Brazos Bend State Park
hive-163772·@crypticat·
0.000 HBDBrazos Bend State Park
On a Mid-March layover in Houston we went gator hunting and bird watching in Brazos Bend State Park. A last minute decision I'll never regret, instead of hanging out in airport lounges all day or going shopping we rented a Tesla and drove out of the city. There were two options, a Gator Farm or the State Park, since parks open earlier than tourist attractions we headed south and were in for a big surprise.  Upon entering the [Brazos Bend State Park](https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/brazos-bend) there was a fenced off area with some people with serious camera equipment around it. We went inside to buy the park pass and the guy said if you're just here to see the owls you don't need a pass. We were looking for gators not owls, being from Canada, gators are more exciting, it's why we headed down to the park.  There were a couple giant Great Horned Owls in a huge tree and a fence around another tree with a few bird watchers with telescopes and expensive cameras. We've seen such owls before and the people offered us to take a look through their photo equipment, but it wasn't pointed at the big owls, it was pointed at another tree. Baby Great Horned owls.  Not so great yet and where are the horns?   It turns out cellphone cameras are not that great for taking photos of great birds, but we tried. Apparently they nest here every March so if you are in the Houston area it's a great time to visit. As an added bonus it wasn't too hot.   The park had thousands of birds. Various storks, cardinals, buzzards, herons and such. It's a few thousand acres and a great spot for picnics and to hike-although much flatter than what we are used to, the heat more than makes up for the altitude.  The park has swamps and savanna-land. There are semi-tropical forests and shallow lakes. We went to a few alligator lookouts and walked around with our eyes peeled.  This little guy was just under 2 feet long. Hardly a threat but better than nothing. Gators come out when it is hot and they usually just have their snouts poking out, so they aren't too easy to see. Since it was the morning they were probably in the mud somewhere.  We got finally got lucky and saw this big boy. While not the biggest gator I ever did saw, it was large enough to make the trip a success at about 8 feet. Some hikers have to watch out for bears, others have to watch out for crocs. Crikey.  They had a visitors center with a tank filled with baby gators. They're so cute now I know why New Yorkers take them in as pets. They just sort of sit there suspended in the water. The park raises them and then releases them which helps their chances of survival. There was a super knowledgeable park staff member who brought out a baby gator and stood there stroking it for 30 minutes while telling us 1000 gator facts. If we lived in Houston we would surely come back, as we were pulling out of the park more people were showing up. It was nice to avoid the crowds and we wished we had more time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All Photos taken with an S22 or iphone 13 https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/brazos-bend [//]:# (!pinmapple 29.36903 lat -95.62472 long Brazos Bend State Park d3scr)
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