Wildflowers and Water

Braunig Lake & powerplant

Copyright © Shannon D. Moore See more photos at OutdoorPhoto.com

Justin and I spent several hours photographing and exploring Braunig and Calaveras lakes, two of San Antonio's favorite fishing and boating locales. We visited Braunig first, arriving around 10 AM. Both lakes are quite popular on weekends, particularly during holidays and the summer months; Friday mornings, however, prove almost peaceful.

Boaters and fishermen are the primary visitors to Braunig and Calaveras lakes, but there are opportunities for overnight campers and birders as well. During our visit, Calaveras had the most impressive stands of wildflowers and edged out Braunig on the birding scale by offering us views of a half dozen black-crowned night herons.

Indian paintbrush at Calaveras

Copyright © Shannon D. Moore See more photos at OutdoorPhoto.com

Birds we observed during this trip:

• American coot (50+) ^*
• great blue heron ^*
• osprey
• tri-colored heron (Braunig)
• bufflehead duck
• mallard duck ^*
• common moorhen ^*
• pied billed grebe ^*
• turkey vulture ^*
• double-crested cormorant ^*
• red-winged blackbird ^*
• American white pelican ^*
• mourning dove
• cattle egret
• black-crowned night heron (8+, Calaveras)
• Northern cardinal (Calaveras)
• Eastern meadowlark (Calaveras)
• loggerhead shrike (Calaveras)
• Northern mockingbird

  ^* denotes birds we observed at both lakes.

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