Gator Hunter Supreme

Gator On The Moon

[Click To Enlarge]

Look closely at the moon reflection in the first photo, the black spot you see is a gator. He appears in the second photo also. I saw at least three or four gators in this pond yesterday morning. They love it there!

Death Before The Gator Strikes

1) A couple of Wood Storks, an Ibis, a Little Blue Heron, and a very small "unknown to me" bird wading in the hotel pond.

2) A dead bird floating, close to the birds pictured above. I've never seen as many birds and species of bird as I did on Sunday.

3) A gator pops up and starts swimming towards the dead bird and the group of birds wading near the shore, which had grown considerably. You can see the approaching hot air balloons in the upper right of the photo, as well as a reflection of one beneath the Ibis.

4) The Wood Storks had taken off, replaced by a couple of Snowy Egrets and more of the other species that were already there.

5) I heard a splash as I was shooting the group of wading birds, and when I turned all I saw was this ripple of water where the gator and the dead bird had been. Breakfast!

Flying Gator

A flipped reflection, just to make you think ... and because I know you like 'em. LOL

Random Weekend Shots

1) Hot Air Balloon floating over the National Course at the Champions Gate Golf Course.
2) The Gate, sunrise October 18, 2008.
3) I am still a Gator hunter.
4) Balloon at the Gate, sunrise October 16, 2008.
5) Self portrait. I'm still cute.
6) Great Blue Herons leaving for work, sunrise October 19, 2008. I was surprised to see one Great White flying along with them. One of the ways to tell these are herons, rather than cranes, which are a similar size, is the way they hold their neck when flying - curled back towards their body. Cranes fly with their necks outstretched.
7) The Gate, sunrise October 19, 2008.
8) Clock Tower top, sunrise October 18, 2008.
9) Office building under construction on Celebration Boulevard. Celebration is just a couple of miles up the road. All of these office buildings seem to have an Art Deco appearance. I don't know anything about architecture, so that's a guess. LOL
10) The Farmer's Market at Downtown Celebration October 19, 2008.
11) Celebration Hotel basking in the morning sun, October 19, 2008.
12) House Of Blues water tower and ticket office at Downtown Disney. I was really there to photograph people enjoying the Florida lifestyle, but this thing got in the way.

Make sure you click 'em to big 'em, I don't want you to miss anything. To see people enjoying the Florida lifestyle go to Stuff I Shoot, thanks.

Random Shots From 8/17/2008

Above The Pond

This is one of the first shots I've taken at a part of the golf course I hadn't been to yet.

Balloons, Seven

1) When I left my house this morning I looked straight up into the sky above my truck and this is what I saw.
2) The same balloon a few minutes later from the local 7-11. The balloon was moving east.
3) A vulture waiting for the breakfast bell to be sounded.
4) Gator in the clouds. Hotel pond, July 19, 2008.
5) Sunrise, July 19, 2008, in front of the Omni Hotel.

Balloons, Six

Once again I threw in a few extra shots. It started out as a foggy morning, as you can see by the fifth shot, but the sun and balloons soon replaced the mist. Click to enlarge, especially the Gator shot, you can see his yellow eye checking me out - I was only a few feet from him.

Squawkers

I spotted these birds running around in the pond, as I was waiting for the hot air balloons to show up.



This is the first time I've seen this bird and have no clue what it is. If you can identify it, please let me know.



As I got closer to the bank, they started running faster and squawking. One of them took off and started flying in circles above me, squawking like crazy.



At first I thought I caused all the commotion, then I noticed a baby gator swimming out from the marsh. Here you see one of the adults running in front of the gator. The other was still circling and squawking.



The gator didn't bother with the birds, he just sleeked away.



In the meantime, these two babies had run out from the marshy area, and were frolicking around, seemingly unaware of what was going on around them.



Here you can see the remains of the bird's nest with the cracked shells still visible.

Hiding In Plain Sight

A baby gator learns the tricks of the trade.

Omni Sundown

The sun drops behind the Omni while a gator lurks in the pond.

After The Shower

1) My friendly neighborhood Gator, all freshened up with a nice shower, is ready for nighty-night. I would have tucked him in, but I was afraid he hadn't had dinner yet.

2) Crepe Myrtle buds ready to pop! It's about time ... I took this on May 25th! (I threw this one in for those of you that might be tired of my obsession with Mr Gator, lol.)

Gator Shower

Omni Resort II

One may think I'm being a little obsessive hunting the Gator, so I threw in a photo of the hotel, as seen when coming up the driveway, just to prove I take pictures of other things too!