A slow dark day always gets better when we spot the alligators on this trail. Young ones feel safe here (under 3 feet).
The drainage trenches were cleared this year giving us about 10 feet (3 meters) of open space. Enough that most gators stay around and just watched the silly humans pass by.
Babies are common here, above are 3 small ones. The size difference says they were from different hatchings. You can find them by listening for soft continuous chirping.
Early on I switched to a wider lens when I saw how many were crowding around.
Some of the wider shots from the Tamron 18-400 really needed more light than was available. It’s a trade off given the huge focal lengths available.
These photographs were from the start of a trail and just picked in order from the file, which is why I added the (1) to the title. I’m sure there are others to be published as I catch up.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Nice gators! I miss seeing them since I left Louisiana.
LOL. Try explaining that to someone up north 🙂
Hahaha, true. Well I didn’t actually PET them like you would a stray dog, but there were some roads outside of New Orleans where you could always see them sunning themselves between the swamp and the road 🙂