Thread: Discuss: Brazos Bend State Park

Originally Posted by Lou

I wonder if it's easier falling asleep to "Sweet Home Alabama" while your out camping!!!

I prefer "Dueling Banjos". But more or less, the same thing.

Originally Posted by vettech2112

I sat for nearly an hour and observed a 8-9' gator and a 6-7' one tussle over "ownership" of a big alligator carcas in the swamp along eastern bank of 40-Acre Lake. According to the wildlife photographer that was filming it, the big one was a male who'd fought with the deceased gator about the time y'all were there. It was really interresting to watch the big male guard his prize from the smaller female while trying to rip into that tough gator hide. She would swim in on the opposite side of the corpse, take a quick bite, then he'd notice and come around and chase her off. I think the female got more to eat than he did! (There's a lesson in there, IMHO.)

The wildlife photographer said he'd filmed alligators all over the Gulf Coast and felt that Brazos Bend was the best place in the country for it. I've never seen gators so tame.

We met Philippe Henry, the wildlife photographer you mentioned. He's continuing to get terrific footage out there. On Friday, he showed us some new footage he'd taken that morning of a large female gator with a fresh killed raccoon she was retrieving from the shoreline to take back to her nest. Meeting Philippe was one of the highlights of our trip -- he's in a class of photographers we (Justin and I) still can only aspire to! Good inspiration, that!
:idea:

You had a gem of a visit, because while we saw a dozen or so total alligators during our two 1/2 day visits to Brazos this weekend, none crept up on the trails and all of them were juveniles. Our best photographs, then, were of a raccoon family that clearly gets well fed by picnickers and park guests (I'm not sure why Brazos isn't enforcing the January '04 set regulation against the feeding of any animals within our State Parks?) The spiders were awesome, though it's definitely fortunate they build their massive webs above the average human's height! Even the telephone/power lines, when they're close enough together, collect muliple spiders and their webs -- it is eerie.

We stayed late yesterday to attend the George Observatory tour -- a first for us -- and quite enjoyable. I grew up with a cheap reflector telescope (still have it) and free reign of the backyard on good stargazing nights, but I'd never looked through a real scope before. We asked how much the 36" primary scope at George cost and apparently they got it for a bargain -- about $175,000 in the '60s. Today, just the scope (not the dome and assorted electronics) would run over a million dollars!

Our least favorite aspect of the park? The horse flies and mosquitoes... the horse flies were especially bad on our first half-day visit on Friday. We knew we were in trouble when we met Philippe and he was, rightfully so, wearing a long-sleeved jacket despite the 84+ degree temperature (nice weather all weekend, btw)

I'll post a trip report soon... hopefully not boring everyone by repeating the primary details I've just "let out of the bag"

Originally Posted by vettech2112

I wondered if you'd see him or if perhaps the carcas I spoke of, considering how large it was, was still around. I could have just sat and observed him work the rest of the day but I was worried I was disturbing him, even though he was quite friendly and gave no indication I was.

We didn't spend very much time with Philippe, for the same reason you mention. That, and it was later in the day and he needed to head back to observe the female gator's nest for the evening. He apparently uses a wood canoe in some manner, as he inquired about the Guadalupe River's suitability for his wooden canoe and the video he showed us of the female gator with her fresh kill included a brief tripod shot of him approaching his canoe. He has a healthy respect and a large appreciation for the reptiles, so I'm not entirely sure the canoe isn't just a prop for the video he's working on.

We didn't observe any carcasses, but there's so many deer and racoons that I'm sure the gators are feeding well. Even the tiny (under 2 feet) gator we observed by one of the docks caught a sizable fish while we watched.

The mild weather both played in our favor -- more pleasant hiking and photography conditions -- and conspired against us -- keeping the gators in water and away from the trails. The day we had the worst horse fly issues, we'd gone straight from checking in to the hotel to the park and neglected to wear ANY (!) repellent. It still wasn't as painful and unnerving as one visit we made to Anahuac NWR in the past -- the one where I mentioned the insects are smart and attack the windows of your vehicle, just knowing there's warm human flesh inside for the taking!

