alligator with bird | Dina's Wildlife Adventures

It’s always fun to see lots of robins in the trees. We only see them here briefly in the winter. The trees were full of them at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park in late December.

A few of the resident birds. The caracara in the bottom picture is a not a bird you see in this area. They are mostly in south central Florida so it’s interesting to see them here. This one had some type of injury. Possibly missing wing or vision.

The otters were being so cute this morning, although seeing those teeth makes you realize they can be pretty tough. They were feeding in the pond right up against the boardwalk. I love watching them eating while swimming on their backs. That’s a real talent.

I’m sure this happens more than we see out in the wild. The alligator was not fed this bird by the staff. I missed the early action but people saw him grabbing this bird. Based on the pink legs and white wings with a little black, thinking it’s a white ibis that got too close. The alligator was all the way across the pond in the first shot but was swimming fast away from the other alligators who were chasing him trying to steal his snack. He then heading into the far corner right in front of me. Sad but circle of life.

Alligators have been in the press a lot lately with either attacks or sightings of a very large one. Yes, they are everywhere here. If there’s a small body of water, there a big chance there is one in there even though you can’t see it. I grew up coming to the Tampa Bay area to visit my grandparents. I never saw any wild alligators but I knew about them. We spent most of our time on the beaches anyway. My first time seeing one in the wild was at work when I first moved to Tampa. I looked out the window and one was sitting on the grass in the parking lot. Now I’ve gotten use to seeing them. I rarely see them move though. When I’m at Gatorland taking pictures of the wild baby birds, the alligators are active and swim around make their grunting noises. I’m up on an elevated fenced in boardwalk so I’m not too concerned. But look at those happy grins, don’t you just want to pet one??