search of birds.\u00a0 This is also my last chance to photograph water birds wintering here in Texas.\u00a0 So this last weekend I used eBird to find the hotspots near me searching specifically for ponds and lakes.\u00a0 The two hotspots to come up were Live Oak Park and Woodlawn Lake Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live Oak Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really do wish the local community would pick up garbage at the water\u2019s edge, because if it weren\u2019t for pieces of trash all over the place, my nature photos would have been pristine.  Being the photographer I am, I captured what I could regardless of the environment.  Double-breasted cormorants and ducks of all sorts made Live Oak Park the destination for all things waterbird. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Double-crested Cormorants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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American Coots<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Double-crested Cormorants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Great Egret<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Snowy Egret<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Great Egrets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Double-crested Cormorants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Carolina Wren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Woodlawn Lake Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother asked me a question after the whole ordeal at Woodlawn Lake Park.  \u201cWhich photography are you most proud of?  Your Swan?  Or photographing the violent altercation which got you published in a San Antonio news outlet?\u201d  I didn\u2019t have to think twice about it.  The Swan!  Of course!  That\u2019s the kind of day one could have patrolling local parks in the heart of a major metropolitan area.  You have to be super vigilant when out in an area with a high crime rate as I was in.  Anything can happen.  ANYTHING.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yellow-rumped Warbler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Yellow-rumped Warbler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Ruby-crowned Kinglet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Orange-crowned Warbler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Killdeer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Mute Swan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Northern Shovelers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Ring-necked Duck (foreground) and a Northern Shoveler (background)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And the big question is, will I ever go to a local park again in a major metro area?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 I have a car and the means to travel wherever I want to go.\u00a0 I had a thing about having to pay for park entry, but after this past weekend, I feel shelling out ten bucks knowing a cop is on patrol is probably well worth the expense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am transformed when photographing nature behind the lens, much like a hunter stalking its prey.\u00a0 Of course, I am searching for beauty, but I am also super mindful of the harsh reality of my surroundings.\u00a0 I never wear my earphones nor do I ever pull out my phone.\u00a0 My senses are in tune to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,70,146,29],"tags":[153,71,129,140,36,90,10,155],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-142","category-birding","category-february-2025","category-texas-2","tag-bird","tag-bird-photography","tag-nature","tag-nature-photography","tag-photography","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-water-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1275,"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions\/1275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timharris.photography\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}