Cibolo Nature Center & Farm

We decided to get in one more outing before heading out of Texas for the summer.

The Cibolo Nature Center & Farm is located in Boerne (pronounced Bur-nee), Texas on what once was the Herff Ranch, established in 1852.  Much of the original 10,000 acre ranch has been developed but the Friends of the Cibolo Wilderness group was able to acquire 62 acres, including the original ranch homestead. Boerne is a fast-growing suburb of San Antonio, and it is great to have this area set aside as a nature center.

There is no charge to walk the trails.  We stopped at the visitor center to make a donation and get a map. 

Gift Shop/Visitor Center

We’ve been here many times and there are usually some fun creatures to see inside the visitor center.

Fredrico - Spiny Soft Shell Turtle

Scooter - River Cooter

The trails are very nice and easy to walk.

There are many places to walk down to the beautiful Cibolo Creek.

There seemed to be hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers down in the creek bottom. They will be headed north soon, and some have started to molt into their breeding plumage. We usually see them in their more muted winter feathers, but they'll be bright and colorful back on their breeding grounds.

The first picture shows one getting some black feathering. The second is still looking pretty gray.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

This Yellow-rumped Warbler is showing the yellow on its crown, under the wings and on its namesake rump. They continue to get brighter as they get ready to head north. These are the eastern variety, as western birds also sport a bright yellow throat. 

There is a very nice boardwalk across a marsh area.

A White-eyed Vireo popped out of the brush just long enough for a picture. These birds seem to believe that they should be heard, but seldom seen. They are local breeders and have already started to establish territories. 

White-eyed Vireo

This Vesper Sparrow is also getting ready to head north. They come to Texas for the winter, but like us they prefer cooler places in the summer!

Vesper Sparrow

Walking back to the visitor we always stop at the dinosaur tracks.

Millions of years ago huge dinosaurs roamed this area.  In 1997 a huge flood uncovered dinosaur tracks at the Boerne Lake Spillway.

These tracks were made by a giant reptile called Acrocanthosaurus, who lived in the Cretaceous Period about 100 million years ago.

Concerned about the longevity of the tracks, the Cibolo Nature Center participated in creating an exact replica of the tracks and placed them on a trailhead on the Nature Center grounds.

This is a small park but the beautiful, clear Cibolo creek is worth the trip.

Golden Cheeks and Black Caps

We headed out to Lost Maples State Natural Area on a clear and sunny weekday.  We've been to this park many times and have tent camped and RV camped here.

Lost Maples is known for its stand of Uvalde Bigtooth Maples that are relics from the last ice age.  During the Fall (October - November) the maple leaves turn into their beautiful fall colors.  If you’re from Vermont this is old hat to you but here in Texas, it’s a rare sight. 

We always stop at this bridge to look for 

Kingfishers and other birds.

Lost Maples is 2,200 acres on the upper Sabinal River.  It’s designated a Natural Area, rather than a State Park, which means the primary focus is the maintenance and protection of the property’s natural state.

Our goal today was to get in a little hiking and some bird watching.

Planning our hike.

We planned to walk about 3 miles and headed out.

There are plenty of places to stop and quietly listen for birds.

Lost Maples is also known for its birds.  Particularly the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo.  This is the time of year that they start arriving.  We were lucky enough to see them both!

The male Golden-cheeked Warblers are claiming territories and singing their little hearts out.

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Golden-cheeked Warbler

This one stopped singing long enough to enjoy a delicious caterpillar. Gotta' keep up your strength!

Golden-cheeked Warbler

The Black-capped Vireos were not as vocal, and are rarer overall, so we were surprised to see a pair feeding right next to the trail. 

Black-capped Vireo

Black-capped Vireo

We had more hiking to do and more creeks to cross.

Even though the Golden-cheeked Warbler and the Black-capped Vireo are the stars of the park, we still looked at other great birds and a few butterflies. A large Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was feeding on the flowers of a Texas Redbud tree. These are the first trees to flower in the spring.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

At the other end of the "colorful" scale, this well camouflaged Little Wood-Satyr was doing a nice job of blending with the leaves. 

 Little Wood-Satyr

There is a Red-tailed Hawk nest up on a cliff that has been there as long as we can remember. It is a huge mound of sticks under a limestone overhang and is apparently a great place to raise babies! If you click on this picture (to make it larger) and look real close you may be able to make out a hawk standing on the nest.

