BrazosBend

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Brazos Bend State Park, located a little under 30 miles southwest of Houston, is a wonderful day escape from the Houston - Galveston areas.

The wildlife is abundant. On a balmy January day, I saw plenty of alligators and numerous varieties of birds...koots, egrets, ibises, herons, black-bellied whistlers...among others.

The park has several lakes and hiking trails - 35 miles in all - and is filled with beautiful old moss-covered oak trees. It's a great biking park, too, if you like flat terrain.

If you have more than a day, all the better. Take in the George Observatory with its three domed telescopes, one of them being one of the largest in the nation that's open to the public.

On this particular morning, my traveling partner and I got up early to take a walk around Little Creekfield Lake. We didn't see any of the koots and black-bellied whistlers (such as those below) that we had seen the day before, but we could defnitely hear them. They must have been sheltered in all the marsh and sea grass that can be found in this small lake.

Above: A little 'see-saw' time?

Right: Ibises can be found throughout Brazos Bend State Park.

Below: A red-shouldered hawk pauses cautiously in a tree near Horseshoe Lake.

Guts and gall - that's what it took to walk under these trees around Horseshoe Lake that were covered with turkey vultures. And as we approached each tree, the flock would take off - all at once - causing us to instinctively look up (which was not very wise) and hold our ears to cushion the sound of the flapping of hundreds of wings.

Above: A red heron scouts for food.

Left: We didn't see many alligators on the rainy day, but the next day when the sun was out, so were they - lots of 'em.

Signs are posted throughout the park to be cautious of the alligators and to not feed or approach them. Luckily, almost everyone we saw was in or near the water and on the opposite bank from where we stood.

But not all of them. We took a walk behind the Nature Center and found a family of four or five sunning down in the gully.

Beautiful old live oak trees grace the grounds of Brazos Bend State Park. In fact, there is a walking path called Hoot's Hollow Trail that comprises some of the oldest and largest in the park.

The cluster of trees above and to the right is on the main road leading into the park, across the street from the parking lot to 40-Acre Lake.

Above: Little Creekfield Lake at dusk.

Below, left and right: Sunset over Elm Lake.

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Another trip to Brazos Bend State Park was taken in December, just a couple months after Hurricane Harvey inundated the 5,000-acre park. Much of the park was underwater for nine days, but recovery efforts had it opened again for public use by November.

There didn't seem to be as many alligators on the grounds on this particular day, but it didn't seem to matter. There were loads of coastal birds, all seemingly singing at the top of their tiny lungs. (I'm pretty sure birds have lungs.) And the temperature couldn't have been better. A trace of autumn could be recognized, but south Texas isn't particularly known for its fall foliage. Here are a few shots from that picture-perfect day.

On yet another trip to Brazos Bend in mid-January with three friends who flew in from Arizona, the landscape was much the same, but there were lots of alligators to be seen resting on the shores this day, probably around a dozen. The temperature, again, was perfect. It started out rainy, but soon the clouds gave way to blue skies. The pictures below were taken on that day.

Note the difference in colors on the tree line in the background. This is the watermark left by Hurricane Harvey in August of 2017. I believe I read that the park flooded some 53 inches.

Sure, seeing the alligators is a highlight for most who visit Brazos Bend, but the gentle lay of the wetland, the seagrass and trees - even in a South Texas winter - make a visit worthwhile.

The bird Anhinga is a large-sized water bird found in marshes in the southern regions of the world. Like the cormorant, it must spread its wings to dry them since they haven't oil on their bodies to repel the water, as do most waterfowl. Other names for this bird are "snake darter" and "water turkey,"