GATOR BOY

I first saw the gator in our front pond, actually the first of 2 ponds behind our house, which was set deep in the swamps of South Carolina though only 20 miles from the beach, less as the crow flies. I had a beautiful panoramic view of these ponds and much more from my living room/office over-sized picture window. The first few glimpses of him were brief and I initially thought a usually nocturnal beaver had popped out early for a moment, as they sometimes did if disturbed. After several such sightings I noticed that the Great Blue Herron would take off squawking loudly when it approached and since I knew that “Big Blue”, as we affectionately called our heron, was not in the least afraid of beavers I had to take a closer look.

3 or 4 days of working and glancing out the window produced nothing but an occasional surfacing of something large but probably not a beaver and definitely not an otter or snake or eel or muskrat or even one of the many very large turtles or a large fish, of which there was a veritable plethora. Way too many fish in the ponds, I was told by the kind folks from Clemson University who had come down, at my invite, to study this “primeval and kept that way by my design, as much as safety and some use-ability would permit” land of ours. It had been a particularly dry summer, not even a hurricane or 2 yet to bring some much needed rain to the area; and the swamps around us leading to the river behind us had completely dried up. A natural spring kept our 3-acre and 1-acre ponds as fresh as backwater, black water ponds can be, but all else short of the Little Pee Dee (really) River had dried up.

Whatever it was was out there again. I put work aside, grabbed the mobile phone hoping that nobody picked that particular moment to call about anything, and quietly headed back the short distance to a look-out point from where I could observe the activities on the pond (always a frenzy going on somewhere in the ponds, so I had found and left intact many such observation spots, though much of the edges were clear if not safe to stand on) without becoming too obtrusive.

Fish were leaping out of the water chasing dragonflies and large fish were chasing smaller ones. A bald eagle and several hawks were there looking for their fish dinner. As usual a couple of dozen ducks were seemingly floating along, enjoying the “NO HUNTING” signs I had posted everywhere and the shelled corn I had placed in the shallows parts of the pond, 100’s of pounds per month, personally delivered by me and my wife via a small row-boat my brother had given us, as were the Canadian Geese, though they would often fight amongst themselves, mortal combat, to the death or until one pair left. There he was in the middle of this activity, in all his glory, a 7 or 8-foot long alligator sneaking up on a partially submerged, felled by the beavers, tree; which was the resting place at the moment for 3 extremely large turtles, 8 or 9 small turtles and Big Blue, the Great Blue Herron.

It’s remarkable that I ever got any work done looking out that window at this constant commotion. I did, but at the moment I was frozen to that spot and could not have answered the phone even if it had rang which thankfully it didn’t. When the gator got within about 2 feet of this resting spot he leapt suddenly and grabbed the largest turtle, a turtle approximately the size of a small car, which had been sunning itself inches away from Big Blue, who was also drying off in the sun while keeping a sharp eye out for fish or small frogs that he could snatch in his very long, very sharp beak and hold. He could put anything he could catch in his huge mouth and eat it, sometimes swallowing it whole. Big Blue could do this forever. Ugh! What a mess. The rest of the group silently frantically hurried away except Big Blue, who let out a screech that would have made Steven King proud. Landing on a stump about 20 yards away Big Blue proceed to inspect his legs, feet and toes, looking closely to see if they were all still there…

How was I ever to get any work done like this? The gator, magnificent and powerful, had every right to eat, and I did not mind him eating the fish, the beavers (very destructive they were) or the turtles who like the fish were too many in number for those two ponds, literally thousands of turtles; many mammoth-sized. However, I did not want the gator to eat Big Blue, though I didn’t know what I could do about it. Back to work I went reluctantly having not gotten a single decent picture that would clearly identify the gator. I would rectify that situation if it meant I missed some work, but I could not shut down the office for no better reason than to get a picture of an alligator. People would think me daft, starting with my wife; the one’s who didn’t already think that, that is…