Red-tailed Hawk on nest

Here is one of the couple being more cooperative. 

Red-tailed Hawk

We saw a big blue bird and a smaller Bluebird. How you spell these is important!

Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

Eastern Bluebird

This is definitely the Texas Hill Country.

We had a wonderful, relaxing hike.

See you later!!

Stonehenge

Well, not “The” Stonehenge.  But, the Texas Hill Country version.  Stonehenge II.

Morning Sky

A few days ago we decided to drive out to the Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center in Mountain Home.

It’s always fun to visit fish hatcheries.  They are all different.

Water temperatures range from 60 to 75 degrees year round.  The water is from Stockman’s Springs. 

We are always on the lookout for birds.  Fish hatcheries are pretty good places to find fish eating birds!

Rare picture of an Osprey without a fish.

There was a rookery tree next to the hatchery. Rookery trees are where birds (Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets in this case) gather to build nests and raise their young. Strength in numbers! You may be able to make out two birds on/in nests (Center and lower center)

Rookery

Great Blue Heron

Heart of the Hills Fish Hatchery was originally constructed in 1925 and operated as a production hatchery until 1969.  It is now called Heart of the Hills Fisheries Research Center and is the research arm of Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Inland Fisheries Division. 

All the ponds are filled and drained by gravity.

The day we visited, most of the 25 ponds were empty.  We picked up a very informative brochure with a map showing types of fish that are usually in the ponds.  Koi, Gambusia, various species of Catfish, Sunfish, and Large mouth Bass are some of the species in the ponds.  Also 22 Alligator Gar ranging from 2 feet to just over 7 feet long and one resident Paddlefish were supposed to be here. 

A group of Killdeer enjoyed picking bugs out of the bottom of a recently emptied pond. 

Killdeer

We didn’t see any fish nor did we see any helpful staff but it was a nice place to visit and it will be fun to go back sometime when more of the ponds are in use and possibly talk to one of the researchers. As we left we spotted a single male Ruddy Duck on a pond. Their cheeks turn white and their bill blue when they come into breeding plumage.

Ruddy Duck male

We have heard about Stonehenge II for a couple of years.  It was on our way home from the fish hatchery so we stopped by for some pictures.

In 1989, Doug Hill finished work on his back patio and was left with one extra limestone slab.  As a joke he offered it to his friend, Al Sheppard.  Sheppard stood the slab upright in the middle of his pasture.  Hill and Sheppard liked the look so much they decided to build their very own Stonehenge.

It took about 9 months to complete and is fabricated from steel, metal lathe, and plaster and anchored with concrete.

Stonehenge II is 90% as wide and 60% as tall as the original.  The original Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England was erected around 2500 B.C.

After visiting Easter Island, Sheppard was inspired to add two 13 foot tall Moai head statutes.

Sheppard passed away in 1994 and his family donated Stonehenge II and the Moai to the Hill Country Arts Foundation were it was moved in 2012.

We had a fun day and have enjoyed exploring the Texas Hill Country!

Toyota Factory Tour

We visited the 2.2 million square foot Toyota Factory in San Antonio.

Entrance

Our first stop was at the front desk.  Reservations are mandatory and must be made the week before.  There are plenty of dress code and other requirements for the tour.  We signed in and presented our drivers licenses to the very nice young lady at the front desk.  We were confirmed for the 9:00 a.m. tour and received a shiny penny for the penny machine.

Visitor Center

The San Antonio facility is the only facility in the world that makes the Toyota Tundra.  They also manufacture the Toyota Tacoma at this facility.

First Toyota Texas built Tundra.

In 1890 Sakichi Toyoda (note spelling of last name) filed a patent for his manual loom design.  He became interested in improving the inefficient loom his mother used.  During his life he was awarded 40 patents in Japan and 62 patents overseas.

1890 Wooden Loom

In 1929 Sakichi sold the patent for an automatic loom securing the funds needed for his son, Kiichiro Toyoda, to begin the Toyota Motor Company.

We were told the name was changed from Toyoda to Toyota because, in Japanese writing, Toyota (with a t) has 8 brush strokes whereas Toyoda (with a d) has 10.  The name was changed because Kiichiro Toyoda wanted to differentiate the automobile business from the loom business and also because eight is a lucky number. 

