Gator after chomping bird in pond at work

Here's a pic of the gator I saw when I was leaving for lunch today (click the thumbnail image to see the larger pic). When I saw him he had just chomped one of those big black birds that sit near the water's edge with their wings fanned out. Another two chomps and the bird was gone. It's not the greatest pic (taken rather quickly with the BlackBerry from the car ...but you can make out the gator.

So there is the illustration of why one should not stroll too close to the water in Florida. I saw a gator in one of the other ponds at our building a year or two ago, and another gent told me he had seen one crossing the road a while back. It's rather odd to see such an ancient species in the midst of our 'modern' culture!

Comments

[Kevin]

Gators are so cool! I remember years ago when I went on a tour of Kennedy Space Center they had gators all over the place. The tour guide commented on how they were an incredible part of their security system to make sure no one jumped over a fence onto their property :)

[Barry in Portland]

> It's rather odd to see such an ancient> species in the midst of our 'modern' culture!

like neo-Cons?

[Another JL]

Not positive, but the bird you're describing sounds like a Cormorant. Fairly large, with a rather long neck, they like to sit and sun themselves with their wings outstretched. Not too much sun in that gator's belly, I'll bet.

We just finished photographing an AKC National Specialty for the Portuguese Water Dog folks. These are way cool dogs that, among other things, love to jump in and play in the water. But funny thing - all the photos we've seen of PWDs in the deep south, all show them jumping into swimming pools, not lakes or other bodies of water. I seem to recall someone saying that there used to be a lot of two legged-PWDs in S. Carolina, the F-State, and other places. Can't imagine why...