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Welcome to Brazos Bend State Park. That's me on the trail at BBSP in August of 2019. One of the most popular reasons for people to visit BBSP is to see the birds. I've collected my pictures of Ospreys,
Hawks, Harriers, etc. here.

01/28/2024  Good news! We got some water at Brazos Bend State Park. We almost got too much, since the Brazos River got close to flood stage at
the river gage at Rosharon (about 45 feet).  Big Creek rose enough to overflow into Hale Lake and fill that very nicely (though I didn't go look, since it that area of the park
was still flooded.)  But that water didn't really go much further into the park. Instead, the direct rain that fell on Pilant Lake and Elm Lake brought up the water levels there,
and along Pilant Slough. I observed that myself.  So, here are a few images from that wonderful sunny day.
It was cold (44.7°F) up at the 40Acre Parking lot. Although it's usually colder down on the trails, I was also hoping that the sunny day would warm things a bit. Through
the past months, I've been stopping just East of the Observation Tower and taking pictures across Pilant Lake. It looked great today!
 

Along the Spillway Trail, there was a Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) in a tree. This is one of many raptors that we see pretty often at BBSP. All birds have something
wonderful that makes them unique. Although I tend to concentrate on a few specific raptors, I really enjoy hearing the Red Shouldered hawks screaming among the
concert of various birds and animals calling at the park (and of course seeing them fly by). In fact, this one started shouting to another that was calling some hundred
yards away. I see these hawks frequently, and am often frustrated because they usually get their business done before I can even get my camera pointed at them.
   

On 03/11/2023 it was a pretty blustery day at Fiorenza Park.  The water was pretty rough from the wind, and not many birds were active; but I had some luck anyway.
While I was walking back to my car, this Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) landed on one of the wire support poles. It was facing into the harsh wind, but it didn't fly while I was watching it. 
Of course, as soon as I turned my back on it, the hawk took off.  I saw it fly over my head.
   

09/25/2022 At Brazos Bend State Park, various park visitors mentioned seeing baby alligators and their mother near the concrete culvert by the 40 Acre Lake
Observation Tower.  When I went back there, I couldn't find the babies at first, but I did find a Great Blue Heron. After it stalked away a few yards, I heard some baby alligators chirp. I still
couldn't see them. I stepped away from the culvert, and the Heron stalked back. Another Great Blue Heron appeared and chased off the first one. I waited, thinking that I'd soon be observing
some drama involving a Great Blue Heron and some baby alligators. But, the second Heron moved closer to the bank, and I couldn't see what it was up to.
A few minutes later, a Red-Shouldered Hawk landed in the grass about 13 yards from me!  I lost it among the plants, but started shooting video of the area in case the Hawk took off with
prey.  It did take off--not where I had the camera pointed. It hadn't caught anything. As I stood there, waiting for drama, I noticed furtive movements in the plants at the edge of the trail.
I thought that something was being chased, and I thought that a snake might be hunting there. Suddenly, a Bullfrog jumped out, crossed the trail in a few leaps and entered Pilant Slough. Then,
a few more frogs hopped out! I started shooting video, and was trying to focus on the last frog....
...when the Hawk returned!  The Hawk grabbed the frog, and flew East down the Spillway Trail. I caught this on video, and edited the video into this file.   It's not great video, but it's worth a
look. The images below are frames from the video.  The video looks a bit better than the images might imply. The original is just a few seconds long (and the Hawk's grab is in it for a frame
or two)--but I've slowed it and cropped it to clarify the activity.  We can clearly see the frog being carried down the trail, probably traveling faster than it ever had before.
Later, I realized the the Bullfrogs might have been flushed out of the water by the Great Blue Heron that I'd lost sight of below the bank.  By the way, I discovered where the mother alligator
was when she surfaced and rushed at the same Heron--which flew away.
   

   

From BBSP on 04/24/2022.  Springtime has brought new life and activity to the park. I went to Live Oak trail to look for Limpkins and  pink eggs. At first Limpkins were around, but not very busy
on our side of the fence. I saw a Red Tailed Hawk drop down onto something in the plants, then fly off with a frog. When it landed in a tree, I could see it that it had a small Bullfrog.

