Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. March 2023 (Part 1 Alligators)

Barb and Renita were a little ahead of us and we were all visiting when Renita called out snake. Dan and I hurried up hoping to get a photograph before it disappeared into the thick brush. Just as fast the snake moved into the dense foliage and we decided we didn’t want to go in any further. It was our first trip to the refuge since the new headquarters had been built. Dan and Barb joined us on a birding adventure and a fun day hiking and driving the trails. Stopping at the Heron Flat trails we did not see the pair of whoopers that had claimed the salt flats as their territory.

Before we reached the blind another birder told us of the large alligator that had walked across the trial and was floating in the southern pond. As we headed down the trail looking for birds, a second large alligator was sunning itself on the bank.

A third lay in the water partially submerged, and worked its way toward us measuring us for prey?

It watched us with its yellow reptilian eys. The alligator may have been fed by other visitors as they usually stay away from people. A fed alligator is like a fed bear, slated for euthanasia. It finally stopped and didn’t cross our trail although we could see tail marks and claw marks where one had crossed to the next brackish pond.

A little further and yet a fifth large gator slowly swam by and at the next fresh water pond a sixth waited.

It’s not unusual to see so many large gators and we saw a seventh, which we photographed at the platform on Jones Lake. We eventually passed all the ponds and gators took photos of the birds but that’s for part two of this story.

Later, Renita told us the snake stretched completely across the trail which meant it was at least six feet long. It had a dark color, but she never could identify it. Here in south Texas there are copper heads, coral snakes water moccasins and Western Diamondbacks which can grow up to eight feet in length, (and many non poisonous ones). Dan and I wisely did not chase the snake into the thick underbrush. Gators are almost as fun as bears, and it was a good start for the day! Clear skies