Appears like they always need to know what is going on.
I was minding my own business photographing a landscape. Swam over to check me out.
When they do this there’s no intent other than to float around and watch. Once you figure out what they are actually doing it’s pretty funny.
While moving to catch up with a few Spoonbills I stumbled on this Little Blue.
While not the best day for photography the colors were on display in a few of the shots.
Most times the different shades, especially the magenta neck feathers, all look to be a dark slate blue.
The third article of a series, Tired Mom.
The image above shows the smaller members of the ‘Alligator Clan’. The larger young in article 2 (click here to view) were on the other side of the water, in those reeds. If you view this image full size you can spot them in the taller grass in the background.
Based on their size I would guess about 1 year old.
Above is Mom resting on the far side of this small stream.
The last image here is of a few smaller ones that were closest to me. If you have read the other 2 previous articles you can see why the exact count of her young was never determined. Too many, too active.
This is a continuation of the ‘Tired Mom’ series.
I had written the young Alligator were everywhere, this is just one spot along the water line. Heads, legs, tails, all over.
Mom was watching, but not much more.
Hard to believe but there may have been twice as many between this group and me. They will published in the next set. Pretty amazing.
I’ve seen Alligators with their young, but not like this.
All I can say is…poor Mom. There were kids everywhere.
She must be very protective. We were just watched, very closely, but no problems. However she has kept a large number safe.
Above is a one year old hanging around near Mom.
This will be a multi article series. There were too many different places and types of her young to be in one post.
Recently the WordPress servers have been slow with images, and using galleries for groups of images display poorly on many sites I have seen. That said, the pages will be smaller until the issues are resolved.
I’m not sure who did what, but one of them was unhappy.
It didn’t last long, they didn’t go far.
Spoonbill are pretty lay back birds most of the time.
Feedings like this are a photographers dream. Almost every species that is out in these marshes all together in a single gathering.
However it’s very easy to ruin these shots. With this many subjects I can spin in circles for a minute or two trying to get everything at the same time.
Been there, done that.
Image previously published on other sites.
Some days are better than others…this was a good one.
ACE Basin, South Carolina. Best viewed large.
