I first arrived, it was facing the water, and repeatedly opening and closing its jaws. (see SMILE FOR RICKUBIS, and THE SMILE, below; also video clip (366kb))
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-
-
-
SMILE FOR RICKUBIS THE SMILE ITS BETTER SIDE? HOPE NO BIKES COME
Alligators
although amphibious (not AMPHIBIANS) are in the water most of
the time
when they are active. Therefore it is worthy of note when they are
on land, especially
when they are doing more than just absorbing solar
energy. Here is yet another page of terrestrial alligator
antics.
May 18,
2003A
couple of park visitors told me about an alligator that was up
near the
trail. I went to with them, and helped them pass. And then I
saw
an alligator acting very oddly. When
I first arrived, it was facing the
water, and repeatedly opening and closing its jaws. (see SMILE FOR
RICKUBIS,
and THE SMILE, below; also video
clip (366kb))
----
SMILE
FOR RICKUBIS
THE
SMILE
ITS BETTER SIDE?
HOPE NO BIKES COME
STOMACH
SCRATCH?
As I
walked around, taking pictures (my C-700 is back!) this alligator
shifted
position. Now, alligators sunning themselves will do this
periodically,
to alter their heat absorption surface in
relation to the sun, to move
into shade, and so on. From what I've seen, this shift in position
only
happens after long periods, and most basking is done with almost
no movement
(many park
visitors have commented that they thought this or that alligator
was "dead", since they move so infrequently while basking.). So,
there
are long times of stillness punctuated at irregular times
by a shift in
position. This alligator, however, moved many times.
Anyway,
this alligator moved and turned parallel to the trail (see ITS
BETTER SIDE,
above; or video
clip (532kb)) Note how it just slides itself around. All
through this,
it would open and close
its jaws. After just a few minutes, it shifted
again
and slid UP ONTO THE TRAIL! (see HOPE NO BIKES, above). This all
happened
within a few minutes. I didn't make it back to my
tripod-mounted video
camera, partly because the alligator was between the camcorder and
myself.
I didn't want to get between the alligator and the water, and I
began getting
a feeling that
something was wrong with the alligator. So, I gave
it room. As I moved to get behind the alligator, and move
towards
my tripod, it slid the rest of the way across the trail (see
STOMACH
SCRATCH,
above; or video
clip (502kb)). The best I could do was shoot a quick video
clip with
the C-700. I made it to the camcorder just as it pushed
itself the
rest of the way into Pilant
Lake. As can be seen in the last clip, he never
got up and walked. I hope this very odd behavior didn't indicate
anything
seriously wrong with it.
December
14, 2003So,
TODAY started out cold, but got a little milder until late
afternoon. It
was a nice, quiet day. I caught this little (about 2 feet
long) alligator
sunning itself on the Creekfield
bridge. It seemed to be comfortable enough.
Not a bad to thing to be able to do in December! See the image
below (DECEMBER
SUNBATHING).
----------------------------------------------------
DECEMBER
SUNBATHING
Another
interesting alligator observation. Park Naturalist David Heinicke
told
me today that sometime during the past week, he was out at the
Observation
Tower at 40 Acre Lake when a cold
front blew through. He said that in a
short time (about 20 minutes or so?--David, correct me if I'm
wrong), he
saw about 5 alligators of varying sizes cross the trail; moving
from Pilant
Lake into
40 Acre Lake. This was just in area he could see from the
Observation
Tower towards the first bend in the trail. He believes (and it
sounds good
to me) that the alligators were able to sense the
pending drop in temperature
and were moving en masse to 40 Acre Lake-which is deeper-ride out
the cold
weather. This may mean they have dens there, or that the deeper
water is
just more
favorable. Pretty cool, eh?
By the
way, I haven't neglected my buddies the alligators. I just haven't
had
a lot of material. They haven't been very active for some months,
although
I've still seen them from time to time.
I try
to kindle the imagination with this page, and if I see something
new, sometimes
it ends up here. I find that spiders are quite diverse and
interesting.
And, much easier to locate! Coming up
in the near future...snake
stuff, and more spider trickery!
January
25, 2004
EXCELLENT weather today! I didn't get out on the trails
until the
afternoon (Among other things, I was showing my alligator
documentary in
the Visitor's Center. People
seemed to like it. THAT IS SO COOL!)
Temperatures
got near 70 degrees, and the sun stayed out. Perfect
alligator basking
weather! The picture below (THRRE BY THE BRIDGE) shows
three alligators
that were near the end of the Spillway Bridge. Before I saw
those
alligators though, I encountered a few more on the walk
there. About
20 paces from where the Elm Lake Trail
starts, I saw this large alligator
(see HEADS UP, below). About 60 paces from this one, I
saw
the female which I've shown before (Dec. 28 and after). I
passed
another on the island across from
pier #3. Then, along the Spillway Trail,
there were two big ones visible on an island in Pilant Slough.
