Only Room for One

As soon as I arrived at the salt marsh this morning the first thing I saw was an apparent stand off between these two young alligators.

They faced each other down for a brief instant, but things escalated quickly when the one on the left lunged out and chased off his competitor. Once that task was accomplished, the victorious warrior was able to lay there with a smug look on his proud face.

The vanquished intruder floated off meekly not to be seen again for the rest of the morning, but there really is plenty of room for everybody.

Our brave gladiator did pick up a little friend later on however. A small plover took a liking to him and followed along the edge of the marsh for a while as the alligator scooped up some hard earned breakfast.

25 thoughts on “Only Room for One”

anotherday2paradise on May 13, 2015 at 10:05 pm said:

Super shots of the two rivals. The plover seems to be quite fascinated by Mr. A. 🙂

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- Phil Lanoue on May 13, 2015 at 10:18 pm said:
  
  Yeah Mr. A found himself a cute little friend there!
  
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Girl Gone Expat on May 13, 2015 at 10:37 pm said:

Exciting to see a some action! Hopefully no-one got hurt:)

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- Phil Lanoue on May 14, 2015 at 11:10 am said:
  
  Neither of them ended up getting hurt, but the loser might have suffered a hit to his pride.
  Glad you enjoyed seeing these guys in action.
  
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elyaslinley on May 14, 2015 at 5:12 am said:

scaryyyyyyy!!!!!!

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- Phil Lanoue on May 14, 2015 at 4:02 pm said:
  
  Nooooo they are just big babies! 😀
  
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  - elyaslinley on May 15, 2015 at 5:11 am said:
    
    ok
    
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  - elyaslinley on May 15, 2015 at 5:13 am said:
    
    have u seen my blog on http://www.elyasambition1.wordpress.com
    
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    - Phil Lanoue on May 17, 2015 at 1:45 pm said:
      
      Just checked it out, lots of good stuff.
      
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      - elyaslinley on May 18, 2015 at 6:20 am said:
        
        have u seen my blog? http://www.elyasambition1.wordpress.com
        
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Edna on May 14, 2015 at 9:06 am said:

Am chuckling, I can almost hear and feel the water splash all over re: second pic. Your pictures and stories never cease to amaze, Phil! …Please say “Hello” to all our creature friends at the marsh this morning. 😀

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- Phil Lanoue on May 14, 2015 at 11:12 am said:
  
  It all happened and was all over so quick, I didn’t even know at the time if I captured anything other than the splash. But at least we can see some alligator heads and faces there. Thanks for looking and commenting!
  
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Lyle Krahn on May 14, 2015 at 9:08 am said:

I do love that action shot. Well done by everyone.

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- Phil Lanoue on May 14, 2015 at 11:14 am said:
  
  Glad you liked that one. I literally had just arrived and these were the first shots I took. Got lucky in that I had the camera set in advance for settings that were more or less appropriate for getting some action. I otherwise had no time to set anything.
  
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Raewyn's Photos on May 14, 2015 at 3:21 pm said:

I do love the smug look on the victor’s face. Great captures.

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- Phil Lanoue on May 14, 2015 at 4:03 pm said:
  
  He does have quite the smug self impressed look doesn’t he?!
  
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naturesnippets on May 14, 2015 at 6:26 pm said:

What do they scoop up for a meal?

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- Phil Lanoue on May 17, 2015 at 1:48 pm said:
  
  When feeding like this they are scooping up mouthfuls of small fish and shrimp. In fact they get the glass shrimp all fired up and they shoot out of the water in all directions when the alligator starts sloshing all around.
  Sometimes the gator will lay still with the lower portion of their mouth open under that water waiting for some unfortunate creature to swim in.
  
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  - naturesnippets on May 17, 2015 at 3:09 pm said:
    
    I’ve never heard of glass shrimp. Will have to look them up.
    
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    - Phil Lanoue on May 18, 2015 at 8:34 am said:
      
      In this picture I think you can see some jetting up out of the water in a panic as the alligator feeds on mouthfuls of whatever it can get. They are also known as ghost shrimp but we mostly call them glass shrimp around here.
      https://phillanoue.com/2013/09/08/the-fish-were-jumping-last-night/alligator-fishing-in-salt-marsh-04/
      
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      - naturesnippets on May 18, 2015 at 11:35 am said:
        
        I checked and do see them in the picture. They looked like water splashing when I first saw the blog.
        
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Patrizia M. on May 14, 2015 at 7:08 pm said:

Scatti stupendi dei due mentre si affrontano!!

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- Phil Lanoue on May 17, 2015 at 1:48 pm said:
  
  Grazie Pat, glad you like these!
  
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Pat on May 15, 2015 at 9:16 pm said:

Fantastic shots.

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- Phil Lanoue on May 17, 2015 at 1:49 pm said:
  
  Thanks much for commenting and glad you liked these.
  
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