December 29th, 2011. Between Christmas and New Year we took an overnight trip down to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in search of some sun and warmer weather. The weather was a little cool due to a northwesterly wind but it was sunny. The Savannah NWR is located on the east side of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Georgia. We visited Argyle Island that is accessed from Alligator Alley.
The highway to Argyle Island is nicknamed ‘Alligator Alley’: in Georgia, it’s highway 25 and it becomes highway 170 in South Carolina. There’s something fascinating about alligators. I’ve seen them before but there I was really looking forward to catching a glimpse of one again on this trip. I wouldn’t have been surprised if we hadn’t seen one because it was quite cool but…
We saw alligators in three different places. On a bank just beside the tree grove; on a dike near the end of the drive; and at the bottom of the dike the drive was built on. The second and third locations were most photogenic.
Encounter #1: We were looking for good lines of water lilies to demonstrate how they grow in a line following the optimum depth at which they grow. This was one of those instances when you suddenly realize that ‘something is out of place’ and then you realize you’re looking at an alligator. This alligator had crawled out onto the dike – on the side sheltered from the cool wind that was blowing.
Can you see it?
Our first sight of it. It was about 10 to 12 feet long. It had been there for some time; it was dry. Then something interesting happened.
Another alligator, approximately the same size as the first, started to crawl out onto the dike.
*****
A better looks at its tail.
It realized that there was another alligator about the same size already on the prime sunning spot. It seemed to be calculating the risk of a nasty encounter if it tried to crawl any further up the dike.
It finally settled down in that position but it didn’t really look like a comfortable position. When we returned later, it had disappeared.
*****
Encounter #2. We nearing the end of our second drive around the loop when we spotted a smaller alligator, about 8 to 10 feet in length at the bottom of the bank below the road. It would have been easy to look out to the swamp past it without seeing it.
The view from the car window. This alligator was about 20 feet from us. We didn’t get out of the truck for fear of disturbing it
Looking out across the marsh. It would have been easy to overlook the alligator. Several cars drove past us without seeing it. You had to look down, not out.
It seemed unfazed by us being there but it was very watchful. It did move but its movements were almost imperceptible.
A closer view of its head and very watchful eye that is visible, even at this distance. If you enlarge this image, its large teeth are quite visible.
Click on an image to view a larger image
Resources:
University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: North American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)
Related posts:
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Evening Before
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Morning After
December 29th, 2011. Between Christmas and New Year we took an overnight trip down to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in search of some sun and warmer weather. The weather was a little cool due to a northwesterly wind but it was sunny. The Savannah NWR is located on the east side of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Georgia. We visited Argyle Island that is accessed from Alligator Alley.
We visited the area first in the late afternoon on December 28th and, again, the next morning. These photos are from our visit on the morning of December 29th. It was sunny, but cool, when we arrived so we ended up driving the loop twice.
Trunk gates that controlled water to the rice fields
Looking towards Port Wentworth from a trunk gate at the edge of the freshwater marsh. It was high tide. The canal was full compared with the empty canal the previous night.
Looking south across the marsh just before entering the tree grove on the west edge of the marsh.
Driving through the tree grove. The Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) looks different in the daylight.
A closer view of the Spanish Moss
We crossed a small canal in the tree grove. Looking west over and old bridge railing
A young Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens). We only saw young plants during the drive. These can grow into very large clumps; we saw many on the trip down to the coast.
A cluster of oyster mushrooms, a Pleurotus sp., on a tree in the grove.
Looking north, just after we exited the tree grove.
A small turtle sunning itself in a sheltered spot.
Looking south across the margin canal at the south of the drive, and…
then southeast across the canal.
Cattails, and their reflections, in the calm water of the south marginal canal
On the southern end of the drive. Looking north over the cattails to the marsh, and …
another view, and..
Yet another view. Some trees have managed to root and grow here – mostly on the dikes.
More Spanish Moss. There's a slight jog in the drive from northeast to north about one-half way up the eastern part of the drive. A cluster of tall trees had grown in this pocket and hosted large Spanish Moss plants. The contrast in colors was striking.
Water lilies demarcating the margins of the rice fields. The line runs from the upper left to the lower right, 'rounds the corner' and continues across the field to the left. We saw these repeatedly along the drive. Water lilies – and they may vary by variety - have an optimum depth of water in which they prefer to grow. These lilies are growing at their preferred depth and forming a narrow line following the margin of the rice field that once existed here.
