I know the old children’s song says, “Never smile at a crocodile…”, well, these are alligators so I guess that means it is all OK, right? Most we saw were between 4 to 6 feet. Nothing really huge, but plenty big enough to make your life miserable if they wanted to latch onto to you.
We spent the day at Avery Island, LA. We went there to see one of the largest rookeries anywhere, in hopes to see the Roseate Spoonbill in the wild. While we did see somewhere around 200 White Egrets (and a lot of baby Egrets as well), we were not fortunate enough to see the Spoonbills. I will post a bunch of Egret photos in the very near future.
As an unexpected treat, we saw alligators…and lot’s of them. We expected to see one or two, it is the Louisiana Bayou country after all, but I had no idea that we would see so many. We also got to see a bunch of tiny little babies, they were about a foot long at the most. I didn’t get a real clear picture of any of them, I was smart enough not to get too close.
My favorite photo above is definitely the one with his mouth wide open. He wasn’t being aggressive, I believe he was cooling off. But he posed for a great shot nonetheless.
My second favorite was more of a “you had to be there moment.” The alligator that is swimming in the water was incredible to see. He effortlessly crossed about 30 feet of water in about 5 seconds. And I mean effortlessly, he didn’t appear to be in hurry, just gliding along. Something to think about for those of us out trying to take pictures.
All in all it was an incredible day. Like I always say, just get out there and “Enjoy Our Wonderful World!”
RM Goldsmith Photography 