At BBSP on 01/30/2022. About 50°F Brazos Bend State Park when I got there. Instead of watching over Pilant Lake, I decided to head down the Spillway Trail to Otter Island (about 800 steps
East of the Tower) to look for Otters. No luck on this day, but here are some observations. Pictures first, in general order as they happened. This Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) was 
above the trail and watching...well, me,  I suppose.  
    

01/16/2022. Another cold day at Brazos Bend State Park. Please note that there was movement around me most of the time, so the animals that I mention were not 
the only ones about.  I walked to the observation tower and the open waters there, hoping to encounter otters and/or eagles. At 8:30am I stopped by the gator mom's den, and she was
visible, but just the tip of her nose was exposed. It was about 39�F on the trail. On the way back to my car at 2:30,there was  red shoulder hawk on a stump.
    

On 11/28/2021; I arrived at BBSP, and as I entered 40 Acre lake trail at 8am, this Red-Shouldered Hawk was at the top of this dead Oak Tree (tree was killed by lightning some time ago.
  
 
 When I got back to my car at 9:40, the hawk was still in the tree. I had just put taken my camera strap off and placed it in the trunk, when the hawk started calling--and  
was answered by another hawk behind me. I grabbed my camera, shot some photos, and stared shooting video. Another hawk flew out and landed next to the first one. Then they both called, and  
finally flew off.(The video clip is here.)  I left, and got back in time for my hike. 
  

On 11/07/2021; I parked in the 40-Acre Lake parking lot.  I opened the car door, looked out, and saw this Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) perched on
the sign about 20 yards away. I quietly got out of the car, carefully opened the trunk, and was able to get the camera without scaring the hawk. So, here it is.

   
This was about 7:30, and there was mist in the air.  I stayed near my car and watched. I was a bit surprised that the hawk didn't move. Since it seemed reluctant to fly off, I
scanned the trees around for another raptor, but didn't see anything that might be a potential threat for the hawk. That doesn't mean that there wasn't anything around, though.
I watched for about 20 minutes. During this time, visitors that had arrived to take the "bird hike" also came over to look at the hawk. Also, the sun burned off the mist and lit
up the hawk. After growing tired of the gathering people, it flew off; and I continued to 40 Acre Lake-where Caracaras were busy.
 

04/10/2020   Like almost everyone these days, I've been staying inside.  I have stopped driving around outside for...recreational purposes.
BBSP is just too far away, AND, entrance protocol to the park has changed dramatically (even for volunteers). So...I haven't been going there.
The parks within the city are also out of reach for similar reasons-plus the large number of visitors. But on 4/10, while I was in another neighborhood
performing my job, I noticed a Red-Tailed Hawk take off from nearby parking lot. Considering where I was, that was very unusual. I noticed
that it was carrying something.  It landed about 70 yards away on top of a tall parking lot lamp. It appeared to be eating something.
So I grabbed my camera from the car (which I'd happened to be standing next to), and tried shooting some photos, but mostly video clips.
I have better luck cropping video than photos.  I could only spare a few minutes for this, and then had to return to the tasks at hand.
The resulting clips were a bit shaky, since I'd shot them while resting my arms on the roof of my car, and was a bit excited about it.
But I cropped them, and slowed them 4x (I filmed at 60fps and reformatted to 15fps). I think they turned out fairly nice.
The resulting edited video is about 10 minutes long, and shows a Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) enjoying breakfast (video
was filmed at about 8:30 am).  I think the prey was a bird (There appears to be evidence of feathers, and possibly a wing or two as
the hawk eats). Unfortunately,resolution isn't really sharp (because of the cropping).  Still, I think watching how swiftly the
hawk cuts and pulls parts away-without teeth-is interesting.  The images below are frame grabs from the video.
Even though I haven't been out to see predatory Nature...it came and found me anyway. How cool is THAT?

.   

11/16/2019  I was at Fiorenza Park when I noticed a hawk flying towards me from about 300 yards away. It landed in a tree about 100 yards from me. I turned away to
look for other activity.  After just a few minutes, I heard the loud cawing of a flock of crows. I figured that the crows had found the hawk, so I turned the camera that way.
I was able to pick up the crows and hawk, and I shot video of them as the flew away. I've edited the video a bit, cropped and slowed it down, and have made a longer view
of this brief event. The images below are croipped from frame grabs from the video. Click on each one for a larger view. Click here for the video.

