Brazos Bend State Park, Houston Zoo, 1-8-2016

Scott Meyer and I ventured to Brazos Bend State Park on January 8 2016. While the cloudy day reduced shadows it made for camera setting challenges all day. Record levels of invasive plants are choking the lakes and threaten to reduce some species significantly this summer. Duck habitat is a fraction of what it was 3 years ago. Multiple sightings of Common Yellowthroats, Goldfinches, Yellow-rumps, Phoebes, and Black-crowned Night Herons. Small birds were numerous but usually too far away for quality photos. Our persistence won out over sparce photo ops early in the morning and we found action at the spillway around 10AM. Heavy rains had a lot of water moving under the bridge between 40 Acre and Elm Lakes, so Herons and Egrets were fishing there. With time left over we drove to the Houston Zoo where we had a good time and got decent results even though we were often shooting through glass and wire screens.