About 15
paces further along, this REALLY big male was basking on one of
the Pilant
Lake
islands (see ALLIGATOR ISLAND, below). This one had to be at least
12 feet long! He was HUGE!
-
-----
-----
THREE
BY THE BRIDGE
HEADS UP
ALLIGATOR ISLAND
February
21 & 22, 2004
Saturday's weather was surprisingly warm, and lots of alligators
took advantage
of it. The image below (BIG ONE)shows a huge male on one
of the
Elm Lake islands.
This great specimen was across from pier #2. I'm looking
forward to the coming mating season, because I'd be surprised if
*this*
male isn't the dominant one near that island.
-----------------------------------------------------
BIG
ONE!
Hopefully
he'll be keeping track of his territory, and *I* can be there to
see it.
There were more alligators visible, notably near the Spillway
Bridge, where
3 large (at least 8 foot long) alligators
were gathered on the Pilant Slough
side (just like last week), and another on the Pilant Lake side
(also like
weeks before, but not the sickly gator. See (NO TROLLS, below).
Saturday,
the sick
alligator was visible about 30 feet from the end of the bridge,
in Pilant Lake, and on Sunday he was visible near the islands. At
that
time, I saw another large alligator about 15 feet from
him.
Watching
all the alligators, I had the feeling that I was seeing the first
arrivals
to the coming spring celebration. This could be an interesting
spring!
One
more alligator made an appearance that I think might be kind of
special.
I saw this one on Elm Lake-or actually, on land right near the Elm
Lake
trail-on the Pilant Lake leg of the trail (see
WARRIOR RETURNS, below).
He was lying in the same spot that a large alligator favored
*last* year.
I looked closely, trying to find a distinquishing mark I could
recognize,
and I might have
found one: a scar on his lower jaw, under the hinge of
his jaw. (see LOWER JAW SCAR, below). Compare that with *this*
picture
(see SAME ALLIGATOR?, below), taken almost exactly a year
ago (COOL!),
on Feb. 23, 2003 (also see more above on this page). It sure
looks
like the same scar! No wonder this old guy seemed so quiet around
me! We're
old buddies!
---
---
---
---
-
NO TROLLS UNDER *THIS* BRIDGE
THE WARRIOR
RETURNS!
LOWER JAW SCAR
SAME ALLIGATOR? 2003
February
29, 2004
Today's weather was overcast and rainy, but some alligators came
out anyway.
After checking on a female alligator and some babies, I was
visiting the
"Old Warrior" again,
in his spot by the Elm Lake Trail, when the alligators
started bellowing! OH, EXCELLENT! This was at about 11:20,
and the
bellowing lasted until about 11:35. Alligators seemed to be
bellowing
in Elm Lake, in Pilant Lake, and in Pilant Slough. I couldn't tell
if any
were bellowing in 40 Acre Lake, I was too far away to tell. I
probably
would have heard them from where I was standing, but
there were others
closer, so I can't be sure. I know that people standing at Hoot's
Hollow
trail heard them, and that is right at the edge of 40 Acre Lake.
-----
-
---
--------
LADY BY THE TRAIL
LADY
CLOSE UP
One
more of my old alligator friends made an appearance. She appeared on
the
Spillway Trail, right before the Spillway Bridge (see LADY BY THE
TRAIL,
and LADY CLOSE UP, above).
This is a large female that usually nests on
one of the small islands in Pilant Lake across from where she was on
the
trail. The water level is high in Pilant Lake, and her islands
were
submerged.
So, she came to our side of the lake. I've seen her before, (see this
page, the picture "TOUGH MOM".), and I didn't notice any young
ones
with her this time. I recognize her
mostly from her injured left eye (see
LEFT PROFILE, and BAD EYE, below). I also noticed that she's
missing
teeth on the left side of her jaw (see MISSING TEETH, below).
Compare this
to
the right side of her face (see RIGHT PROFILE, below), which looks
fine.
Evidently male alligators still find her attractive, or they did
last year.
Maybe we'll see if she nests successfully
this year.
-
--
--
--
-
LEFT
PROFILE
BAD
EYE
MISSING
TEETH
RIGHT
PROFILE
March
07, 2004
Today also had a few other highlights. I got to see my first
alligator
trail crossing for the year. I was watching a medium- sized
alligator (about
6 feet long) in the water. It was
showing the readiness posture, with the
tail arched and the back and head high in the water. Directly in
front
of this alligator was another, a few feet longer. This second
alligator
was lying
across a log (about 2 body-lengths away), and was facing directly
AWAY from the tail-arching alligator. After a few minutes of being
ignored,
the smaller alligator turned towards the trail (this
was on the Spillway
Trail), and after about 10 minutes, walked up to the trail (see
UPHILL
CLIMB, below and video
clip
(flv video 500kb). It stopped and rested for a few more
minutes,
then
started towards the other side, before stopping at the edge (see
MORNING
STROLL, below and video
clip
(flv video 381kb). It stopped with its entire length
crossing
the trail (although it was
only 6 feet long, this still was an obstruction),
so I asked it to move. It agreed to go, and slowly moved into the
water.
