8/20/2023 at BBSP, a 4-foot long gator crossed Spillway Trail into the plants on the North side. A minute later there was commotion and the small gator hurried back across the trail. When I carefully approached where the small gator had fled, I found a mom gator down in the water with new baby gators. She was about 100 yards East from 2 hatched nest mounds. Water is evaporating & every week the levels are dropping. But there's still some activity there. #Alligator #Archosaur #Wildlife

Fiorenza Park North, 06/07/2023. I spent a few hours watching a Bald Eagle on the popular perch atop a high-tension line tower. Interesting wing position! I've seen other birds(Herons) do this, probably to parasites to sun & for visual examination of underwings. Eagles have been at this park through June and into July, so they seem to be staying for summer. More pics: https://www.rickubis.com/rick/mycam.html (will update if address changes) #Baldeagle #Archosaur #UrbanWildlife #Birds #Raptors

06/11/2023 at Brazos Bend State Park, I saw 2 alligator nests on the Spillway Trail. The first was about 50 steps from the East end of the Spillway bridge; and two alligators were near it! The 2nd nest was about 50 yards further East, near bird box #18. It also had an alligator directly in front of it. Water levels near Pilant Lake look ok now, but I hope the water is still there by the end of August--when the eggs usually hatch. #WorldCrocodileDay #Alligator #Archosaur #crocodilian #reptiles

04/15/2023 I was at Fiorenza Park North at 9:30am. Bald Eagle was perched on a favored spot on the high-tension tower at the South edge of the park. The Eagle seemed to be watching the retainment pond, so I waited to see if it would hunt. It TOOK OFF and hunted! The event took a few seconds. 3 images are frames from this video: http://www.rickubis.com/rick/baldeagle04152023.mp4 More eagle stuff on page: https://www.rickubis.com/rick/brazbird2b.html #BaldEagle #Archosaur #Birds #Birdphotography #Urbanwildlife #Raptor

04/09/2023 Brazos Bend State Park, Pilant Lake. I heard alligators bellowing but I couldn't find them.
When the distant bellowing started again the gators near me started to bellow. Maybe 2 males and at least 2 females. The males were submerged deeper than usual, so there was limited "water-dancing" over them making visual I.D. difficult. Wonderful way to spend 20 minutes! The video is at this link: http://www.rickubis.com/rick/gatorbellow04092023.mp4 #alligator #archosaur #wildlife #animalbehavior #crocodilian

Hello, I don't yet have much energy to post original content here, but I'll make an #Introduction to help me build toward that.

My research asks how animals move (mainly on land, mainly #Tetrapod #Vertebrate ones, with appendages) AND how locomotion has evolved across major transitions of #Evolution . So I am an evolutionary biomechanist.

I've studied, for example:
#Biomechanics #Simulation #Muscle #Paleo #Dinosaurs #DAWNDINOS #Crocodiles #Elephants #Archosaur #Giraffe #Rhino #Pangolin