       
     

I couldn't tell what kind of hawk I'd seen, until after I cropped the video and slowed it down.  By looking at the markings, I think that this was a juvenile
Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).  The crows are probably American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos).  I found some brief references to crow
"mobbing" predators behavior in my two Sibley bird books (Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior first edition  Page 413; Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North
America p286 ).  I've seen crows harass predators before, and even have a few examples among my pages.  On this page a single crow (not a "mob") harassed
a bald eagle on 3/20/2016. And, on this page, a few crows are harassing a juvenile Great Horned Owl on 3/20/2006.

 11/22/2018 (updated 04/25/2020) Like almost everyone these days, I've been staying inside.  I have stopped driving around outside for...recreational purposes.
BBSP is just too far away, AND, entrance protocol to the park has changed dramatically (even for volunteers). So...I haven't been going there. So, I'm going through my older material 
to post cool things I hadn't gotten around to.
11/22/2018 I was at Fiorenza Park when I noticed a hawk near some crows.  I know that crows often harass raptors--a single crow will, and a group will (this is callrd "mobbing").
So I started shooting video.  I was a few hundred yards away.
The resulting edited video is about 5 minutes long, and shows a juvenile hawk which, according to Lauren Helton (twitter @tinylongwing) is an immature Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) 
foraging.  At the distance I was filming from, I couldn't tell what it was looking for.  The crows were there at first,  but their behavior with the hawk was not what I expected. 
The images below are frame grabs from the video.

       
 There was some brief, "non-aggressive" chasing. In the images above, a crow meets the hawk in the air. They both landed.
       
They stood near each other, crows silent.       A crow makes one more statement, flies over the hawk; which reacts with raised foot and wing spread.(3 images above and first below.)
       
   Then, both species spent time near each other, looking for something in the grass. I thought this tolerance was odd, considering how
   crows normally treat raptors as a threat. Any interaction seemed to be over ownership of the food resource.    The crows moved off.
   The hawk foraged a bit more, then flew up into a tree.

06/03/2018 Later that day, in the afternoon, I was near 40 Acre Lake again, but on the winding sidewalk that goes down to the pier. I heard hawks calling among the trees, and then
one landed right above ME in one of the Live Oaks.(HAWK 1).  It flew from one tree, to another, then another; then flew off towards the playground. I found it again
--maybe. It could have been a different hawk.  It was on the grass just past one of the picnic tables. Through binoculars, I could see that the hawk was eating something.
When I tried to move a bit closer, the hawk flew into the trees to the East. I walked into the picnic area, and found a hawk again. This time it was down near the water
on a small hump...and eating again (or still).  It flew off, but I just waited. Another (or the same) hawk appeared and chased off a crow, then re-entered the trees.
And then another hawk appeared. And another. So I just stood still and watched as they moved around, and I took a few more pictures. (HAWK 2,3,4,5.)

   
                        HAWK 1                                        HAWK 2                                             HAWK 3                                            HAWK 4
According to people more knowledgable than I am, these are juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawks; possibly 2 or 3 juveniles and one adult. Once, while one of the hawks
was looking around, I thought things would get interesting when a squirrel moved along the same branch as the hawk.(HAWK AND SQUIRREL) As the picture shows, the hawk thought it
was interesting, too.  The squirrel turned around and moved behind the branch before encountering the hawk.
I followed the hawks until they seemed to gather in the shaded branches of another Live Oak tree. I couldn't find them all at the same time, though I could spot
one or two together. I left them to their day.
 
  
                       HAWK 5                                            HAWK SQUIRREL

07/08/2017    Russ Pitman park is a small park in Bellaire, Texas. It covers 4 acres. I had just walked in, and  I saw a Cooper's hawk about 20 feet away, on a branch about
8 feet above the ground. It flew past me, and landed on the small waterfall near the new "wetland" area. This was only about 20 yards away, so I stopped moving, and watched
the hawk as it moved on the waterfall. After a few minutes, it was joined by another hawk. and they took turns bathing in the water. After about 10 minutes, one of the hawks
flew towards me, and landed on a branch. Then it took off and flew right past me (about 10 feet from me!). Meanwhile, the other hawk remained in the water. 5 minutes later,
if also flew towards me, and landed on the same branch. I stood and watched it for about 20 minutes-waiting for it to take off. It finally did, and I could move along the trail.
It was wonderful to be so close to the hawks for 30 minutes.
The images below are photos that I took during this bath.