A closer view with the line of water lilies in the foreground
Water lilies, up close. It looks like a flower bud to the right of the plant. Wonder if it bloomed?
Islands of vegetation have developed in some fields
A view across a rice field towards the northern fields which appeared to be drier than those further south.
A bush with a cluster of the plants that looked like miniature trees in the waning light the evening before
A closer view of the ‘miniature trees'
Leaving the ‘wet’ area for the drier fields. The paper mill is in the upper left.
A closer view of the paper mill in daylight
The northern fields near the end of the drive looked dry but the water was hidden by the grasses
And finally, a cypress tree. This was the only one we saw during the drive.
The marsh at Argyle Island was interesting to visit in winter. It will be interesting to return in warmer months to see the wildflowers that grow here.
Click on an image to view a larger image
Resources:
- US Fish and Wildlife Service: Savannah National Wildlife Refuge
- University of South Carolina, Longleaf Environmental Learning Center: Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides)
- United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: - Serenoa repens (Saw Palmetto)
- Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish Moss)
- Southeastern Flora:
- Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish Moss)
- Serenoa repens (Saw Palmetto)
Related post:
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Evening Before
December 28th, 2011. Between Christmas and New Year we took an overnight trip down to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in search of some sun and warmer weather. The weather was a little cool due to a northwesterly wind but it was sunny. The Savannah NWR is located on the east side of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Georgia. We visited Argyle Island that is accessed from Alligator Alley.
In the 1800s, the island was the site of a large rice plantation. The outlines of the rice fields are clearly visible in the satellite image from Google maps. Dikes were built up to provide a drive, the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive, a 4.5-mile drive, around the freshwater marsh on the south end of the island. Wooden gates, called trunks, were used to control water to the rice fields. These are used now to keep the level of the water in the freshwater marsh constant and immune from the tidal changes in the Savannah River.
We visited the area first in the late afternoon on December 28th and, again, the next morning. These photos are from the late afternoon drive and capture the textures of the grasses and vegetation in the waning light.
The entrance to the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive off Alligator Alley.
Looking across the fields near the beginning of the drive. The structure in the center is one of the wooden trunks that controlled water to the rice fields.
A closer view of another trunk in a dike at the west end of the marsh.
Looking across the marsh.
Looking west towards the container port, Port Wentworth. It was fascinating to see signs of civilization in the distance while driving through the relative wilderness of the marsh. The canal beyond the marsh is clearly empty at low tide.
The drive passed through a small grove of trees covered in Spanish Moss which is not a moss, but a bromeliad, Tillandsia usneoides. I’ve never seen this plant bloom but there’s a photograph of the flower here. These are relatively small plants compared with some that can be found on the coastal plain.
From the grove the road swung around to follow a canal east and then north to the exit from the marsh.
Cattails had gone to seed.
Looking towards woods beyond the marsh.
Looking back. The woods on the left are the grove of trees we had driven through.
Woods had developed along some of the dikes.
Looking across the canal at the south end of the marsh.
Looking west across the marsh towards a paper mill in the distance.
Zooming in for a closer look at the paper mill.
We were intrigued by the shape of the plants growing in the open water.
Up close, they looked like little trees.
We left the marsh for the night with plans to return the following morning.
Click on an image to view a larger image
Resources:
- US Fish and Wildlife Service: Savannah National Wildlife Refuge
- University of South Carolina, Longleaf Environmental Learning Center: Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides)
Can you see it?
Our first sight of it. It was about 10 to 12 feet long. It had been there for some time; it was dry. Then something interesting happened.
Another alligator, approximately the same size as the first, started to crawl out onto the dike.
*****
A better looks at its tail.
It realized that there was another alligator about the same size already on the prime sunning spot. It seemed to be calculating the risk of a nasty encounter if it tried to crawl any further up the dike.
It finally settled down in that position but it didn’t really look like a comfortable position. When we returned later, it had disappeared.
The view from the car window. This alligator was about 20 feet from us. We didn’t get out of the truck for fear of disturbing it
Looking out across the marsh. It would have been easy to overlook the alligator. Several cars drove past us without seeing it. You had to look down, not out.
It seemed unfazed by us being there but it was very watchful. It did move but its movements were almost imperceptible.
A closer view of its head and very watchful eye that is visible, even at this distance. If you enlarge this image, its large teeth are quite visible.