---
------------------
-------------------------
UPHILL
CLIMB
MORNING
STROLL
As it
was moving down the bank, two regular visitors to the park were
coming
down the trail on their bicycles. As one of them asked about the
alligator,
the other one stopped and called out,
"The otter's over here."
WHAT!?
The otter? So, I grabbed my tripod and video camera and ran down
to where
I caught a glimpse of the otter. As we were standing there, one of
the
other volunteers, Dylan (who had
been filming the alligator) walked over
and casually shot about 15 seconds of otter footage. I couldn't
get a clear
enough view, and so I missed my opportunity. Rats....
Later,
I got to see the footage Dylan shot, and it was excellent.
March
29, 2004
The image below (CAUTION:ALLIGATORS) shows an excellent specimen
of a large
alligator after it has just crossed the street near Elm Lake.
-------------------------------------------
CAUTION:ALLIGATORS
This
was near the end of trek that took around an hour. I entered this
story
Sunday morning, as I was driving towards Elm Lake to start my
walk. I hadn't
gotten there yet, when a park visitor
flagged me down, and told me about
a large alligator that was near the road. It certainly was! Not
only that,
but it was on the Big Creek side of the main road. That is, it was
away
from our
lakes. I knew that he wouldn't want to stay there, so I pulled
over and put on my car's hazard flashers. I didn't want a park
visitor
to run this alligator over when it tried to cross the street (and
I
knew
that it would), so I decided to wait for him. First, I went
near
him and asked him to move, but he wasn't having any of that, so I
just
went up to my car, got my camera, and waited. He
eventually started moving.
He walked about 20 steps-parallel to the road-and then stopped. He
did
this a few times, while I decided to set up my video camera. Every
time
I'd reach for it,
though, he'd start moving again. Finally, he turned and
walked towards the road, where he rested one more time.
Somewhere
in there, I got my video camera set up.
Finally,
he crossed. As he crossed the the pavement, I heard a kind
of clacking
sound, which might have been his nails hitting the hard surface. I
was
able to get some good pictures, and
this one (NO PASSING LANE, below) shows
his length compared to the distance from the edge to the center
line of
the road. The next picture (CAUTION, ALLGATORS, below) is
the
same
one I used for the RICKUBISCAM this week. ( I just cropped a
section of
the original image for the RICKUBISCAM.) I didn't compose the
photo that
way, I just got lucky. Remember,
while I was trying to shoot video, *and*
photographs, I was also watching out for park visitors' cars and
trucks
coming from either direction. There was NO way I intended to film
this
big guy
getting killed by a car! He continued walking in that
steady,
slow pace, and moved down the bank (see SAFELY ACROSS, below)
until he
turned slightly and walked up and crossed the
Elm Lake Trail--passing right
near one of our "Gator Etiquette" signs and the first bench. (see
GATOR
ETIQUETTE, below).
-
-
-
-
LOOKING BOTH
WAYS
NO PASSING LANE
CAUTION, ALLIGATORS
SAFELY
ACROSS
ALLIGATOR
ETIQUETTE
SIGN
YOU CAN
SEE VIDEO CLIPS OF THE CROSSING BELOW! THE IMAGES BELOW ARE FRAMES
FROM
EACH CLIP. CLICK THE LINKS UNDER THE PICTURERS TO SEE THE CLIPS.
-
-
-
-
VIDEO
CLIP
1
VIDEO
CLIP
2
VIDEO
CLIP
3
VIDEO
CLIP
4
ALONG THE
ROAD
SIT,
BOY!
CROSSING THE ROAD
AT THE
INTERSECTION
VIDEO
CLIP
5
PASSING THE BENCH
Since
he was out of danger, I was able to walk to the lake, where I saw
him swim
slowly towards a smaller alligator. This smaller alligator, in the
water
by an island, took the "tail arch"
alertness posture as this big male slowly
approached. The smaller alligator then relaxed its pose, ans
slowly
swam out, *very* close to the large alligator (it may have
actually taken
a
submerged step on it) and moved out as the large alligator moved
in to
the spot where the small alligator *had* been. I got just a piece
of this
on video, as I had to walk back to get the
camera, set it up, then walked
all the way back to my car on the road, and moved it. This was the
farthest
I've ever seen an alligator walk and yes; I enjoyed the
experience!
Not
long after this, I encountered another large alligator (not as big
as this
one) on the Spillway Trail, but that's a story for another time.
And, this page shows alligators at the park, on land, near various landmarks at the park.
Go back to my main alligator page, Alligators
Go
back to my home page, Welcome
to rickubis.com
Go
back
to the RICKUBISCAM
page.
Go
back
to the See
the World page.