       

Not long after, I found two Cooper's hawks higher in a tree...along with 2 *more* hawks. So, I walked around the trails, to see how they've been improved and watched the
4 hawks from different angles. I also heard them calling to each other. I was able to enjoy the presence of the hawks for about about an hour and a half. I thought it was great.
The two images below are two more photos taken around this time. The image below right shows 3 of the hawks in a group. One of them had just flown down to the "pocket prairie" area. An intern at
the park told me that 2 of the immature Cooper's hawks had grown from a nest in the park: while 2 more immature hawks apparently came from somewhere else and settled in
the park.

      

The images below are framegrabs from the video clip that can be seen here. The video clip is about 5 minutes long and shows the Cooper's hawks bathing, and then
one flying out of the pool, the off a branch later. The last two events were recorded as high-speed video.

         

10/05/2016  While walking Piper today, I heard a squawk sound above and behind me. I thought it sounded like a hawk, so I turned around.I saw a hawk land on the grass in front of one of the apartment
buildings. It squatted against the grass with flattened spread wings, and was about 25 yards from me. I didn't want to scare it (especially since I had Piper on a leash with me), so I tried to take a couple
pictures with my cellphone without moving any closer. We walked to the end of the street, and then crossed and came back. When I was across the street from the hawk, I stopped and watched. I still
couldn't tell what it was up to. Someone else with a dog came down the opposite sidewalk and when they got close to the hawk, it flew straight up into a tree. After a briefbit of movement, it flew to another
tree. When it did, I could see something hanging from the hawk. It looked like it could be a squirrel's tail.
I continued back to my apartment, where I fed Piper.  Then I grabbed my camera and walked back to the tree where I'd last seen the hawk. (about 300 steps from my apartment)  I found the hawk!  I had to
focus through the leaves and branches to get pictures of the hawk as it ate. It was hard to focus during the photos and larger-frame video. Only a few of those photos were clear. Some of them
are shown directly below. This appears to be a juvenile Cooper's Hawk (accipiter cooperii).

   

I found that the smaller resolution (640 x 480)/higher frame-rate (120fps) video worked better, so I shot mostly in that configuration. I got some interesting video.  I've edited various clips together (including
a few from my cell phone) in the video right here. The video does show the deceased squirrel a few times, but is not as "graphic" as it could have been. I've included most of the high speed footage because I
think it's a great view of the hawk.  The images below are frame grabs from some of the clips.  While I was filming the hawk, I could hear a nearby squirrel calling. I think the sound is an "alarm" call.
As the hawk worked on the carcass, a squirrel began working its away among the branches. It was moving towards the hawk!  The hawk noticed the squirrel, but continued eating. Finally, the
squirrel made its way to the same large branch the hawk was standing on. I decided to try to film the squirrel, and while I was trying to focus on it, the hawk flew away. I couldn't tell which
direction the hawk flew off to, and so I lost it. I also couldn't tell if it had carried off the carcass. So that was the end of my observation.

   

