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[OM] First alligator sighting was at the Red Barn flea market in Bradent

Subject: [OM] First alligator sighting was at the Red Barn flea market in Bradenton, Florida
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:27:22 -0500
<http://www.chucknorcutt.com/Red_Barn/index.htm>

And, as I reported to Mike earlier today, before I lost my wireless 
connection, I had a great day in the swamp at Clyde Butcher's Big 
Cypress Gallery and took some pictures all on film.  But I've got a few 
other shots on digital so may post some soon.  I did find a print in the 
gallery I couldn't pass up.  One from the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge 
where I worked as a volunteer for 6 years which Clyde signed for me.  I 
also had a great chat with Clyde and his wife and his wife gave us a 
personal tour of the gallery as I had asked her about her own art works. 
   I also got to inspect his 8x10 Deardorf with 250mm Kodak (wide field) 
Ektar.  That's his medium format camera.  Clyde has also done a lot of 
shooting in the west and has his own (very gorgeous) version of the 
Tetons and the Snake River.

Some stuff I didn't tell Mike this morning.  We did see a gator at the 
start of the swamp walk but she was just a small, resident female with 
some little ones.  Not a great shot as I only had 28mm on the OM-1 and 
we weren't allowed to get very close to her.  We also saw what I believe 
was a southern Florida water snake, Nerodia fasciata pictiventris.  The 
guide didn't know what it was but I'm pretty sure my ID is correct.  And 
the big news was a water moccasin, Agkistrodon piscivorus, which the 
guide took great pains to point out (because she had done so at the 
start of the walk) are almost never seen there.  I didn't believe it 
then and was not surprised we did see one.  Much darker coloration than 
I'm used to seeing on a small snake on the east coast (about 3 feet). 
Not to be concerned since he/she was about 5 feet away and obviously 
trying to be still and hide from us.  The water snake on the other hand 
got wildly excited and confused and swam at us and right through the 
group underwater and emerged a few feet away.  Several of the folks 
there got rather excited too.  ;-)

The advertised swamp walk time of 1 hour actually took more like two 
hours which was great.  It gave me just enough time to fire off 35 shots 
and I saved the last one for a shot of Clyde in the gallery.  I spent 
about 5 or 10 minutes chatting with him during which he told me the 
story behind the Loxahatchee Refuge shot.  He also noticed the OM-1 
right away and said: "Oh, I see you have a *real* camera".   We also 
discussed walking in the swamp and I asked him if he'd ever had any bad 
encounters with gators or moccasins.  He said he'd never had any gator 
problems but he did get bit by a water moccasin once.  But it wasn't 
while he was slogging through some swamp.  It was setting under his car 
and bit him in the ankle as he was getting into the car.  Fortunately, 
only one fang struck him and it was on the ankle bone.  So the fang 
didn't penetrate very far and the bite was dry.

As we were leaving the gallery I took some shots of a couple juvenile 
gators (about 3 feet) in the pond in front of the gallery.  Later I took 
a shot of some much bigger guys (about 10 feet) that were sunning 
themselves on the bank across the road.  I'll post those later.  I'm 
having a great time out of the snow and cold.

Also had a great Mexican dinner last night at a place called "Casa del 
Sol" in Bradenton.  Not Tex-Mex.  I had something called molcajetes, a 
dish from Guadalajara.  Prepared in a molcajete (a stone mortar). 
Recommended.  Chicken, beef, onions, limes, lots of peppers and a tangy 
sauce made from 30 different ingredients.  Delicious.

Chuck Norcutt

Chuck Norcutt
-- 
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