Alligator

Sunday
After church, we returned to Bailey's Tract for a walk around and had quite a productive visit. As we approached the first pond, we could see a cluster of people at the water's edge. It turned out there was a pair of black-necked stilts with about four chicks - they were really quite small, but were off exploring on their own, but being closely watched over by Mum and Dad, and when a couple of herons alighted on the pond, the parents would get quite aggressive if they felt they were getting too close to their chicks, "dive-bombing" them and generally trying to scare them off. Then we moved on to a second pond where we finally got to see an alligator, and also a green heron. At a third pond, I did a rough count, and reckoned there must have been about 120 great egrets or snowy egrets and a few great blue herons thrown in too! Then we continued our walk along another narrow waterway and saw several turtles and another alligator, this one, out of the water - fortunately on the far bank! By this time, it was about 12.30, and I felt I needed to get out of the midday sun, so we returned to the apartment for a bit of lunch, and ended up having a short chat with Laura on the phone, before heading out to the beach for a few hours. It was very pleasant on the beach by this time, with a pleasant breeze, and the sea was a little calmer than yesterday so we did get in for a dip today, and I caught a glimpse of a couple of sting rays - so a good day on the wildlife front!