After walking around the dikes for a while my Fear Of Missing Out fades somewhat and I can swap cameras to use a shorter lens.

My OM System cameras are highly customizable (and easy) so my backup OM-1 has a new setting I added for B&W. Basically single shot and high contrasts. Just for fun, something different.

Below are several random photographs taken while walking a dike.

– The first shot below shows the edge of a dike with the usual tall grass. Smaller trees can grow on the sides of a dike. The marsh water is filled with Alligators, none of those are logs. I think there was around 20, all mid to large size. Smaller gators avoid this area. A single Great Egret was mixed in the gators.

– Next is another section of dike however here I found only a single Alligator. Adult Wood Storks were feeding, their long bills allow them to reach down into the mud below.

– All along the main dikes are a series of wooden trunks, a water gate,  controlling the flow and depth of the marshes. The same systems have been in use here since the late 1700’s.

– Below shows some of the many hummocks, small reed/grass islands throughout the marshes. Every animal imaginable lives there at some point.  Again you can see a large number of Alligators in the water. Also a Wood Stork on the left and Great Egret on the right.

– Last is a look down one of the cuts in a salt marsh. Where these photographs were taken large salt marshes are lined with dikes also. The St. Helena Sound in the Atlantic Ocean is about 15 miles down this cut. We are named the Lowcountry because the whole area is just about at sea level. Twice a day this cut is high, and also a mud stream. Depends on how you hit it.

This is only one small area in the ACE Basin, the entire area is huge. These photos may give you an idea of how amazing this ecosystem is. Now we just need to keep the greedy ones at bay.