Audubon Swamp Garden

I spent a couple of days in Charleston, South Carolina. I met an old friend. She took me out for lunch, gave me a tour of her town home, and drove me around town for a couple hours and went shopping together. The next day I visited the Audubon Swamp Garden. Look at these lovely knees on the cypress.

At this nature preserve they build sunning platforms for the gators.

I watched this American bittern hunt for 5 minutes. As he moved on his or her log, the log turned and the bittern had to keep moving to keep it's balance. Soon another bittern flew in and they hunted together. I was lucky to get this view of a bittern.

A great blue heron made a nest on top of a tree out in the lake. This must be a very safe place for a heron nest.

This tree had a dozen  great egrets perched in it's branches.

Woah, maybe I shouldn't proceed on this path. When I came back 30 minutes later the gator had moved on. Another smaller gator was ten feet away.

Turtles don't share the same sunning ramps as gators.

Here is the tree with the heron nest and a couple gators sunning on a ramp.

I like Charleston, it's a cute little town.