Because of the clarity of the video, I could see the hawk swallowing a few small portions of meat. I tried to find some descriptionof the cutting mechanics of prey processing in Cooper's hawks,
but didn't find anything specific. However, I found these two articles:
1)"Predatory Functional Morphology in Raptors: Interdigital Variation in Talon Size Is Related to Prey Restraint and
Immobilisation Technique" by Denver W. Fowler, Elizabeth A. Freedman, John B. Scannella (link ); and
2) "In vivo bite and grip forces, morphology and prey-killing behavior of North American accipiters (Accipitridae) and falcons (Falconidae)" by Diego Sustaita,and Fritz Hertel. (link)
From these two articles I learned the following:
Birds of prey (raptors) have been classified into different groups: Accipitridae (hawks, kites and eagles); Falconidae (Falcons);Pandionidae (Osprey) and Strigiformes (Owls).  There are different 
features that help identify these groups. The studies focus on how the talons are different between the groups of raptors, and how these differences reflect the different ways the talons are used; and
the measured differences in forces generated by the beaks and talons of falcons and hawks.
Generally, falcons strike their prey in the air at high speed, and then further disable or kill it by using their beak to do major damage to spinal nerves.  Hawks, on the other hand, usually ambush from
closer cover and therefore hit their prey at lower velocity. Hawks then use their feet to immobilize or kill their prey. If the prey is small enough, it is killed by suffocation caused by the hawk squeezing
hard enough --with its feet(or a foot)--to prevent the lungs from working. If the prey is too large for this, then it is held tightly by the talons, and either suffocated by the bird pressing down on it or-if the
prey is immobilized enough-the hawk will start eating while the prey is still alive, and the resulting trauma causes death. Neither of these studies mentioned piercing internal organs with the talons.
These two studies seem to indicate that the configuration of the talons ofthe various types of raptors has a strong relationship to the way their prey is subdued. For example osprey and bald eagles 
both have diets with a high proportion of fish. Their talons (and they are in different groups) are nearly the same length on all their toes; and are heavily curved...wonderful for keeping a grip on fish 
snatched from the water.
Osprey have a further advantage (that eagles do not) in that they can rotate their 4th toe backwards, so that ospreys can hold prey with 2 talons on each side of the prey.  Compared to these two 
groups, owls have relatively short, less-curved talons. But the talons are of equal length on all toes; which are  proportionately shorter than the other raptors. Owls can also rotate their 4th toe to face
the rear. This, and the shorter toes, allow for greater leverage--which allows owls to kill their prey by crushing with their feet, possibly stabbing internal organs with the straighter talons, crushing key 
bones  or biting with their beak. Hawks have strong toes with long talons, but the talons on the 1st and 2nd toes are much longer than the third and 4th. The two pictures below show the talons of a 
stuffed hawk on display at the Nature Center in Brazos Bend State Park. I believe that speciman is a Red Tail Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), but it still shows the difference in talon length. The talons 
on toes 1 and 2 are much longer!

  
Their grip is also powerful, as mentioned above. Hawks will also hold secure prey by holding it down with the 2nd toes of both feet--using the other 6 toes to steady themselves against the surface they
are standing on. By comparison, falcons have smaller talons, and even lesser-developed toes, but they have stronger bites, and some even have features on their beak that they can use to sever spinal
cords, or do similar damage.After reading the articles, I think that when I first saw the Cooper's hawk, it had just caught the squirrel--and was holding it down until it stopped moving. That explained why
the hawk at risk on the grass for so long (long enough for me to go to the end of the street, and come back down the other side.) 

7/02/2016 and 7/04/2016 Since BBSP has been closed I thought I'd be visiting other places...but some issues came up which prevented such thing. When I finally got some free weekend time, I 
visited Russ Pitman Discovery Center a few times. I usually go there to watch the Anoles. Both Brown (or Cuban) Anoles (A. sagrei) and Green (or Carolina) Anoles live there. While I was there, I 
was told that Cooper's Hawks had nested on the property, and I might be able to see the young ones flying around.
And...I did. I enjoyed watching the hawks so much, I went back a few days later, to look for them (and for Anoles).  While the Cooper's Hawks were active, it was hard to watch them for very long, 
since they moved among the leaves and branches until  briefly showing in the air to get among other leaves and branches. But I did get some pictures.  I caught sight of one as it rested on a branch 
over the path. While I watched, it seemed to lie down so its breast was against the bark of the tree. I don't know if it was resting, or trying to cool. For other pictures, I had to try to shoot pictures 
through gaps in the leaves.

  
              Posing in the open                                  Lying down on the branch?                              Among the branches                                      Still among the branches
Young Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii) and Sharpshinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) are very similar. Staff at Russ Pitman told me these were Coooper's Hawks. According to my
copy of The Sibley Field Guide to Birds (1st edition), page 97)) Juvenile Cooper's Hawks have thin dark streaks on their breast while juvenile Sharpshinned Hawks have coarse brown
streaks...and many other attributes that can be recognized by experienced birders.  I am not one of those.
While I watched, one of the hawks flew down to stalk close to the ground. As I slowly and quietly tried to move to where I could see it, I noticed another hawk higher in a tree--watching
the hawk near the ground. I could only watch and wonder what would happen next.  But...nothing happened before other park workers came by and distracted the hawks.


