In the category of…
‘You Can’t Make This Stuff Up’.
Pile Up, Alligators
Category Archives: A Watering Hole
A Few Locals, Spoonbill And Alligator
As I was hiding from yet another heat wave I hit the work pile.
It’s an incredible privilege to do this full time. It also means I need to be diligent about developing / finishing the photographs.
I am way behind and some may never see the light of day.
This is catch up from at least 2 months ago.
Oh, they didn’t get eaten.
People Watching, Alligator
Sometimes we can sit at a restaurant and while eating have good ‘people watching’. Not an very unusual comment made by anyone.
I believe this is the marsh equivalent, ‘good people watching’.
Like An Old Movie, Alligator
I had been working on a series of black and white images for a project and when complete made one more. The images were all completed based on a template I created. This insured everything was uniform.
The template was applied to the Alligator photograph here. After a few tweaks I decided I like it.
Reminds me of the old 1950’s jungle movies that were popular back then.
At The Trunk, Alligator
When out on a dike, and I see some flow to the water, moving quietly to a trunk can bring some great photo ops.
Any flow in a marsh means somewhere a trunk (water gate) is open letting water move between different areas. Fish move with the open streams too. Fish eaters follow fish.
This particular trunk is on a bend in a dike road. With luck nothing sees you when you (try) sneaking in. This was filled with Alligators, and yes one with his head up looking at me.
Not sneaky enough I guess.
When I got closer another one hidden on the bank slipped in the water and swam away from me. He may be 2 or 3 times the size of me but they still don’t like people.
I’m OK with that.
It’s A Parade, Wood Storks (And Friends)
I think the marshes were at their lowest point when I shot these. The food, and the predators, were in close quarters.
Moving between watering holes was just like a parade.
Most of the time there is a hierarchy, size wins. Speed became more important.
The Storks were still in charge, hard to compete with those long legs.
The Spoonbill move pretty quick too, and the Storks don’t intimidate them.
Of course there’s always one that makes their own rules.
Why not fly in? Good question. Wading birds almost always walk around if it’s not a long distance.
Look Out, Crash Landing, Spoonbill
A typical Spoonbill landing, pick a spot and take it. Pretty much ‘Look Out Below’.
When a big bird is dropping on top of them a hole opens up quickly.
None seem to get upset about it. Just the way things are done.
Out And About, A Marsh
Sometimes I get groups of photographs shot as we walk that grouped together tell a nice story, or paint a picture, of the area we are in. These fall under that category.
While traipsing around a few dikes I just randomly captured some scenes around me.
The images above are common scenes lately, low water and critters crowded together. Spoonbills always look a little too close, but I’ve never seen one get caught.
The edge of this marsh was like a NYC beach. Bodies everywhere. They moved back and forth from the thick grasses to the water. Getting a count was impossible.
In more than one spot the Alligators were lined up like a parade.
The pooling due to lowering water levels meant small fish were trapped together. These Spoonbills knew it and and charged all around (and in between) Alligators getting to them.
This day not many Herons or Egrets were around the bigger ponds.
Even a slow day out here is an adventure, I’ll take Spoonbills and Alligators any time.