…alligators. As I have mentioned in the past I live on a preserve and in the last few months have had plenty of time to observe the day to day goings on of the inhabitants. This week we were presented with another batch of whistling ducklings, tiny fuzzy balls of fluff, all 14 of them. They feast on bird seed and listen to Sean talk to them. Our teenage ducklings started flapping their wings about a week ago and are now able to fly around the preserve before falling to the ground exhausted. I couldn’t help but think of Orville Wright and his first flight…the ducks would flap their wings and run along the grass and maybe get a few inches off the ground. It took a week of this before they became airborne and now it seems they delight in making a round trip over the preserve, all nine of them. They will be gone soon but we will have our fuzzy balls of fluff to watch grow up. Because we are at home all the time, as I said before, we have become keenly aware of the goings on of the preserve’s inhabitants. We always knew we had an alligator and we would see him/her off and on over the years. Twice we had baby alligators appear on our porch and in our garage and once when Sean decided to take the vines off the tree by the preserve, the alligator appeared and Sean disappeared very quickly, never to cut the vines again. The tree is on the edge of the very small pond right off our property line. About a month ago the maintenance department was cutting the grass near the tree and the alligator appeared, threatening the men with open mouth. They said she was about 13 feet long and figured she was protecting a nest, which is what Sean had thought when she threatened him. We didn’t think any more about her. Last week our little pond seemed to be in constant motion. We kept watching and couldn’t figure our why the water was always producing ripples. Was it bugs, was it frogs, nothing would surface, we were really curious as it would catch our eye every time we stood at the kitchen sink. In the meantime our alligator would lay on the bank of the pond almost looking like she was going to go in, but it seemed only her head submerged. She also was spending a good amount of time in the water with just her head emerged. I decided to check out alligator behavior and have now realized that all those ripples are baby alligators, could be 30, 50 or even 90. The female alligator will make a nest out of vegetation, she’ll lay her eggs and then cover it up. She will lay next to it to protect it from predators and also to regulate the temperature of the nest. If a nest is 87 degrees or lower the babies will be male, if it is 91 degrees or higher the babies will be female. She keeps it between 87 and 91 degrees by removing or replacing the vegetation, which ever is needed to produce both male and female little ones. The babies will start making noises like a puppy before they hatch and she then uncovers the nest. They are born with between 60 to 80 teeth and are approximately 6″ long. They have an extra tooth on the end of their noses to break through the shell. The tooth falls off after it has served it’s purpose. Some will hatch in the nest and she will transport them to the water on her back. Others she will transport to the water in her mouth while they are still in their shells, she’ll submerge her head in the water and shake it real hard to break the shell and release the baby. Not sure how these were hatched, although I do think she brought some to the water in her mouth as she laid on the bank with her head in the water. Anyway, all these ripples are alligators, and I am sure of it because she now spends time in the water and the ripples are all around her. When she moves the ripples move right along with her. She does try to protect them but unfortunately there are many predators. I read several different accounts of their survival…some say only 1% survive to adulthood, which takes 10 years to be considered an adult, as you have to be 6 feet. Another account said 3% reach adulthood. All in all there are things to be said about this pandemic…when we stop and look around us it is amazing what we see and what we learn.