Gators Galore along Loop Road

If you are in Big Cypress, you will see gators, and if you drive along the Loop Road Scenic Drive, odds are, you will see LOTS of gators, if you know where to look!

This seems to be truly an environment that alligators love – I like to call it hidden in plain sight.  As we were driving along this road, a car stopped and the driver asked if we had any luck seeing any gators, clearly implying they hadn’t.  I said yes, but said you really need to look for them, explaining the areas of water at each culvert of the road.  I’m not certain if they wanted to go through that much trouble (his reaction seemed less than enthusiastic about actually having to look for the gators), so who knows how “lucky” they were at seeing any.  As you can see from this guy, he just sort of seems to be hanging out among the swampy growth floating on the surface of the water in some areas.

So, then, I thought it might be fun to give you an idea of what I was trying to explain to that driver.  I’m calling this “Find the Gator”.  I’ve taken a close-up shot of the gator and then an image of the complete environment in which we saw him (for some reason, gators are always male to me!).  Do you see him in the larger image?  Hint: He’s on the left side of the image.

Let’s try another one – This one might be a bit tougher.  The image at the bottom is the closer image of him. Look closely along the brush along the shoreline in the larger scene.

Ok, one more.  You can find this guy by looking for the tree he’s right up against.  It’s amazing how they are so well hidden, but in the open!  It suits their hunting style very well.  And, to be sure, Jeff and I were both very careful as we exited the Jeep, always looking down to make sure a gator wasn’t lurking just off the road in the brush.

Even gators were somebody’s baby once!!  This is the first time I’ve seen a baby gator off on his own.  I looked very carefully to try to spot Mom, but I couldn’t.  I purposely took a wider angle on this shot so you could get an idea of how little he was!  I’m guessing he was maybe a foot long from his head to the tip of his tail.

Can you see this guy under the water?  He was at the surface, but when Jeff closed the Jeep door rather loudly, he seemed to semi-startle, turned and then dove for the deep, or as deep as this area got!  I did manage to catch this image of him before he totally disappeared – about 10 seconds later!  Jeff and I were wondering what the substance was floating on the top of the water…..and then we decided we really didn’t want to know!

The rangers at the Visitors Center say that gators generally eat once per week.  The gator in the previous image clearly wasn’t hungry, as he dove to hide from us when we made a noise.  We may have encountered the gator in the image directly above, though, on his eating day.  As soon as he saw us get out of our Jeep, he quietly turned and began to make a beeline for us!  All the more reason to learn how to spot them ASAP!

I thought I’d end this post with this image.  It’s actually one of my favorites from the day.  This guy was a good distance away from us, and just content to lie in among the leaves of what I believe were mangroves growing in the area.  I really like how the leaves reflect below him on the water.  He’s so low in the water, you really have to look closely to see the small reflection he cast in the water.  I find alligators both beyond intimidating and fascinating at the same time.  Hopefully, you now have some idea why I feel this way!

Enjoy!

Birds of Loop Road Scenic Drive

There is wildlife on Loop Road, and this visit, we saw a lot of birds!!  It’s probably just me, but I think the tropical birds we found here are really cool.  Now, some you will recognize from other areas of the country, too.  Perhaps they just over-winter here!

I remember seeing these when I lived in the Midwest, at a rookery I lived close to – it’s an egret and this morning, he was searching the waters for food!  I just happened to capture him in between bobs into the water!

The anhinga is a very cool bird.  In this shot, a male anhinga was sitting on a branch drying his wings.  One of the things that make him so cool is that he doesn’t just bob his head in the water looking for food.  He actually dives into the water and swims through the swampy weeds incredibly fast!  Then, as you see here, he dries himself in the sun!

Here’s another bird I used to see from time to time in Illinois – a great blue heron.  I love this shot of him, standing rather majestically.

And, right after I captured that image, he turned and noticed something up higher than he was.  I was lucky enough to still have him in my sights and captured the somewhat awkward grace of a heron taking off.  He sort of leans into it and then gives a little hop before his large wings provide the lift to get him airborne.  He actually just settled in a new place, with his eye still on whatever it was that captured his attention in the first place!

My last image of my casual bird watching of the morning was this little guy.  I have no idea what type of bird he was, and when I asked the rangers in the Visitors Center, they didn’t know either.  We poured over all the known birds that inhabit Big Cypress, but he wasn’t there.  His coloring is similar to what’s called a purple bunting, but their beak isn’t nearly as long as this guy’s.  I thought he was really pretty, though!

Enjoy!