Area parks offer spectacular winter fauna
Christmas week is a time to enjoy gatherings of family and friends, and show them the incomparable gifts in our area nature preserves.
Here are recommended preserves for bird-watching and appreciating nature:
Brazos Bend State Park
Brazos Bend is a wilderness park along the Brazos River with scores of year-round and winter migratory birds. The park spreads across 5,000 acres of native forests, marshlands, lakes and coastal prairie. Picnic grounds under moss-covered oaks are a godsend after hiking trails that meander 37 miles through the park. Wintertime songbirds dangle like Christmas ornaments from trees, bushes and grass stems. Watch resident birds like Carolina chickadees and red-bellied woodpeckers. Keep your eyes peeled for winter migrants such as yellow-rumped warblers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Migratory wild ducks are eye candy. Enjoy the elegance of gadwalls, American wigeons, mallards, northern pintails and buffleheads floating placidly on the lakes. Although migratory grassland birds like LeConte’s sparrows, vesper sparrows and savannah sparrows aren’t exactly eye candy, they’re fun to watch as they pop up on grass stems. Also, watch but don’t agitate alligators lurking around lakes.
21901 FM 762 in Needville; tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/brazos-bend
Willow Waterhole Park
Willow Waterhole in southwest Houston is a 300-acre haven for winter songbirds such as migratory blue-headed vireos, yellow-rumped warblers and hermit thrushes. Don’t miss handsome migratory ducks like buffleheads and green-winged teal that claim the park’s ponds for a winter home. Songbirds scurry through sycamores, pines and oaks that line the ponds. Native prairie vegetation is winter quarters for LeConte’s sparrows with yellowish-gold heads gleaming under the sun and for field sparrows showing off their vivid pink beaks. Watch for a Cooper’s hawk, a winter migrant swooping around the trees to catch a songbird for lunch.
5300 Dryad; willowwaterhole.org
Mercer Arboretum & Botanic Gardens
This arboretum in Humble is a nationally renowned flower garden amid a 250-acre forested nature preserve along Cypress Creek. Brick walkways meander among colorful plants like camellias and pansies; forested trails lead through pine, oak and cypress trees; and benches line tree-shaded lily ponds. Migratory songbirds such as brown thrashers and whitethroated sparrows inhabit the winter woods, while mammals like swamp rabbits and deer amble deftly through the forest.
22306 Aldine Westfield Road; hcp1.net/MercerArboretum
More wildlife preserves for winter bird-watching
Katy Prairie Conservancy’s Matt Cook Wildlife Viewing Platform:
15299 Warren Ranch Road, Hockley, adjacent to 140-acre Warren Lake. Open daily, 7 a.m.-dusk, free admission and ADA accessible. See rafts of ducks, grassland sparrows and usually bald eagles. coastalprairieconservancy.org
Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge:
FM1985 in Chambers County. Covers 37,000 acres of coastal prairie and marsh. Open 24 hours daily, free admission. See ducks, geese, songbirds and alligators. fws.gov/refuge/anahua
Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge:
Near Angleton. Covers 45,00 acres of marshes, prairies and wood lots. Open daily sunrise to sunset, free admission. See ducks, geese, songbirds and hawks. fws.gov/refuge/brazoria
Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge: FM 3013, 6.5 miles northeast of Eagle Lake. Covers 10,541 acres of rolling prairie. Open daily, sunrise to sunset, free admission. See geese, grassland sparrows, songbirds and sandhill cranes. fws.gov/refuge/attwater-prairie-chicken.