Another Beautiful Day In The Cypress Swamp

We had another beautiful day in the Cypress Swamp at Cox Ferry Lake Recreation Area in the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. The 4-5 foot alligator was back out again in the upper part of the lake. There were only two Osprey at the nest today, so I am guessing the female made her choice and one male was very disappointed. We watched the lucky male Osprey bring her half a fish, and she looked very excited – dancing around the nest and eating the fish. Moments later, we watched the male fly away from the nest to a tree, where he apparently had stashed the other half of the fish for himself. Pretty smart bird! He wasn’t giving everything to the female. I don’t think there are eggs in the nest yet. The adults were on the edge of the nests, and not sitting on eggs.

There were a lot more turtles out today than two days ago. We only saw one snake – a beautiful Banded Watersnake who immediately slithered into the water when we approached. It popped its head out again, just long enough to show the classic markings on the side of the head. We saw quite a few

The dragonflies are hatching out in larger numbers now. We found one cypress knee that had at least twenty-five shells, one freshly hatched dragonfly with deformed wings, and one dragonfly in mid-hatch.

Richard