Slideshow: 40 Acre Lake and Spillway Trails

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I had been wanting to walk the Spillway Trail at Brazos Bend State Park for sometime so on a cloudy Thursday (9-09-2010) I headed out to the park. The trial  runs between 40 Acre Lake and Elm Lake and I decided to start out on the west end of 40 Acre Lake trail, bypassing Hoots Hollow Trail, to the north part of 40 Acre Lake and on to Spillway trail. There are usually a lot of wading birds at 40 Acre Lake and I saw the usual Yellow Crowned Night Herons, Coots, and an usually large number fo alligators. I guess the absence of park visitors contributed to that.

At the Observation Tower and Spillway I found a Tricolored Heron also known as the Louisiana Heron wading and hunting through the duckweed.

Further along the trail, I was concerned about the dense heavy shade and whether I would see much on the way. Fortunately, Pilant Lake bounds one side of the trail and I found a Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, and the ever present Whistling Ducks.

On the way back to 40 Acre Lake, I stopped to take a few shots of the Golden Silk Orb Weaver spiders that seemed to span just about every open span of tree branch and then headed down the eastern part of 40 Acre Lake trail back to my car.

On the eastern side of 40 Acre Lake, the Lotus flowers were well lit and formed nice reflections of the water and I was rewarded with my first sighting of a Kingfisher who was not happy I was around.

Because it was so quiet at the park that Thursday, I decided to drive through and see what the rest of it looked liked without the usual throngs of summer picnickers and campers. As I neared the Visitor Center, I came across a small herd of deer that didn’t seem to mind me too much as the ate in a freshly mown clearing.

On this walk, the main thing I learned was a good sense of the compass points of the park. I found myself on the wrong side of 40 Acre in the afternoon. I was on the eastern side as the sun started to lower in the west causing me to have to really wrestle with exposure. Now I always pull out a park map and plan my walks based on the time of day and where the light will be falling across the lakes and trails.

I also got a lot more practice with manual focus using the Canon EF 1.4x II Extender with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM and the 5DMII. It is more difficult when hand held and I still am not comfortable trying pan shots – which caused me to miss out on or to not try capturing a number of in flight bird shots.

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Gallery: 40 Acre Lake and Spillway Trails

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