Alligators in Cross Lake

When my daughter visited from Michigan in May she was asking if we ever saw alligators during the day. We said No, just at night they will come up to the pier (dock for Michiganders). We sometimes see alligators about 4-5 feet long at night. We almost never see them when we go kayaking unless we are very quiet. They probably see us long before we see them. So we were sitting out in the backyard at the picnic table discussing why we never see them during the day when my daughter's friend, Jay said, well, there's an alligator right now. Sure enough, this one was about 10 feet long, in broad daylight. Had to grab the camera. It was a little unnerving when the gator turned around to look at us. It was a couple of hundred feet out. Then it calmly swam away. A few minutes later we could hear excited fishermen yelling from boats out in the bay. They had obviously sighted it, too. Yes, there are alligators in Cross Lake up on the north side. It was probably looking for a tasty turtle.

So, what did we do next? We jumped in kayaks and went looking to get a better picture. We did get some great pictures of birds, though - and of a beautiful Louisiana bullfrog.