The Pecan Grove was empty, and the lake was quiet when I arrived this morning. At first, the wetland did not have many activities as if breakfast was over. Even, three Chinese Domestic Geese were resting on the lawn at the side of Swiss Sky Ride. The mother goose was putting her head between her feathers sleeping, but the father and their offspring were alert.
I was glad to see Arielle! She was opening the facilities for today’s activities. Usually divers come in early to prepare for their dive. She let me in the Landing House and showed me some photos on exhibit that were taken under water by a scuba diver who used to work here. It must be a different world to see the lake 20 or 30 feet below the surface than seen from the water surface. I thought that the photographer/scuba diver knew the value and beauty of this lake as a whole.
After I came out from the Landing House, I saw a Red-Shouldered Hawk on the cable of the Swiss Sky Ride. It was looking around with its sharp eyes. Then, the bird flew toward the wetland. When I got near the boardwalk entrance I saw the hawk carried a whitish long shaped thing with its legs. From that shape, I thought that it was a lizard. As I slowly approached I saw the bird on a rusted iron beam was holding the prey with its strong feet, and started eating it. I thought that it was the young Red-Shouldered Hawk; the bird was learning to hunt.
Then, I saw a Great Blue Heron hunting to the right of an enclosure near the entrance to the boardwalk. Because of the tall grass, I could not see what it was, but could see the bird was stretching its neck and its beaks toward some prey and following it slowly. The bird almost got it. Regrettably, the targeted thing escaped. The Great Blue Heron brought up its neck, composed its posture, and flew into the water near the feeding area for hunting.
I heard another Red-Shouldered Hawk from the other side of the woods, near the territory a Great Egret had kept all last summer. On the rusted iron beam, the Red-Shouldered Hawk ate its catch quickly, and responded to the other hawks call. They responded to each other a couple times when the young bird flew up toward the voice. On the way to the other side of the woods, the bird flew low on the feeding area that scared a couple of Green Herons. They flapped their wings and flew up from the feeding area with strong scared voices, and the Red-Shouldered Hawk made a quick upward flight and disappeared into the woods.
When I went thought the boardwalk entrance to see the young Red-Shouldered Hawk, I saw the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron on the rail and the bird had a problem in its throat. The bird was doing the motions of “opening and closing its beak very wide ” many times as if the bird was choking. I sensed at once that the bird had swallowed a big crayfish, and it had not gone down its throat. For a few minutes, the bird kept doing the same motions then flew down to the edge of a dead floating tree trunk. I thought that the bird needed to drink water, but the bird finally discharged something that plugged its throat, and started hunting more crayfish.
Last summer, the Yellow-Crowned-Night Herons brought the crayfish to land, tried to separate the big claws from the crayfish, not caring to eat the claws. I used to see pairs of red claws left on the boardwalk often. However, this Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was different; the bird was determined to eat the whole crayfish at once. I could see the strong power from that beautiful young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron.
I saw the Great Blue Heron caught a crayfish in a near feeding place deeper in the water. When I was watching the Great Blue Heron, I heard voices of the Red-Shouldered Hawks go toward the Old Main Building. Later, I heard voices toward the hill that indicated they were circling the area on the hill behind the Texas Rivers Center. The young Red-Shouldered Hawk was expanding its active areas.
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