The rains have ended. The weather is bracing. On prairies and grasslands, green gives way to gold. Winter is coming to West Texas, and nature herself seems to quiet and still.

But even as arid months begin, a wave of commanding predators arrives in our region. They are the birds of prey. If you thrill to the sight of a hawk, eagle or falcon above the West Texas landscape, winter is your time.

Kelly Bryan is an ornithologist, and former Davis Mountains State Park superintendent.

“We have a pretty decent contingent of breeding raptors in West Texas,” Bryan said, “but it's always enhanced every year by hawks and falcons from the north migrating to the Trans-Pecos region of Texas ...