earlier today we got the bright idea of seeing if we could get a snap or two of what up till a few minutes ago we thought was our resident bull gator, mr bone stripper.
so we walked out there and sure enough there "he" was chilling in the middle of the water.
click picture to enlarge
as we was trying to maneuver into position to take a snap, we could have sworn that we could hear this sound:
link to audio page
we already knew what that sound is from in the past when we've researched alligators and when their eggs hatch and what the babies sound like -- information that we needed so we would know when to stay clear of the area.
even so, we still didnt believe that the chirping like sound we were hearing was coming from alligator babies. one reason is that it's extremely windy today so the sound wasnt exactly crystal clear and according to what we've read its too soon for hatchlings.
also looking at the opposite bank, the direction where it seemed that the sound was coming from we couldnt see anything -- although the fact that "he" turned and started to swim in that direction didnt clue us in either.
so we managed to get a few snaps and when we got back and downloaded them to picasa we could see in the background, in picture one below, something with yellow bands and we thought thats a big 'ol water snake.
so we opened the snap up in paint to get a closer look and bam. thats a baby alligator and if you look closer you can see several more.
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