The Bird Snatcher!

There is a murdering menace upon us!   There is a brutal beast roaming in our midst!  There...ok...there is an alligator!  For the past several days, I have not seen hide nor hair of the young gator that lives in or around the Bayou.  He has been missing in action, so to speak.  I wondered if some misfortune had befallen this denizen of the swamp.  Not so...he was back again this evening.  As I gazed out over the water at the critter,  I thought of an incident that happened just a week or so ago.  An incident that involved this very alligator!

I have written several times about the Night Herons and Little Green Herons that come to eat the menhaden that I catch in my net.  These are friendly birds that are ever-ready for a handout!  They will scoop up the minnows almost as fast as I can catch them!  Truth be told, I am not the only one that feeds the birds, my brother does the same.  He, too, will throw the net just to catch the fish for these herons. It was at his pier that the tragedy took place.  His pier is a mite lower to the water than mine which proved to be to the alligator's advantage.  My brother had just tossed a handful of menhaden to the bird.  As usual, the heron ate its fill and then sat to rest a bit before going on the hunt again.  In the meantime, my brother headed up the hill to his house.  It was from his front porch that he witnessed nature at its most heartrending.   He had turned back to look at the Bay, when the gator actually came up out of the water and snatched the bird from the edge of the pier!  There was great turmoil as the heron fought for its life.  With wings flapping and loud squawking, the bird tried its best to free its legs from the beast.  The alligator backed away from the pier and slipped under water to drown its prey.  Within a few moments, the deed was done.  The hungry had its meal.

This attack on our sweet birds left us in a bit of a tizzy to say the least but it also explains the alligator's absence.  Once a gator has a satisfying meal, it can go for days without the need to hunt again.  Then, when it is hungry again, all of the other critters need to be on alert.  This predator is obviously quite adept at acquiring its food.  I have never thought about a gator being able to actually attack something that was up on the pier!  Sort of scary...I might need to watch the dogs a bit more carefully!