ALLIGATOR BEHAVIOR page 5h: BABY ALLIGATORS --part 8 Alligator nests and babies
This page was born 09/30/2021.  Rickubis designed it.   Last update: 10/06/2022
Images and contents on this page copyright ©2022 Richard M. Dashnau    

2021 Proved to be an good year to watch nests. So, here's a new page showing what I saw. Since there was direct progression between observations, I'm starting with the oldest at
the top of the page so that events are easier to follow.  

04/18/2021  Volunteered at BBSP this morning. I had signed up to work in the Nature Center, but I had a few hours to walk some trails before my shift.  I've seen 3 different pods of baby 
alligators(with their mother) so far this Spring.  This morning I was able to catch this gator mom (sometimes they aren't out when I'm around), and she even had a baby on her back!
 Another baby climbed aboard while I was talking to visitors. These aren't the greatest images, since there are lots of twigs and/or in the shots--but there isn't much I can do about that.
I suspect that those growths are part of the reason she is relatively passive while people are on the trail nearby.  I believe that the cover that those growths provide--sparse as it is--still offer
her some sense of security.  So, here she is.  In the last image, she'd moved into deeper water, and the babies were sliding off of her.

   

04/04/2021   Back to Brazos Bend State Park! It was great to be out on the trail and interpreting Nature for interested visitors. It was Easter Sunday, which is usually one of our busiest days,
 so I was on my bicycle.  While this lets me cover more trails, it cuts down on what I can see. However, that doesn't mean I missed everything.  I found this alligator with her babies in 40
Acre Lake (first two pictures below).  A few hours later, she had moved a bit, and some of her babies were on her, and also foraging in the water around her.  While I was talking with visitors,
 we watched a Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) enter the scene. I figured that even the smallest baby alligators would be larger prey than this Heron would eat.  In the picture below right,
 one of the babies is visible in the upper right corner.  The babies seemed to be unconcerned about the heron--which moved off.
    
Below are more images showing how two of the babies moved over time on their mother's head. Behold the cuteness!!
    
I'd spent the day cruising the trails around and between 40 Acre Lake and Elm Lake. Between the times I visited 40 Acre Lake I found another alligator mom with her babies on
one of the small dirt banks-which act like tiny islands-in Pilant Lake along the Spillway Trail. The first picture shows mother on the bank, partially hidden by trees. The babies
are on the mud at the left.  The second picture is a zoomed closeup of the babies. The third picture shows the different perspective when I moved to my right a few feet-there is
a baby on her back.. The last picture shows her after she's turned around (with the baby still on her back).  This mud bank is about 25 yards away from the trail.
    
The smallest babies in these pictures would be--at the youngest--about 6 months old.  Many people (and I spoke with about 100 visitors on this day alone) were surprised about this.
A common impression is that these babies are newly-hatched (maybe partly because of their size, maybe partly because it's Spring).   They always nest in June, and it takes about
60 days for the eggs to incubate-so that limits when the babies hatch. So alligators only hatch once per year, and always during the weeks that August becomes September. Since
this is near the beginning of Fall, the babies encounter cool to cold weather as Winter approaches and passes. So, they don't eat (most if not all of their food isn't active), and
therefore do not grow at all.  It's only when Spring returns and the park awakens when their food becomes active, and their metabolism allows them to catch and eat it. By the end
of their first full year (the next September after they hatched) the babies have normally grown about 4 inches to be about a foot long. They try to stay by their mother for a few
years, so sometimes babies of various sizes (maybe up to 2 feet long) are near her.  Looking at those, one could guess their age by adding a year to the month we are in. Smallest babies
we see today (April 6th) are about 6 months--those that are few inches longer could be 18 months (a year + 6 months) and so on. Most of the newest babies don't get to be a year old-
probably due to predation, and mostly by wading birds like herons, egrets, and bitterns (other people have pictures online of baby alligators being eaten by these at Brazos Bend State Park).

06/27/2021 (posted 07/03/21) I had stopped to enjoy the sight and sound of the crowd of birds that were nesting at the Northwest corner of 40 Acre Lake. Most of the nests seemed
to contain Cattle Egrets, but there were other waders in there, too. While I let the sound of the multitude surround me, a lower, longer sound appeared.  An alligator had started bellowing! 
It sounded like a female.  After a few minutes, other alligators started bellowing from further away.  At that time, I couldn't see any, though at least one of them seemed to be somewhere among
the trees inside the bird rookery. I moved East, and I hadn't gone far when I heard bellowing again, but this time from one of the islands in 40Acre lake.  This one also sounded like a female, and I found her! 
She was in the water, and there was an alligator nest up on the island behind her.  She performed 3 or 4 bouts of bellowing, and I was able to film her as she did. I heard other alligators in the chorus.
Some were behind me in Pilant Lake, but a few were further East, in 40 Acre Lake.After it stopped bellowing,  I went to look for the other alligators I'd heard. Here's another picture of the nest about three hours later.
Mom is in the water in  front of the nest, in the shade.   I shot some video, and that can be seen here.  It's worth a view, if only to hear the bellowing mixed with the bird calls.