              Under cover again.
When I returned on July 4th, the Cooper's Hawks were still busy, but hardly ever rested where I could get a good picture. One of them seemed to be harassing-or hunting-a Bluejay. The Bluejay was
not calling, but seemed to be hiding and fleeing.  As it jumped or made short flights to covered branches; the pursuing hawk would appear, following nearly the same course--plunging into the leaves and
climbing among them. I finally lost sight of the chase, so I didn't see what happened next.

March 09, 2014  I'd missed the previous weekend at the park because I moved to a new apartment. This was the first weekend in almost 2 months that I was able to relax (no more packing/unpacking/moving),
and BBSP gave me a couple of treats.  I was walking on the North side of the 40 Acre Lake Trail at about 8:45, when I noticed a pair of Red Shouldered Hawks in a tree over the trail. I noticed them just before 
they took off (this happens to me often). But, they only flew a few yards, and landed on the trail, near a pile of dark material that was in the center of the path. I moved slowly towards the pile, and the Hawks. One
took off, and flew past me on my left, and went West. The other one flew up into a tree near the trail, and stayed there. I got a little closer, when,  the Hawk flew back down *towards me* and landed on the trial 
near the pile. By then, I could see that it was a pile of water hyacinth. I took one more step, then watched the hawk through the camera. The hawked hopped into the grass, where it stared intently at something 
there. I started shooting high-speed video. The hawk seemed to be grabbing at something with its talon. Finally, it grabbed, then took off and landed in a tree directly above the trail. There, it started eating 
whatever it had caught. I shot through the camera, hoping to be able to identify the prey. The hawk finally took off and flew West at about 8:54, going the same way that the other hawk had. Some of the attached
images are screengrabs from the video. Review of the video revealed that the hawk had pulled a live crawfish from the grass!
The pictures below are all screengrabs from the video clips I shot. Since I was using full digital zoom for the Eagle, the still images are very "fuzzy". But the video isn't bad.  I've edited the clips into a single file.
The edited video is here:   mp4 format 

     

I continued walking on the North side of the 40 Acre Lake trail, heading East, towards the Observation Tower. At about 8:57am (just a few minutes after the hawk had flown away), I noticed a large bird on 
top of a broken tree near the Observation Tower.  The tree was on the East side of the Trail, South of the tower. I was about 200 yards away from the bird in the tree. When I looked through my binoculars,
I could see that it was a Bald Eagle! I quickly changed the settings on my camera, and used full zoom to look closer at the Eagle. I started shooting video. The Eagle was eating...something, but there was 
no way I could tell what it was. I stopped filming, and walked about 20 steps down the trail, hoping that I'd get be able to eventually get closer. When I filmed again, the Eagle had stopped eating, but I shot
some video anyway--along with a zoom shot to give some sense of how far away I was.

   

I took a few more steps, and the Eagle took off--still over 100 yards away. However, it looked like it flew further East on the Spillway Trail, so I hurried over to the Observation 
Tower. When I got there, I could see that the Eagle had landed in a tree about 100 yards East of the tower, right near the trail.
So I quietly climbed to the top of the tower, and watched the Eagle. It was just below the top of the tree, so my view of it was partially obscured by branches, but I took some 
pictures and video clips anyway. During time that I watched, crows (or maybe the same crow) made some half-hearted attempts to harass the eagle-but it was only one crow at
a time.  At about 9:30, the Eagle took off, and I tried, but failed, to get good shots of it as it flew. The Eagle flew West into the misty air until it flew out of sight.

As I watched, a couple park visitors came up behind me on bikes. I slowly motioned for them first to stop; and then for them to come towards me slowly. But, they didn't have to. They could also see the
Hawk with its prize. Finally, the Hawk flew off. I missed catching that moment as the camera wrote my previous clip to memory. It didn't go far, but I had to get back for the hike. So, I left it to breakfast.  
Still...I did get a little video of it wrestling with its prey. In the video, it appears that the prey is a Purple Gallinule (it appears to have a greenish tint across the back). The video also shows a very odd 
position for the Gallinule's feet--and part of the reason the Hawk had such difficulty.
So, once again, my signing up for the hike has led to this mixed blessing. I say this because even though I had to leave the Hawk to cover the hike I'd signed up for--the *only* reason I saw it was because
I was returning to lead the hike. Pretty wonderful sight! I hope you enjoy the video clip. Below are two images. One is a resized photo, the other is a frame from one of the video clips. The clips are edited
and uploaded. Sound isn't captured while filming in high speed. The video clip is here (12 mb).

