November 2018

Posted by: upperwalnutcreekaustin | November 29, 2018

November 2018

November 24 (two days after Thanksgiving), the weather was beautiful. Overcast and in the upper 70s. It (almost) makes up for the overly hot summer – over 50 days of 100+ degrees.

Other than about .4 inches as most folks roasted their turkeys, there’s been no recent rain, and the stream showed it. There had been a heavier rain after our October visit, and while walking down the path along the culvert to the main stream, I noticed some new trash – beverage cans and other items.

But the stream had returned to its usual “low” state for this visit: three of the four bridge columns had dry feet, and I could almost cross to the south bank on the upstream side of the bridge with dry feet. The inlet above the waterfall was dry, and it looked like the “Sometime Island” rocks were slightly above the stream level.

On the downstream side, there are some rocks placed to allow walkers to cross with mostly dry feet, assuming good balance. And there’s again the beginnings of a gravel bar between the trail crossing and the shadow of the bridge. Even so, the culvert has a good flow of water into the stream and a pleasant gurgle that adds to the waterfall gurgle.

Saw a turtle at the sample site, but no pigeons (possible source of e-coli) or other birds. There wasn’t much surface algae, though upstream of the waterfall the underwater algae had grown to long ropes.

Observations:

Air temp 20.5 C
Water temp 15 C
Dissolved oxygen 9.8
Specific Conductance 540
pH 7.0
Transparency greater than 1.2 meters