We went back to the park that is less than a block from where we are staying. I was immediately worried as the two large alligators we saw yesterday weren't where we had left them! Yikes....where are they?!
I scanned all the way around the pond and didn't see them anywhere. The only thing I saw was a turtle swimming around.
So we decided to take a walk on the trail called "Three Ponds." The first pond we came upon we saw an alligator about 20' from us sunning himself. This was not one of the "missing" alligators as this one was much smaller than those we had seen yesterday.
Just a little further around the pond was a turtle sunning himself.
As we continued on the trail I was noticing that there were some tracks on the trail. I was taking a closer look to see what kind of track it was when suddenly Wazzu & Mike both noticed a large snake dart off the path. From that point on I kept a close eye on the path for snakes who may be sunning themselves!
Shortly after that we noticed a trail leading off to the left. It wasn't an "official" trail but a trail nonetheless. I kind of glanced in to see what was there and I noticed it was another pond. However, I have learned that alligators like to sun themselves on the banks of these ponds. So while I wanted to see the pond I wasn't real brave...so I sent Mike in to see if it was safe!
He slowly went the 15' to the pond and announced that it was clear. So Wazzu and I started to join him. When we were about two feet from Mike he jumped, as did we, when we saw a huge alligator only a couple feet from Mike go into the water. We were all caught off guard so it took me a little bit before I was able to take a picture.
So much for Mike as a lookout!! This pond was a very busy pond. There were all sorts of things that kept sticking their heads out of the water and we could see a lot of movement around the pond. We really wanted to stay and watch but decided it might be safer to move on.
However, after moving on we thought maybe we would have been better staying put. As only a short ways down the trail there were probably 40 - 50 vultures soaring overhead. There were two different kinds of vultures. I don't know what they were really doing but whatever it was they didn't like us standing there watching them. One of them dive bombed us and came within 5' of our heads. I decided that I'd take one picture and then we were out of there!
We decided that was enough for Wazzu so on our way out we stopped at the original pond to see if the two large alligators had reappeared. They had not - gosh...where are they?? In the spot where the largest alligator had been was a turtle.
As we turned to leave I looked down an noticed NUMEROUS alligators - all were about three - four feet long. There was at least six of them.
Just to the side of them I noticed some a couple more. It wasn't until I was loading this picture that I noticed there was one to the left of the picture that I hadn't even seen.
Just as we were leaving Wazzu suddenly perked up. She started slowly stalking.
She hadn't been paying any attention to the alligators so I knew that's not what had caught her attention. So as she was slowly stalking Mike and I were both scanning the area to make sure there wasn't an alligator around. Suddenly she pounced and out ran a huge rat. It ran to the next clump of grass and she once again started stalking. Just as suddenly the rat came out running straight toward me! Needless to say I took off....so no picture!! I'm glad the rat was there though as it did seem to perk Wazzu up. She now had a happy face!
This nearby baby alligator seemed very content to watch Wazzu play with the rat.
Next it was Slugger's turn. He loved going by himself as that meant he could go at his pace. His pace is VERY slow as he loves to hunt for lizards. So while his walk took a lot of time he didn't cover much ground. But he had a great time. Not so sure that Mike did though.
When it was Sparkie's turn Mike decided to go to a different spot as he was getting a little bored with the same place. So they went further down the road. It was actaully the same park just a different part of it. There weren't any ponds here so there wasn't the danger of alligators so Mike let Sparkie off leash as she really needs the exercise. All was fine until Mike saw some wild pigs. They are actually more dangerous than the alligators so Mike had to hurry and get Sparkie on leash. She wouldn't have had a very good day had she decided to chase the pigs....which she really wanted to do.
After the dogs had dinner we took them on a short walk around the park. Suddenly out of nowhere, it seemed, two low flying birds came right by us. I didn't have tinme to get ready so this picture is a little blurry - but I like the way the sun was on his wings.
As we were standing along side the waterway Sparkie decided she needed to get something out of the water. She kept sicking her head in the water and blowing bubbles so she could keep her head under water longer. She finally came up with a mouthful of leaves. Not sure what all that was about but Slugger decided he needed to help too. So he did the bubble blowing and came up with a huge stick. He had quite the time getting it out of the water.
While the kids were doing such foolish stuff, Wazzu sat on the shore and watched the activity on the other side. Interestingly enough there was a racoon that seemed to be playing with a Great Blue Heron. The racoon seemed to be having fun while the Great Blue Heron just stood still watching the racoon play around its feet.
Well, that was our Valentine's Day. I hope you had a great day too.
Debbie
2/14/07
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