But First, A Killdeer...
Killdeer are pretty little birds that nest on the ground. Killdeer are graceful plovers that are seen just about everywhere -- lawns, golf courses, athletic fields, and parking lots. They are shorebirds you can see without going to the beach.

This little beauty made a nest in the stones at the base of a tree at the entrance walk of a church. You could walk right by her and never notice she was there. If a killdeer thinks her nest is threatened, she moves away from it and fakes having a broken wing. This way she looks like an easy target and draws the threat away from the nest. 

In the two photos below you can see her on the nest and then drawing me out into the parking lot by pretending to be injured. I didn't spend too much time as I really didn't want to stress her.

On to the Park
No story. I just thought you might enjoy a few pictures I took with the new lens that Linda allowed me to buy. It's pretty big (a wheelbarrow would be handy), but it lets me get a bit closer to the birds. Linda let me buy it so I wouldn't be gored by a bison when we visit Yellowstone (she saw a news story). So, lucky me.

The photos in the gallery below were taken at Brazos Bend State Park, a wonderful place only about 12 miles as the crow flies, but about 26 miles and 40 minutes by car. There are wonderful water birds and who knows how many alligators. There are just photo opportunities galore.

The white cattle egret is pretty common around this part of Texas and has really spread across the whole country. The first birds were originally from Africa and came here in 1953. The tan feathers are breeding plumage.

Ducks in a tree! The black-bellied whistler is one of the few ducks you will find regularly in trees. Twenty years ago I had to go down toward Corpus Christi to see whistlers, but they have gradually moved north and are now common here.

There are few birds more eye-catching than egrets and herons. The little blue heron is particularly pretty with its slate-blue body and slightly reddish head. 

The boat-tailed grackle is not a pretty bird, and I unfortunately did not do a good job of capturing his iridescent feathers. He can be found in the wetlands along the east and gulf coasts and the near inland areas. His cousin the common grackle can be found in super market parking lots and is also known as the rat-with-wings.

Thanks for visiting, and, as always, we like to hear from you.

After finishing a few errands the other day, I thought I would take a visit to a local pocket park to see if there might be anything interesting. As it turned out, it was a pretty good day that included an egret, a heron, and a pretty good sized alligator.

The gator was hanging around under a boardwalk and he stuck his head out from underneath. Leaning over the railing I was able to get this photo of his head with a unique "look down on top" perspective. The head you see in the photo is, I am going to guess, 18" to 24" long - I really didn't get close enough to pull out my tape measure. This would make him about 13-14 feet long, overall. A very big boy.

At the top of the photo you can see that just the nostrils on his snout are out of the water. They are closed in this photo, sealed the way they would be if he were under water. His eyes, which you can't see, are also out of the water and are located just to the front of his round, pouchy, jowls.

After a while he started moving across the pond very slowly and silently, just as you see in the photo at the top. As I watched him, the theme music from Jaws kept running through my head.