Originally Posted by vettech2112

I think I had so much success because I go mid-week. As I work weekend overnights, I tend to go on Tues or Weds. I'm betting these animals know the pattern well enough that they hide more on the weekends and it probably takes until late Monday for them to show themselves. It seems that I'm frequently getting comments about how many animals I get to see and how few others do. Either the above theory is correct or I've got a "gift" of some kind.

I think it's probably equal parts both reasons. Some people just do better at mixing among wildlife -- it has a lot to do with patience, body language, noise and even color of clothing. I've lost more shots than I care to count because I absolutely couldn't contain a sneeze for another moment... :no:

Our visit on Friday was definitely more productive than the return visit on Saturday. More people in the park on Saturday meant the wildlife was more spread out and less apt to be within "killer" photographic range (even with our 300mm zooms).

Originally Posted by vettech2112

As far as the spiders, again, they must know the pattern because I saw many many webs (and their owners) along the trails at about the 5-6' level. However, maybe there are lots more spiders there than I've noticed because I have a habit of keeping my eyes fairly low rather than looking high in the trees.

I tend to look high, a habit I've acquired as I try to take more good bird photographs (Justin's staple, but something I didn't get into until I had a lens that made it more worthwhile). That said, I have a sneaking suspicion that children and other hikers might have "taken out" some of the lower-hanging webs, particularly when we returned on Saturday. <sigh> I saw a neat thing as one spider worked methodically to remove a dead leaf that had become trapped near the center of its web -- without much effort, it disengaged the leaf from the web and wove some replacement strands for reinforcement. I'm in awe of the beauty of some of their webs...

Originally Posted by vettech2112

I've been wanting to do the George Observatory tour for ages! My friend in Boerne is studying Cosmology and I've always been an astronomy geek. One thing I was amazed about SA was how much less light pollution there is than Houston.

We paid the $5/person ($10 total) for rights to view through both the main (32" primary) scope as well as the East and West dome scopes. They could use some process improvements because we had to ask twice before we knew if it was our time to view, but the experience itself was terrific -- even the volunteers were awesome (and have some amazing scopes to view through). We observed the Ring Nebula (M57), which was "just" a blurry ring in the scope until the volunteer swapped eyepieces so we could see the stars around the nebula and appreciate that the nebula was in fact a very different phenomena. Through the larger, official scopes, we viewed the Hercules Globular Cluster (M13) -- very impressive.

I was impressed with the dark sky out there. It's no Big Bend, certainly, but it was quite easy to note the Milky Way and we spotted several satellites cruising overhead during our time outside. I cannot see the Milky Way from my backyard in NE San Antonio, nor my parent's backyard in NW San Antonio -- too much heavy orange city glow. But out by Canyon Lake (in the "old" days and further into the Hill Country, it's still quite visible. My favorite night sky view in awhile is out in Leakey, Texas.

Anyone been to the McDonald Observatory in West Texas? That's on our agenda at some point.

Trip report probably won't be posted until end of week due to some business stuff that's popped up on our radar. I wish I'd taken more photographs of the Brazos Bend facilities, but I got fixated on wildlife watching and birding. We did get some awesome duck and goose photos out at Bayfront Park in Hoston, near the hotel we stayed at. I would have loved to have had time to return there for another visit, particularly to photograph some of the canoeists and kayakers.

[QUOTE=vettech2112]
I've been wanting to do the George Observatory tour for ages! My friend in Boerne is studying Cosmology and I've always been an astronomy geek. One thing I was amazed about SA was how much less light pollution there is than Houston.
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I just ran across this for those in the area that maybe interested. Haak Winery in Santa Fe, SE of Houston, is hosting a local astronomy club Sat. Nov 13th. It's still a ways off so mark your calendar. Amateur astronomers will have their telescopes set up on the grounds next to the vineyards for the public to view. I've never been before but I understand that the telescope owners really take pride both in their hardware and explaining the celestial sights that you're viewing. Admission: FREE; Time: NIGHTFALL; Snacks: Bring your own or purchase from the tasting room deli; Beverages: All alcohol must be purchased from the winery to comply with their TABC permit.

I suspect someone hit the thread from a Google search, and without even bothering to determine that this thread referred to a park ranger named Jerry at a TEXAS State Park, they went off to bash a CO National Park ranger.

I'd delete it, but sometimes these things are good reminders to folks to read for comprehension online rather than just skimming posts and firing off replies.