What a glorious outing this was! I wish you had been there. It would have been tons of fun – well, fun-er, because it was tons of fun as it was. I had never seen an Alligator before this trip, and I wasn’t honestly expecting to see one. I figured if I saw one, it would be waaaaaaay over there.
I could not have been more WRONG! As Arnold Rimmer on Red Dwarf would say “Wrong, wrong, absolutely brimming over with wrongability.” Ok, let me back up a bit here. I was visiting Houston and looking for somewhere to get some pictures that wasn’t a zoo. Finding Brazos Bend, it took maybe 45 minutes or so to drive there. There’s a small entrance fee and it was a popular park. The perfect day for my walkabout too! Overcast so no harsh shadows, and in the high 70s so not too hot for me. It is a pretty big State Park and offers a lot of options in terms of what to see. I chose to go to the Elm Lake area and take the Elm Lake Loop Trail.
I saw an alligator within about 10 minutes of entering the Trail and saw them pretty consistently throughout. The bigger ones, fortunately, were on the island in the middle but the smaller ones were right up by the walking trail. Many of them attempting to get some sun on the overcast day right BESIDE the walking trail.
While it was a cooler overcast day, that meant these guys were all lounging and pretty much dis-interested in the people walking by. The majority of the ones I was able to get close enough to (which my good zoom lens makes me look closer than I was) were between 2 and 3.5 feet long.
The big guys, as I said before were all over near the island. This roughly 7 footer was totally just snoozing away as the Blue Heron was fishing. The Heron was oblivious until half a heartbeat after I got this shot. The moment that bird saw the alligator, he did a total alarmed double take and couldn’t fly away fast enough. I wish I’d gotten THAT reaction on film…
But alligators were not the only swamp denizen to be seen. There were plenty of ducks as well. Apparently, these guys were feeling a bit cantankerous because they kept chasing off ducks they didn’t like. It was kinda cool to be able to get pictures of them running on the water as they flew.
There were also turtles a-plenty, and seeing as this was February apparently it wasn’t too far from hatching season. This little Red-Earred Slider was just barely the size of a 50 cent piece. So cuuuuuute! I’m surprised I was able to spot him sitting on the tree branch fresh from the water. See him coated in duck weed? A lot of the alligators are also covered in it.
White Ibis was also quite plentiful. It’s much harder than I imagined to get a good picture of a bird in flight. I probably took several hundred of them and got this one. Other birds included Mandarin ducks and White Herons. Met another fellow out getting pictures and we shared a bench while I swapped out batteries. He had 2 cameras with different lenses. Suddenly that made so much sense to me! I’m considering giving that a try sometime.
This big guy below was totally snoozing. He’s one of the few that didn’t even bother to open his eyes as I was trying to get some good shots. As a note, this was my second outing with the new camera. These images are all taken with the still cropped frame lens, but I hope to be able to afford some higher end full frame lenses soon(ish).
And that was my trip to Brazos Bend State Park and I have now most definitely seen American Alligators. Huzzah!
Until next time, Adventure On!