Perfect Pond Perch
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Give me a perfect perch at my site, and I am one happy camper!
Not only did I have a beautiful Great Blue Heron buddy visiting alongside me daily, there were other things to watch in the water and overhead.
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Of course, alligators lived in the pond. The camp host told me they had three alligators. After my week there, I know there were at least four.
When I hung out on the pier for any length of time, at least one of the gators would appear off in the distance and swim over to pass by me or literally stop and just stare at me.
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The pond was also stocked with five species of fish, for anyone’s fishing pleasure.
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Not sure what species, but it’s about 2 feet long
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And then there was this one creature that I spotted. It didn’t surface any more than shown in my photos below.
From the eyes to the end of its snout was about six inches long.
It wasn’t a gator. Was it a snake or turtle? A creature washed inland from the Gulf of Mexico during one of the previous recent hurricanes?
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Well, I knew one thing, it bugged me not knowing. So I contacted an Alabama reptile facebook page that helped with IDs.
No creature from the depths.
No snake, no gator.
Just one very big softshell turtle.
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Softshell Turtle
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The photo was a hit on their facebook page with the odd-looking photo, confirmations galore on ID, as well as guesses joking that it was a baby hippo.
Baby hippo? I see that! 😉
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