Later that night

Wow! What an evening we have had. 7:30pm and pitch black we joined a ranger to walk the Anhinga Trail again and it was fantastic. The gators, earlier docile and lounging, were up and very busy. 2 minutes into our walk and we witnessed a fight between 2 gators, one 12 foot and one 14 foot. The went at each other, splashing and jumping in the swallow water, just 15 feet away from us. The smaller one won and chased the other away. As we continued, we surprised many great blue herons. They squawked a nasty course growl and flew away. The Anhingas sat in the trees and yawned as we flashed our flashlights on them. It would seem that it might be hard to see a gator at night, dark as the black water and mostly submerged. In fact with a flashlight it is quite easy. There eyes shine back a perfect red spot when the light hits it. Looking out over the water, flashlight beam washing over the surface, the red dot appears, sometimes singles, sometimes half a dozen. When we came to the place where we saw the 22 gators earlier, they were gone. We stood and listened and soon heard loud splashing. The gators were in the thick swallow bush, some 20 feet away and fishing. A dozen red eyes shine back at us through the short trees and bushes. They fished together, all 6 to 8 of them herding the fish into the swallow water and then they pounced. The ranger called it a feeding frenzy. Loud splashing and the thrashing of giant bodies throwing themselves around. He said it was very rarely witnessed and we felt lucky to witness and even luckier not to be the main course. Dusty has been very nervous however, since we got back. We made the mistake of telling her the story that the ranger told us. A dog, loose, went into the water just 20 feet from the visitors center today at noon and 2 gators made a meal of him. Not the best spectacle for the tourists.