View allAll Photos Tagged brazosbend
A western mud snake (Farancia abacus reinhardti) looking for all the world like it's dead but not showing any obvious signs of damage. Some snakes feign death, but I don't know if this species does. They are normally nocturnal, so the fact that this one is beside a well-trodden hiking trail in the middle of the day suggests that it has indeed reached its sell-by date.
It was a bit warmer on this January morning a couple years ago at Brazos Bend State Park in Texas, than it's been here recently in central Illinois.
Common gallinule stands on a lotus pad in Elm Lake, Brazos Bend State Park. Its toes, which are very long, are dimly visible. These birds use their toes to paddle around in the water, which cause many people to mistake them for ducks.
Actually yawning? Probably not. A snowy egret hunts in the shallow waters flowing over the spillway in Brazos Bend State Park.
Got it! (whatever "it" is).
Brazos Bend State Park in SE Texas
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
Frequently confused with cottonmouths, these snakes are nonvenomous. As implied by their name, they are frequently found around water.
The red buckeye is a smallish tree that grows from southern Missouri toward the south and east. Its tubular red flowers show up in early Spring and attract hummingbirds. By June the flowers are replaced by toxic, dry orange fruits. This one is growing beside the nature center in Brazos Bend State Park.
Last night I came across these young gators and their mother (I assume). Thanks to the people who pointed them out! I passed the favor on a few times.
I wasn't able to get high quality images, but I find these images interesting none the less. (click for more)
Brazos Bend Sate Park in SE Texas
They were on the south side of Elm Lake just west of the SE corner (between the corner and the first little pier). They are located against the island across the narrow channel of water from the trail (so you are looking towards the north when you view them). Look for the "cave" dug under the island.
A pair of alligators in Elm Lake at Brazos Bend State Park. They had been bellowing at each other shortly before I took this photo, and I have no idea why. The larger one, on the left, was about ten feet (3 m) long, and the other was smaller, seven to eight feet.
Young alligator (about 18 months old) beside a hiking trail at Brazos Bend State Park. No doubt Mom isn't very far away from here.
Black-bellied whistling ducks and a pied-billed grebe in the water of Creekfield Lake in Brazos Bend State Park
American coot wading in the shallows at the edge of Elm Lake in Brazos Bend State Park
From the archives
The male is the one with the crescent-shaped white marking on his head. The blue on the wings shows best with the wings extended in flight but not when folded like this.
A pair of dragonflies of different species on the same twig beside 40 Acre Lake in Brazos Bend State Park
The little ones hatched during the summer of 2014. This is located along the spillway trail at Brazos Bend State Park in SE Texas.
I focus-stacked 3 images to get enough DOF. Never done that before.