In 2003 Toyoda bought 2,678 acres of ranch land in south San Antonio.  678 acres were donated to the city to create green space along Leon Creek and the Medina River.

Before our tour started we walked around the visitor center. 

1969 Land Cruiser

In 1951 the prototype for the Toyota Land Cruiser was built.  In 1953, 298 vehicles were sold in Japan.  In 1960 the Land Cruiser was offered in the US with only one vehicle being sold that year.  By 1984 more than 1 million had been produced.

Hilux

In our travels to Central and South America the Toyota Hilux is the most common truck we see. 

New employees receive training on how to perform their jobs as well as work conditioning to prepare their bodies for the line.  Every day they start their shift with a 6 minute stretch. 

To improve hand-eye coordination, accuracy and speed, new employees train on the Winding Rope exercise.  They must wind the rope correctly within 6 seconds to meet the goal. We saw a very nice gym facility while on the tour and were told the first two weeks of training for their new jobs the employees must use the company gym two hours every day.

Mark has great hand-eye coordination!

Our tour started in the visitor center with a short, very informative, movie.

Unfortunately, cameras (also bags, purses, cell phones) are not allowed on the tour.

We were given a parking pass and told to position our car behind the truck in the parking lot.  We would be driving to the factory.

We were told that if we were caught taking pictures by security, the pictures would be deleted and we would be escorted off the property.

After passing through the front gate, I put my camera away!

Entrance gate.

Our guide for the tour was Ashley.  She was very good and upbeat.  When we walked into the facility we met our driver (I don’t remember her name) and were told to go ahead and get in the tram.  There is no walking on this tour.  You ride very comfortably in a small tram and listen to Ashley through headphones.  The tour takes about 90 minutes.  It was a blast!

There were two areas we were not allowed.  The painting area - because there is a high risk of contamination, and the pressing area - because of the use of dangerous heavy machines.

Even though I couldn’t take pictures in the plant, I have lots of pictures of the process in making a Toyota truck.

This facility has 7000 employees and produces 1000 trucks a day!  It was absolutely amazing to see the trucks being built right in front of our eyes and then watching the truck being started - for the first time - and driven off the production line.

'Press' is the first step in the vehicle production process.  It’s where steel sheets or “blanks” are pressed into vehicle body parts such as hoods, fenders and doors.

Each press, or die, weighs several tons.  The sheets of metal undergo a quality check to ensure that vehicle production begins with the best parts right from the start.

Robots are used throughout the factory.  The most extensive use is in welding.  Not every process is automated.  In some cases, employees work with the robots to ensure quality.

Stamped parts move from Press to Weld, where they are welded together into the body shell of the Tundra and Tacoma.  At this point the cab and deck, or bed, remain separate bodies that are joined later in Assembly.

In the visitor center we got to see a robot in action.  You slide a plastic block into the container then the robot picks it up and puts it at the end of the line.

Robots are fun!

We saw several of these Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) moving parts to the line.  It’s a moving robot that follows a magnet strip in the floor for navigation.  Sensors detect obstacles in its path.  If it comes in contact with an object, it shuts down and signals an operator to clear the obstacle and restart the robot.

AGV

'Plastics' is where bumpers, instrument panels and other important components are made.  Using tiny pellets of plastic they use an advanced injection molding process to shape the pellets into usable parts.

Plastic pellets

This improved process requires less materials and time and increases productivity.  They produce plastic parts twice as fast as before with fewer defects.

Plastic components

Next up is the Paint Shop.  Toyota offers eleven color choices.  Mark had a great time playing with the paint simulator!

Get Ready

Start Painting

Check your Coverage

An Interesting pattern

We got to watch a lot of the assembly line work.  The workers take a 10 minute break every two hours and then change jobs.  They train for two weeks before ever getting on the assembly line.

The frame begins upside down for easier installation of specific parts and is later flipped right side up to install the engine and transmission.  Each frame is assembled separately while the cab and deck are being assembled.

In 1990, Toyota debuted the three overlapping Ellipses logo on American vehicles. The Toyota Ellipses symbolize the unification of the hearts of the customer and the heart of Toyota products. The background space represents Toyota's technological advancement and the boundless opportunities ahead.

Toyota symbol

Did you forget about the shiny new pennies we were given when we signed in?  We found the penny machine!

Pressing our pennies.

I’ll make a magnet out of mine.  This tour is definitely magnet worthy!

Souvenir