A little drive, a little work, a little walk, and a little surprise (hint - deer!)

One requirement of certification as a Texas Master Naturalist is 40 hours of (qualifying) volunteer work. Our class is over on Tuesday. So we are taking advantage of many opportunities this week to finish 2016 with 40+ hours of "volunteering."

The first was stream testing today.*

We gathered ourselves, our gear, and the pup and headed down the highway. Initially we were "socked in." We feared an unpleasant drive (and cold damp day), but the ceiling lifted after a few miles. The sky remained overcast (and we got a few sprinkles), but the temperatures were pleasant for the testing and walks.

A little murky, mucky.

We thought we were a little early as we arrived at the park. Passing a couple of folks exiting vehicles on one side of the river (who turned out to be part of our "Stream Team,"** we continued across the river to Chandler Park, a smallish park that is part of Georgetown's 9 continuous miles of hiking/biking trails connecting parks along the San Gabriel River (North, South and Middle).  Additional (and familiar) vehicles were parked under the trees and soon we observed friends heading towards us down the path.

We walked down to the low water bridge just below a concrete dam and found the regular water testers setting up.

Looking downriver from the low water bridge (and the water was fairly shallow).

Upstream from our testing sight - the bridge and dam in the background.

Water gurgled at the foot of the crossing.

We were told the team regularly finds the low water crossing flooded, depending on rainfall as well as release of water from the lake not all too far to the west northwest.

Looking up, the naked trees against the sky.

We answered questions for the testing - time, temperature, temperature and "look" of the water (clear? smelly?), weather (overcast, windy etc.) and such. There is a procedure to follow and we did - led by the official testers for this site. The tests followed.

Today's Stream Team gathered on the bridge. [This is a well-used park. Joggers, bicyclists, and dog walkers regularly passed by.]

Detail of the testing.

This is SCIENCE, people! But there was room on the table to rest a Dr. Pepper too.

DH and I are not scientists, but we play them on Stream Team.

Detail of the testing, sans Dr. Pepper. I did not run any of the test. My hands are still dry and cracked - recovering from the clay.

As soon as the testing was finished (and there was a good deal of work I  will not show here) we bid farewell to our teammates before DH, Zelda, and I headed down the path a little to see what we could see. We needed a little stretch of the legs before heading home. And we thought we should investigate the site as well.

A man and his dog. Zelda was a hit. We also got some dog-training advise from one of the team. We were OK parents, but are lax pet disciplinarians.

We ended up walking along a creek/intermittent stream.

Creek flows into the river at Chandler Park. It is a pretty little place. Before we left we watched a woman dragging her kayak to the water. So, I suppose I should add boaters to the list of folks using the park.

More plants than water in the creek. This little spot could be an area of springs. I was fairly sure those were maiden hair fern in the middle of the photo, but the photo quality is bad and I wasn't going to climb down to the water this day.

This photo was to catch the nest in the top of the trees across the way.

I thought this was access to river trails. Access denied! This was decidedly not public (not the lock mid-gate). We did look and saw a tree house and other signs of humans beyond.

I'm always happy to see hunde toilettes!

We saw few creatures out and about...a few birds, singing (but refusing to let us see/photograph/identify)*** and some butterflies (that never stopped their flutter). I took a few photos of brackets, moss, ferns, and fall color before we climbed back into the car for the trip home.

A show of color along the path.

I saw these brackets from the path and scrambled over for a photo

Then I noticed they were growing the length of the tree on the other side.

A little blurry moss. This is a damp area and there were mosses, ferns and other low and slimy things growing.

 
Then, just around a bend in the road there was the family cry**** "DEER, DEER, DEER, DEER!"

DH is a good driver. He found a pull-over and we watched a herd of deer feeding placidly along the edge of the road. They were wild, but not too wild. Still, having been deprived of our walks down the dirt track near our neighborhood park (For readers who missed it: the road has been posted with "no trespassing" signs in such a manner that even these intrepid scoff-laws cannot ignore.) where the wild things are, we were glad to see these deer. We counted eleven does.

We leave you with the herd.

DH knows to sit back and roll down the window for a bad cell photo (taken between passing cars - note one caught in the mirror).

The herd mostly ignored us...

There were 11+ by our count.

They would look up now and again, but mostly kept right on eating.

NOTES:

* The other events are CBCs (Christmas Bird Counts! How fun does that sound?!!)

**Stream Team -http://www.meadowscenter.txstate.edu/Service/TexasStreamTeam.html

***This girl will be spending some time on the bird song sites [There are bunches - Cornell, Texas A&M, e-Nature....]

****We were raised on "game crawls." Everyone looked out a different window and whispered so as not to frighten the game. Now, however, one "deer!" sotto voce may not get the driver's attention in a vehicle with air conditioner blowing and radio cranked up. A louder cry of "DEER" (repeated as necessary) is better (and, with hard-of-hearing folks, yelling is best).