57 Alligators!
That is how many we counted during our nine mile bicycle ride at Lakeside Ranch Stormwater Treatment Area this week. This far exceeded any of our past counts. I wonder how many more we didn’t see.
You can estimate the size of an alligator by measuring the distance from the midpoint of the eyes to the midpoint of the nostrils. Based on this calculation, most of the gators we saw were in the 6’-9’ range making them 15-25 years old.
American Alligator, Lakeside Ranch, approx. 8’
Earlier in the week we spent time photographing shore birds a Fort Pierce Inlet State Park. Some of the Black Skimmers we photographed were banded. I submitted the band colors/numbers through the USGS web site for reporting banded birds web site and received reports on each one:
Band 2A6, Hatched 2016 or earlier, Banded 06/20/2018 near Hampton City , Virginia
Band C84, Hatched 2018, Banded 08/28/2018 (when it was still too young to fly) near Stone Harbor, New Jersey
Band E71, Hatched 2023, Banded 08/06/2023 (when it was still too young to fly) near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Here are images of some of the Black Skimmers along with a few more pics from this week around the ‘hood. It was the first time I have ever photographed a night heron in flight.
Remember you can click on an image to view it full screen.
