Journal archives for May 2018

May 1, 2018

Makin' Plans; Interesting Places to Explore in the City of Lubbock

  1. While the Buddy Holly Recreation Area was 99.9% scraped clean of native growth in the process of converting wild canyon land to tame park (a tiny residue remains at a spot or two along the west fence line), the most interesting places lie on private land. North of Cesar Chavez Drive and west of Akron Avenue are some vacant lots and lots with houses that look like they preserve the original canyonland vegetation. [See https://www.mylubbock.us/docs/default-source/parks-rec-file-library/lake-1.pdf?sfvrsn=c8765bc9_2 ] Be interesting to get a close look. There is a sizeable property that looks as though it is a home and bird sanctuary -- one of the few properties in the city that I could covet.
  2. The hillside south of Berl Huffman athletic complex I have not explored. On the satellite view -- https://www.mylubbock.us/docs/default-source/parks-rec-file-library/lake-1.pdf?sfvrsn=c8765bc9_2 -- it looks bare but you never know.
  3. I have driven and cycled by the canyon lakes between University Ave. and Mackenzie Park. They look to be as scraped as the Buddy Holly area but you never know. Worth a closer look.
  4. There is an area north of Meadowbrook Golf Course that in the early 2000s was used by mountain bikers who made trails (as they have on the north side of Dunbar Lake). Think it is still city property. No idea what's there.
  5. The Mackenzie Park west rim I have not fully explored.
  6. There is still much to see in the part of Mackenzie Park that remains "wild" north of the farm implement museum. That may be the least spoiled portion of Lubbock parks.
  7. There is a roughly triangular wooded area SE of Meadowbrook that may be accessed off of Parkway Drive. https://www.mylubbock.us/docs/default-source/parks-rec-file-library/mackenzie-park---north.pdf?sfvrsn=17775bc9_2 Hanker to know what's in there.
  8. The area between Broadway and 19th west of Cesar Chavez Drive I've spent some time at but there is much left to explore. It appears the high ground to the west has been ruined by dumping but I haven't gotten that far. There is a "keep out" sign on city property next to the TV antenna, but none that I've seen to the 19th Street access.
  9. South of 19th, the wooded area that is now a disk golf course used to be quite wild and I explored there. In the conversion to a disk golf course it has been thinned and tamed and I haven't gone back.
  10. The Mae Simmons area was scalped like the canyon lakes to the northeast. Not to say there is nothing interesting growing there. Saw an observation posted recently.
  11. Around Dunbar Lake I have only begun to look at the rim area west of Sunrise Canyon facility, and could spend weeks tramping the weedy mesquite woods to the east. A lot of plant life is best preserved on the heights and there are heights inside the road at various points around the lake. Vegetation is so thick that I believe I'll stop tempting fate and will wear high boots. On the old Caprock Tri-Sport forum, bike riders regularly reported rattlesnakes on the trails.
  12. The Hell's Gate and east area looks bare and is smelly, but there are things to find there.
Posted on May 1, 2018 04:07 AM by thebark thebark | 6 comments | Leave a comment

May 9, 2018

Sounds of Night

Driving home on 19th before 8:30 p.m. last evening I saw a not small bird diving and soaring in front of the Senior Citizen's Center ... excuse me, the "Adult Activity Center" it is called now, which for some reason makes me think of illicit activities like card-playing, beer-drinking, spouse-swapping, and watching stag movies. The bird had a longitudinal white bar under each wing. Only this morning did I realize it was a Common Nighthawk.

Nighthawks I see when I see them from the lights of the car lots around me, though it takes a few minutes for eye and mind to adjust to spotting their darting flight at 100 to 200 feet overhead. (Early morning after daylight they may dart down to treetop and roof level, as that bird was doing on 19th St.)

I sleep with door and windows open in summer, my bedroom having an outside door opening to the street. Late summer and on into September I hear the flight calls of Common Nighthawks all night long. Don't notice them this early in the season.

No nighthawks, but all last night after maybe 3 a.m. until close to dawn some roosting birds made a churring sound grading off into high cackling notes interspersed with the call of doves. Nesting sounds? To reassure chicks or to declare territory? Snoring? Sure sounded like that. Do birds snore? Noisy neighbors.

Posted on May 9, 2018 01:50 PM by thebark thebark | 2 comments | Leave a comment

May 23, 2018

Endangered Species: The Undisturbed portions of Lubbock City Parks

This afternoon I was talking with a City Parks & Recreation staffer about another matter, when she said that there were plans to turn over the part of Mackenzie Park that lies south of Masha Sharp Freeway and presumably east of Cesar Chavez Drive and north of the disk golf course to Meadowbrook. When I tried to express dismay, she said the golf course is good at protecting trees and things.

I didn't think to point out that nearly all trees at Mackenzie Park are non-native. Guess I got pigeon-holed as a tree hugger.

Golf courses are green but anything but natural. I speak as one who deplores the loss of another Lubbock golf course -- Stonegate -- to economic pressures and development.

The problem is what happens to what I call the "wild" part of Mackenzie Park that has never, far as I can tell, been plowed. There ARE native plants there, and animals. Saw a box turtle there a month ago. Where can they go when this is gone?

The caliche outcroppings there host an array of plants including Missouri Foxtail cactus that seems to exist nowhere else in the city except on certain untouched parts of city parkland.

What can I do? All I know is to set up a project here on iNat and put posted observations from that area in it. Another idea is to make a video and post it to Youtube. Then having that data online, try to interest news media and maybe the city manager.

Added -- here is the new project. Feel free to add. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mackenzie-park-wilds-the-endangered-non-landscaped-part-of-lubbock-s-mackenzie-park

Posted on May 23, 2018 07:42 PM by thebark thebark | 30 comments | Leave a comment

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