This was a pretty confident bird.
There were at least 10 Alligator heads making an obstacle course for the Skimmer.
Black Skimmer, American Alligator.
Skimming Between The Big Heads
Tag Archives: Alligator
Alligator, The Old Film Color
An early first shot of the day. I went with the first opportunity I had. The heat was bad already.
The photographed was finished with a Kodachrome Elite 100 film filter. Not as high color contrast as a Fuji Film but the brown colors on the water (from the trees on the bank) came out nice.
Above you will find a Dragonfly on the top right.
American Alligator, Charleston, South Carolina.
Bump In The Duck Weed
Could be most anything.
American Alligator.
American Alligator, Surfaced In The Duck Weed
As usual he just ’emerged’, came up, with no fanfare.
The way to tell he wasn’t there long is the divot of water in the duck weed where he surfaced. No noise, bubbles, or any real motion.
Alligators can change their center of gravity. This controls if, or how, they float. One position (internal) and they gentle sink straight down, another and they rise up.
Here the Alligator was about 2 meters from the waters edge. Nothing can sneak up on them here. Even a four foot Alligator must be a little careful.
Stand Right Here, She Said
Met a friend while out in a swamp. She pointed almost straight up into a large pine.
“Two Whistling Ducks”, up there.
“Stand right here you can see them”.
I did.
I took a quick shot, just to see them really. Then backed up, away from the swamp water.
I looked down at my feet.
Well, good thing we didn’t use that log for a better angle.
Happens to all of us sooner or later, LOL.
Couldn’t Wait For Us To Leave, Alligator
We were losing light, it was time to go, and he was sliding along behind.
He wanted to get out of the water and sleep on the trail. However we were still there.
Below you can see the duck weed parted behind where he had just swam through.
A little closer to us and the surface weeds are piled up in front of his nose. He plowed them like snow.
He did wait until we turned and moved off out of sight. I can guarantee as soon as we were gone, he was up and out stretched across the dry trail.
Funny critters.
Gator Stuck In The Mud (2)
The other day I published an Alligator that was crawling through thick, really thick, mud. When he spotted me he stopped, I moved on. (click here to view first photographs).
The following shots were after I walked passed a second time.
This is hundreds of pounds dragging himself back towards a small stream of tidal water. He was deep in the muck.
He ultimately did reach the few inches of water, but it did make his work easier.
A short rest and he moved off to where he had started.
You never know what you will see out there.
Gator In The Mud (1)
So, this was a sneaky local. He knew exactly what he was doing, and why. They may have small little brains, but they do work for what they need.
When I first walked past the mud flats in the salt marsh nobody was home. I know because I always look, even when the tide is way out.
No more than 15 minutes later here he is heading for the dike, where we are of course. I assume the goal was to let me pass and then climb the dike behind me. He would just go down the other side into clean deeper marsh waters and I would never know, except for his mud trail… Alligator brain only thinks so far.
I don’t know where he was hiding the first time I walked by but here he is, deep in the muck. And working hard in it too.
You can see he was crawling through the small stream of water seeping out from the dike. The easiest path I guess. A good thing because he was struggling, almost stuck. This was a normal size male, so he weighted in around 550 Lbs. The tide would come and help him later if he did get bogged down.
We saw each other and he stopped and lay there, doing nothing. I headed back to where I was going.