Shot that gator!

    Twice! With two separate cameras! My friend the alligator is making a habit of basking in roughly the same spot as he did the first time I saw him, though never as close to the trail since then. Wednesday I went to Congaree Creek carrying a camera and determined to get my shot, but it had rained torrentially in the previous days and rising waters made the trail into the alligator zone impassable. This confused me as I had actually been back there since the rain and made it through; those waters took a few days to rise, I guess.
    Yesterday I went back, but I wasn't overly optimistic about alligator viewing. I thought the odds were good that I would be able to pass the trail, but it was very, very overcast. I wasn't at all sure that alligators bother basking when there's no sun. So I only brought my older camera. It turns out that they do bask even without sunshine. (45 degree air is preferable to 45 degree water, apparently.) But I didn't see it, walking right past.
    As I climbed out of the alligator zone, I met a very nice father and son ahead of me on the trail. They stayed back to ask me if I had seen the gator and when I said I hadn't, they led me back and pointed him out to me. (They also loaned me binoculars, but I'm awful with binoculars and couldn't see him with them. But he was perfectly visible without.) I shot a picture, which turned out OK once I had cropped it down to just the alligator. But it was very dark.
    Today the forecast was sunny, but it wasn't turning out that way. But I decided to have faith and struck out with my super-duper Nikon given to my by my super-duper sister Anne. This time nobody had to point out the alligator to me. However, s/he/it was still far enough away that I had to crank the telephoto all the way. The sun did indeed come out, which helped a lot. I think it's a pretty brilliant picture, but then I would, wouldn't I?