Buzzing all around and over them at full speed.
It would take a lot of luck to grab one going by.
They never even tried.
If you look close you can see multiple others heads floating in the background.
Black Skimmers and Alligators.
As wide an image as I shoot. About 18mm. Anything more I would have distortions. A single Alligator can be found in the water. Egrets and a Heron on the dead tree. All small at this width. But they are just supporting players in the overall big marsh.
A peaceful scene of the locals in the morning.
Not sure what he was doing. Look close and you will see he is not swimming, instead walking in the shallows.
Stirring the bottom maybe. An easy way to see what might be there.
After a few hours of almost non stop wildlife (it was a good day) my arms, back, and just about everything was telling me to take a break.
As usual with these shots, best viewed large.
I had a backup camera/lens in the car, I grabbed it and took a walk.
Even now I still have the FOMO, fear of missing out, here it’s very real too. In this area you can turn around and find another amazing shot.
Above, taken from a dike dirt road. Bigger dikes can have small dirt roads. Everything is connected and this is a great way to move around inside these wildlife areas.
There is another marsh on the other side of the tall grass, before the far tree line. The top of the grass seen here is in fact a dike. You can walk these dikes for long distances. However, that Alligator has friends sleeping up there in the sun. The use it like a highway between the marshes… just like we do. And yes, we usually bump into each other there.
Next is from the same marsh, a little further on.
As expected another one of the ‘locals’ was swimming around. This time headed in my direction, but for no particular reason.
A surprise was the group White Pelicans. They should be up in the mountains and plains of the northern US, and of course Canada. Technically they should never be in the Lowcountry, but we have plenty all winter.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
(Added a time frame to the title. If I can remember to continue it might help organize the ‘Marsh Scene’ topic. This site is now over 27,000 photographs.)
If you are the apex predator you just hide like this out of habit.
Why would you spend any time on it ?
The last week or so I have been watching the locals (Alligators) and some of their odd behavior.
First, it’s May. Usually the height of gator friskiness. A male Alligator is not subtle, no soft music and flowers. In general they are not deep thinkers. Start a fight, dive under water, see what happens.
However look at the header photo, or the first image below. I think he’s whispering sweet nothings !
These photos were taken is a smaller marsh retaining pond. There were probably a dozen males and females right there. Not a single argument, no deep growling warnings.
Instead we had synchronized swimming.
The pair above even looked pretty comfortable with each other.
Note; there’s still nothing cuddly about them.
The colors, and of course his head, struck me that it could be an interesting shot.
The last few days out these guys were everywhere. It’s May, an Alligators favorite month.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
