A few days ago I shared with you our close encounter with blue crabs in a tide pool. Today, I had another close encounter, but with a much larger critter.
The marsh directly off the second boardwalk. This is where I go down into the marsh, sometimes in knee deep water, to look for critters for my program participants.
I had a fantastic group of kids from the Jasper County Boy’s and Girl’s Club out on the salt marsh at the Coastal Discovery Museum this morning.We talked about what critters live in the marsh, and which ones don’t, including frogs, snakes, and alligators, and how on the rare instance that an alligator is spotted in the marsh, it is because it is just passing through on its way elsewhere.
I did my usual tromping through the marsh off the second boardwalk to see what sort of critters I could scrounge up for the kiddos to inspect before we headed to the covered observation deck at the end the boardwalk. We had not been under the glorious shade of that deck for more than a few minutes before the children started shouting that there was an alligator in the marsh! I’m thinking surely not, they just have alligators on the brain, a common occurrence for children and tourists alike. But I’ll be darned if they weren’t right!
If you look right in the center of the photo, between the two sections of Spartina grass, you will see the head of the critter headed straight for us.
Yep, that’s right! An alligator in the salt marsh, mere feet from where I had been in the marsh myself just a few minutes before.
I told everyone that I was done with the marsh walking for the day, lol. Despite being a bit scary, the kids were so excited to see the gator that it made my day.