   
             THE WADING BIRD ROOKERY                                                       BELLOWING FEMALE AT THE ISLAND                      NEST IS ON THE LEFT, MOM IS AT RIGHT             SAME NEST ABOUT 3 HOURS LATER (NOON)
I had a close encounter with a Texas Rat Snake about 30 minutes after this, but first-- About 10 minutes later, I found another alligator near the islands, in front of another another nest! 
This nest was built at the base of a broken tree. This second nest was about 70 yards East of the first one I'd seen. The mother wasn't doing much, so I moved on.  About 30 minutes later, I was near
the Observation Tower when I noticed another alligator bellowing near East tip of the island.  \Since I was talking with park visitors, I didn't try to shoot video, but I did get some
photos.  This one also sounded like a female and, there was another nest on the island behind her!  I stayed near 40 Acre lake for the next couple hours, so I didn't find any other nests. But I saw three!!!
Alligators' courtship/mating season is March - May; and they normally nest in June.  I'd been looking for nests and was happy to find these.
   
  2ND NEST,NEAR TREE, MOM LOWER RIGHT                A FEW HOURS LATER, MOM IN THE SHADE              BELLOWING FEMALE AT THE ISLAND                      NEST IS BEHIND HER, TO THE RIGHT

07/04/2021 I was back at BBSP a week later, looking at the alligator nests on 40 Acre lake. This time, I found an additional nest, for a total of 4 nests between Hoots Hollow bench and the Observation Tower.
I also paced off distances between observation points. I know this is not exact--each of my steps is about I meter long (I went with metric, because otherwise each step is about 3 feet--and everyone knows I only
 have 2 feet. :-) ).  But it does give some idea of the spacing between the nests. I was also treated to a chorus of bellows (sounded like all females to me) at about 9 am. No video this time, the wind wasn't right.
07/11/2021-update  I was back at BBSP a week later, looking at the alligator nests on 40 Acre lake. During the week, I'd thought about the measurements I'd recorded.  There had been a distance of 120/150 steps
between nests in three examples, and a distance of 250 steps in one example. So, the distance between those two nests was about twice the distance of the others.  Maybe there should be another nest in there. So
I'd started looking for another nest between nests #2 and #3.  And....there was one!   But it was NOT 120 steps from nest #2.  This nest was 160 steps East of nest #2.  And the next nest (previously #3 now #4)
was 80 steps East of "new" nest #3 (this adds up to 240 steps instead of 250 I'd measured before...but close enough).  There's a good reason why the nest was NOT at the 120 step mark. The "new" nest is on the
West end of one of the islands.  That is, there's a gap between two island very close to the 120-step mark--it's water!  So, I can now account for 5 nests on the islands in 40-Acre lake. I've corrected the images 
below to agree with this new information.   So, that's a pretty regular spacing!   How could the females know where the other nests were to avoid getting too close to each other?  It could be just random spacing,
but I think that's not very likely.  Well....not too long ago (06/27/2021) I was in the middle of a chorus of female alligators at 40 Acre lake. In fact, that's how I found a couple of the nests. (Referenced further down
this page.)Over the years I've been observing alligators, I'd come to the conclusion that male gators usually (not always) started a bellow chorus during mating season; but after nesting, females usually started a chorus. 
I haven't found anything in "the literature" that specifically mentions this. But I've always guessed that females might bellow to announce their nesting sites.  The regular spacing of the nests on these islands might 
be have been assisted by the bellowing of the females.  Other factors can (and probably do) influence nesting locations. Proximity to dens(if there are any), availability of dry land, etc. could also factor in.  I still 
think it's an interesting overlap of events. 

So, starting from the bench near Hoot's Hollow:
NEST #1   120 steps east of bench near Hoots Hollow.
 


NEST #2   120 steps east of first nest (can see nest when standing next to the tree).
   

   Here are some pictures from 07/11/21 showing mom on nest #2.   
    

NEST #3                         160 steps east of 2nd nest (on West end of island).
   

NEST #4        80 steps east of 3rd nest. (at base of broken tree on island).
 

NEST #5   150 steps east of 3rd nest. (East end of island, across from short footbridge by the tower).
   

08/15/2021- I usually check on the 5 alligator nests that I know of in 40 Acre Lake. They are the ones that I'd located and compared by pacing off locations on
7/04 and 7/11.  As far as I can tell, the nests are still intact--not torn up by feral hogs, or anything else.  I always look for the mother gators near the nests, but
haven't had much luck seeing them.  But today, I could see the females near two of the nests; by my counting, nest #2 and nest #5.  Alligator eggs should hatch after
about 2 more weeks (could be a bit before then, or a bit after). Due to bright sunlight and large amounts of duckweed mixed with algae on the surface, the alligators  
are hard to see, but I took pictures anyway. So, here they are.  
  
 Nest #2 8/15/21 Mom is lower left.             Nest #2 8/15/21 A bit closer,  see her?     Nest #2 8/15/21 Closeup of gator mom.

  
 Nest #5 8/15/21 Mom is lower right.            Nest #5 8/15/21 Mom has moved up.          Nest #25 8/15/21 Closeup mom and nest.