------------------------------
                HAWK WITH PURPLE GALLINULE           HAWK WITH PURPLE GALLINULE IMAGE 2

---------------------------------
                                             HARRIER BELOW                                                                                 HARRIER ABOVE
A little later that same day (that's Feb. 12) I was able to see a Red-Shouldered Hawk eating a frog. The images below are frames from video that I shot of this hawk eating. I've made three shorter clips
from this video. The first image below (HAWK PICNIC) is from clip one (wmv 2433kb).
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                          HAWK PICNIC                                               FROG BETWEEN MY TOES                                             DINING UPSTAIRS                                                          ABOUT TO FLY
The next image (FROG BETWEEN) is from clip two (wmv 2785kb). The last two images above (DINING UPSTAIRS, and ABOUT TO FLY) are from
clip three (wmv 7059kb). I've also been able to see other Red-Shouldered Hawks hunting.  And finally, I was able to see an Osprey hunting,
and even got a far view of a successful dive and capture. The image below left (HAWK SENTINAL) is a picture of a Red Shouldered Hawk that I photographed on February 19.  
Next  (HAWK FLYING) is a picture taken as it flew off.  These were taken right next to the Observation Tower.
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                            HAWK SENTINEL                                                                  HAWK FLYING

Added 03/07/06:  On Feb. 26, I was able to watch an Osprey hunting over 40 Acre Lake. It usually didn't get very close, but the 25x optical zoom on the camcorder brings it close 
enough to see.  The image below (OSPREY PASSING) is a frame from this short video clip (wmv 5676kb) of the Osprey. This new digital camcorder captures "interleaved" video
frames, which makes taking single frames from the video very difficult.
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                        OSPREY PASSING BY                                                RED SHOULDERED HAWK                                                IT SEES ME
We were able to watch the Osprey for a while, and it would do the "hover" maneuver shown in the clip from time to time. The Osprey appears to be watching
intently while hovering. We did see the Osprey dive, but it was on the other side of the island. It came up with a fish, and ate it on a treetop.
On March 5th, I didn't get to see the Eagle (OK, maybe not "the" Eagle, but perhaps one of the Eagles), but I saw a number of Red-Shouldered Hawks before I went inside to present a 
program. I got a few good photos of one of them. The pictures above (RED SHOULDERED, and IT SEES ME) are cropped from the best one.
I'm not a "birder", that is, a person with a strong interest in birds. I believe I've stated that here before. But, like many people, I'm awed by the
beauty, majesty and power of the raptors. Where; ANYWHERE; can one go to see so many types of wild raptors actively hunting in their natural home?
It's been terrific!

January 23, 2005  Today's RICKUBISCAM shows a Red-Shouldered Hawk in flight. An event like this is difficult to catch on film, so the image is blurry. I hope that you will find the pictures
below a bit more satisfying. I was driving down the "Mile Stretch" at Brazos Bend State park, when my attention was captured--for some reason--by the top of a dead tree. I saw this (see
WHAT'S UP THE TREE?, below).  As I drove by, I saw that it was a hawk! I drove a bit further, then turned around, and drove past the tree again. The hawk remained in place, so I turned
around again, and slowly moved across from the tree. Much to my pleasant surprise, the hawk didn't move, and I shot more pictures.  Look how the top plumage matches the bark pattern.
I almost missed this!  These were shot with an Olympus C-750 (10x optical zoom).
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               WHAT'S UP THE TREE?                                                        LOOKING BACK                                                   LOOKING BACK-CLOSE               

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                        VIGILANT BEAUTY                                                 VIGILANT--CLOSE
Although I often encounter these hawks in the park, they are usually too far away for me to see (or catch with a camera). I've mentioned before that I am not a "birder". That is, I don't spend a lot
of time watching and identifying birds. But, there is something about the sight of a bird of prey (hawk, eagle, owl, kestrel, even a shrike) that stops me dead in my tracks. It was an fantastic treat
to be just below this bird as it surveyed the area with those piercing black eyes.  After tolerating my presence for about 10 minutes or so, the hawk took off, and the RICKUBISCAM picture 
resulted from my attempt to catch it in flight. What a magnificent sight! But, I always say that, don't I? 

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