A foggy morning story with Ellen, an Alligator, and me. I do love a good gator tail.
Ellen was walking down the old Tram trail, one paved with asphalt years ago. Easy walking and runs between swamp wetlands on the left, the big rookery pond on the right side. And always critters in both.
I found out later she had seen this guy hidden in the grass and water as she went by. I was following a distance behind photographing Egrets.
As I turned to catch up…
this guy walked out on my left and stopped as he saw me there. Now, a small youngster would do a quick turn and jump back where they came from. As they get older they may not. He did not.
What he did was look over, check me out, and pick up speed. Speed being a relative thing. He figured he was already out in the open, might as well go into the big swamp as planned.
A few more steps and he was gone, swimming off to where ever they swim to.
As this guy walked by I whistled for Ellen, she turned and got a quick shot of my new friend and I. Not a huge gator, between 4 – 5 feet long.
Another case of ‘never know what you might find’.
Early at the big swamp, Magnolia Plantation, Charleston.
What a surprise. Looks like it was waving hello to you in that first shot. I made two friends while we were exploring the Gainesville birding scene. I was walking Sweetwater and two smaller ones than your specimen popped out of the weeds in front of me, made it to the middle of the path and just lowered and took a snooze. – I decided to take another route ha.
They tend to do that 😂. This was one of the midsized ones here. This spot goes from small to dinosaur. After a bit you tend to expect this to happen.