Small alligator and a good-sized turtle in Creekfield Lake at Brazos Bend State Park

Little blue herons start out white and later turn blue. This bird is somewhere in the middle.

Brazos Bend State Park in SE Texas

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Remnants of some kind of leaf beside the trail around Creekfield Lake in Brazos Bend State Park

Evening primrose on the Prairie/Wildflower Trail in Brazos Bend State Park

Bullfrog in Creekfield Lake at Brazos Bend State Park

Great egret takes flight above Pilant Lake at Brazos Bend State Park

A pair of alligators, probably male and female (the big one, about 12 feet long, is definitely a male), basking in the sun beside the spillway from Pilant Lake into Pilant Slough in Brazos Bend State Park

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX1-e0w3mUw

Black-bellied whistling ducks hanging out beside Elm Lake in Brazos Bend State Park

Funereal skipper butterfly beside the trail from the nature center to Elm Lake in Brazos Bend State Park

Making sure nothing springs out of Elm Lake to surprise passersby...

This bird was lit by a little beam of low sunlight coming through the trees. Everything around the bird was in shade.

They were certain that every log they spotted was a 'gator in disguise . . . a very, very still and stealthy 'gator.

Either that or a really weird fungus attached to this tree trunk

Beside the Wildflower Trail

At least not if you walk under it...

The birds in this tree are turkey vultures and black vultures.

One more Least Grebe from Brazos Bend, SE Texas

(needs to be large)

The pondhawk dragonfly is common all across the state of Texas and is present virtually year-round. The male is blue, and the female is green.

looking west

Brazos Bend

Red-eared slider turtle on a log in Elm Lake, Brazos Bend State Park

While we packed the car, the kids stayed busy with various pursuits: Audrey writing and drawing, Iris looking at books upside-down and blowing raspberries into her mirror.

This is a photo of David at Brazos Bend Park.

I've seen these in the past in the area where I shot this, but I hadn't seen any in quite some time. It was nice to see these.

As seen from the path from the nature center to Elm Lake in Brazos Bend State Park

George Observatory, Brazos Bend State Park, Needville Texas

Golden silk spider (aka banana spider) beside a trail at Brazos Bend State Park. The female is much larger than the male.

Brazos Bend

Gulf fritillary in the butterfly garden at Brazos Bend State Park

Brazos Bend State Park in SE Texas

Approximately six-foot-long alligator beside the trail around Elm Lake at Brazos Bend State Park

Roughly 9 ft. long alligator lolling the afternoon away beside Creekfield Lake

Quite a show at dusk each winter evening when thousands of birds come into the Park to roost.

Brazos Bend State Park, SE Texas

Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade

Activists for birds and wildlife