Preheated
This shot was taken just when the weather went from hot to blazing hot. We're now in the middle of the month or two of time when it is too hot to spend much time outside. When your shins sweat even if you are lounging in the shade, it's time to go inside. Houston and the surrounding areas become the world's largest natural terrarium from August until late September.
This is Elm Lake from Brazos Bend State Park. Here is a blurb about the park:
Brazos Bend State Park, a 5,000-acre gem on the Upper Texas Coast, is just 40 miles from downtown Houston and offers a wide variety of activities for every age: biking, fishing, hiking, birding, camping, star-gazing, and opportunities to learn about Texas’ bountiful natural history via free programs and guided hikes.
The park’s scenic terrain has been carved gently over time by the vigorous Brazos River, which marks its eastern boundary. Fragments of the ancient coastal prairie survive here as do dense bottomland hardwood forests and extensive marshes, making ideal habitats for the American alligator and a rich diversity of other reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. The park is an important refuge for birds, with more than 300 species recorded, and wildflowers abound during the warmer months, drawing a wealth of butterflies.
Wetlands of many kinds enhance species diversity at the park. Brazos Bend wetlands include swamps, lakes and marshes. Herons, egrets and ibis find homes in the plants that make up the parks’ marshes. In the lakes, grebes and anhinga locate the deep water they need to hunt bluegill and other sunfish. Meanwhile, the swamps provide shelter for migratory water birds, including least bitterns, mallards, green herons and purple gallinules. For woodpeckers and songbirds, dead trees transform into shelter. But the swamp waters also give the birds protection unavailable in the forest by keeping land predators away. This attracts a greater variety of birds to the park.
Preheated
This shot was taken just when the weather went from hot to blazing hot. We're now in the middle of the month or two of time when it is too hot to spend much time outside. When your shins sweat even if you are lounging in the shade, it's time to go inside. Houston and the surrounding areas become the world's largest natural terrarium from August until late September.
This is Elm Lake from Brazos Bend State Park. Here is a blurb about the park:
Brazos Bend State Park, a 5,000-acre gem on the Upper Texas Coast, is just 40 miles from downtown Houston and offers a wide variety of activities for every age: biking, fishing, hiking, birding, camping, star-gazing, and opportunities to learn about Texas’ bountiful natural history via free programs and guided hikes.
The park’s scenic terrain has been carved gently over time by the vigorous Brazos River, which marks its eastern boundary. Fragments of the ancient coastal prairie survive here as do dense bottomland hardwood forests and extensive marshes, making ideal habitats for the American alligator and a rich diversity of other reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. The park is an important refuge for birds, with more than 300 species recorded, and wildflowers abound during the warmer months, drawing a wealth of butterflies.
Wetlands of many kinds enhance species diversity at the park. Brazos Bend wetlands include swamps, lakes and marshes. Herons, egrets and ibis find homes in the plants that make up the parks’ marshes. In the lakes, grebes and anhinga locate the deep water they need to hunt bluegill and other sunfish. Meanwhile, the swamps provide shelter for migratory water birds, including least bitterns, mallards, green herons and purple gallinules. For woodpeckers and songbirds, dead trees transform into shelter. But the swamp waters also give the birds protection unavailable in the forest by keeping land predators away. This attracts a greater variety of birds to the park.