09/05/2021 --  Just about every day I spend at BBSP is pretty good, but some days are way beyond good. On 9/5, I started at the 40 Acre Lake parking lot at about 8am.
Friendly folks were already gathering there for the scheduled guided bird hike. I took to North path to the lake, going down the hill. I mostly wanted to check the 5 alligator
nests that I know-since it's time for gator eggs to hatch. Otherwise, I watch for activity among all the birds, and whatever else is moving out there.
Nest #1 looked intact. Nest #2 looked like it was opened, but I couldn't see any babies, or the mother- even through binoculars.  Nest #3 also looked like it had been opened. Nest #4 looked intact.

   
        Nest #2 8/29/2021  closed                          Nest #2 9/05/2021  opened                       Nest #3 8/29/2021  closed                   Nest #3 8/29/2021  opened

I continued to the Observation Tower, and checked on nest #5. That one also looked like it had been opened. I'd already been watching the nests, and nests 2, 3, and 5 had all had the "usual" rounded hump
 shape. Today, the humps were partially flattened--no longer rounded; a good sign that the nests had been opened, either by the mother gator, or an egg thief. Since I hadn't seen egg shells scattered around
 any of the nests (the islands are about 40 yards away), I thought the chances were good that they'd hatched.  I stayed by the Observation Tower for a while, interpreting visitors that came by. A large
alligator had appeared in the water in front of nest#5 at about 8:40, and that just added to the number of subjects to talk about.

  
        Nest #2 8/29/2021  closed                          Nest #2 9/05/2021  opened     
  
On the way back,  I checked the "opened" nests again. This time, I found an alligator near each one. Alligators near nests #3 and #2 both faced the bank.  Usually, such attention is directed
 at baby alligators near the nest.  But I still couldn't find any through the binoculars. I spent about 2 hours on Live Oak Trail, scraping snail eggs (185 clusters) and I did get a brief look at a
 raccoon as it quietly moved through underbrush.  Later, I got a surprise when I looked through the pictures I'd taken.  When I zoomed in on photos of nest #2, I found baby alligators there!
In the earlier pictures, they are covered by the algae, duckweed, etc.,and so are really well-hidden. In the later pictures, they are up on the dirt, but just hard to see from 40 yards away.
They show up in the cropped images below.

    
 
09/19/2021 -- On the same day I saw the "Fancy Leech", I found a pod of baby alligators on the other side of 40 Acre Lake. The pod was near the trail, across from Nest #2. 
I was committed to some other activities, so I couldn't stay near them for better pictures (I'd found them in the morning.). So, here are a few pictures of the babies
and their mother.  The first picture shows her location in relation to the nest on the island.

    
       Mom across from Nest #2                              Mother gator with babies.                                                        Some of the babies.                                       The same babies cropped.                         

        A few more of the babies.

On 10/03/2021; this pod appeared on the trail, but on the Pilant Lake side. I'd been standing near this spot and talking to various visitors there for a couple hours. I'd even talked
about the new pods of hatchlings that I was looking for, and how they normally appear on the 40Acre Lake side (South side) of the trail. I left for a while, and saw them on the way
back-on the South side of the trail. I prefer to think that they hadn't been there all the time, but had climbed up as the day got warmer.  The babies eventually moved back into the
cover of the plants shown in the pictures, and were well-hidden when they did. There was an adult alligator in the area, but at least 5 yards away from this pod, and it didn't seem to
be looking at the pod.
   
 
On 10/10/2021; babies appeared on the trail, about 4 yards further East. Since they wre so close to where I'd seen them the week before, I assume that it was the same pod.
I only saw a few babies, and didn't see an adult alligator near.  In a situation like this (the trail was bounded by water on both sides), it's possible that a pod could be divided.
That is, some of the babies could be on the North side of the trail, and some could be on the South side--and their mother could be on either side. Although I looked closely, I
didn't find any more babies, or their mother.
  
 
On 10/11/2021; I found these babies babies at least 50 yards West of the other pod. They were in 40-Acre Lake (on South side) and were hard to find. I had seen some there on
previous days, but couldn't get any pictures of them due to them hiding among the plants. They were across from "bird box" #21 (on the island), and next to a small Oak tree.
I stayed near these babies for a few hours, trying to find more, and pointing them out to park visitors. While I was there, a Fox Squirrel was climbing up the Oak tree, grabbing tiny
acorns, and then running off to one of three trees that were some yards down the trail. It alternated storage spots, and on each return empty, and on each "delivery" trip; it paused on
the trail and looked closely at us; as if waiting for us to go away. When we didn't, it ran past us (or me) (passing only about 3 yards away) to continue its job. There was an adult
alligator in the vicinity, but at least 20 yards away, and it didn't appear to be watching the pod.  Picture #4 below is a frame from the video I shot of the squirrel so I could see what
it was carrying off. That's a tiny acorn.
   

If you'd like to know more about the park follow these links:

Brazos Bend State Park   The main page.

Brazos Bend State Park Volunteer's Page  The volunteer's main page.
 

And, this page shows alligators at the park, on land, near various landmarks at the park.

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