View allAll Photos Tagged brazosbend
When an alligator bellows (or growls), it lifts its head out of the water and points its nose upward, sometimes near vertical. This one was growling, possibly at human passersby, though they were a pretty good distance away. There may have been another alligator in the vicinity but if so, I didn't see it. I think this one is a female and has a nest close by.
Three small gators (about 2 1/2 years old) on a log in Creekfield Lake at Brazos Bend State Park. There is a fourth one on a log in the background.
We had a very strong wind the day I took this photo. This snowy egret was caught in it, hanging on to this railing for all it was worth.
Butterfly sucking nectar from a wildflower beside the trail from the nature center to Elm Lake in Brazos Bend State Park, Texas
I used to see these birds quite frequently at Brazos Bend State Park, but not so much in recent years, so I was happy to see this one.
This is in front of the front door of the nature center in Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. Just your ordinary, every-day happening in Brazos Bend...
40 Acre Lake and the observation tower at Brazos Bend State Park, early in the morning before the wind has set up ripples on the water
Two caterpillars passing beside each other on the trail around Creekfield Lake in Brazos Bend State Park
Large, showy butterfly
Taken during the annual butterfly count at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas
The count organizer said that recent rainy weather has really taken a toll on the swallowtails, and he was surprised to learn that anyone had found any. He said he expected most of them would die off soon.
I was attracted by the sky and tree reflections. The flock of blackbirds retuning to roost was a bonus.
SE Texas
The three turtles at the end were snoozing peacefully when this interloper decided to climb up on the log also, which made the log start to roll, and nearly dumped the others off. The log rolled back and forth as they tried to balance on it, until finally the new guy fell off, and the log slowly stopped rocking :)
Who knew turtles could be so entertaining?
Brazos Bend, Texas
The missing petals on this Indian blanket wildflower (a.k.a. firewheel) made me think of missing teeth.
Reprocessed photo from the archives
Young alligator checking out the surroundings before moving from one pond to another at Brazos Bend State Park
Elm Lake at Brazos Bend State Park. I shot this in 2010, and we had a severe drought the following year in combination with an extremely hot summer. This lake almost dried up as a result. The park flooded in subsequent years, and much of the lake is now overgrown with water hyacinth, an invasive species. Some of it is visible here.
It forms oval-shaped leaves on green stalks, one leaf to a stalk. They clump together into mats and, if not controlled, can eventually cover the entire surface of a pond or lake. This eventually will consume nearly all the oxygen in the water and kill fish and other pond life.
aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-inde...