Bona Dea Alligator Update

Bona Dea was partly cloudy and mild today, Tuesday. At the spillway I fed the Brim fish and Red Eared Slider Turtle. At the downside of the spillway a Yellow/Plain Bellied Watersnake was playing in the waterfall. It saw me and started to get away and I took this photo of it going under the spillway. A pair of Belted Kingfisher birds were flirting with each other on Waldon Pond. Also a big Pileated Woodpecked landed close by and started to really hammer on a tree. There was a variety of yellow Warbler flying through the underbrush. Could not Identify but it was pretty. On Swinging Bridge Trail I once again saw the Yellow billed Cuckoo bird. A photo shows it up high in a tree. A Green Heron and some Wood Ducks flew over Waldon Pond. Once again the famous Alligator was spotted. It had been sleeping and woke up about the time I got there. You can see in one of the photos its wide open mouth showing its very big tongue. There were young Carolina Chickadee birds in a tree with their parents feeding them. Several Northern Cardinals were in this area. Close to the Cuckoo bird I took this photo of a Morbid Owlet Moth. There were several of them flying close to the ground. I then moved over to Beaver Trail by Black Water Swamp and saw Muskrats again over there. A Downy Woodpecker was pecking away and flew over close to me and then quickly flew off. On down the trail there was the pair of really beautiful Baltimore Oriole birds. The male with sold bright orange color. Also many Redwing Blackbirds in the Swamp bushes. A big Great Blue Heron flew over the swamp. Also a Carolina Wren was running up and down the trees in the area. Also a female Common Pond Dragonfly was flying around. On the way out on Waldon Way Trail there was a family of Wood Ducks with babies. They were too far off and behind water bushes and the photos were not good. Also across the trail on the other side was the Brown Thrasher male sitting high in the trees just singing away. They usually don't do this mimicking of other birds like a Mockingbird but this one was seen and heard in another area of the park some weeks ago. This photo is off it in the distance with its head held high as if proud to be singing today.