Meeting Sophie

Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message

Sophie, the resident American Alligator of the Stephen C Foster State Park; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015.

Tuesday, 6:29 PM - We failed to see any gators out on the swamp boardwalk, so before heading back to camp we decided to check the boat dock and canoe launch up the canal. Amanda called out, “GATOR!” as a ripple splashed in the middle of the boat bay. “It went under right there.” We watched and waited for a minute. When it resurfaced, our gator turned out to be a rather large soft-shelled turtle. Soft-shells aren’t the most attractive turtles. In fact, my nephew described one we encountered on a Disney Resort as, “the ugliest turtle I’ve ever seen!” Their slender, long heads look like old fashioned Coke bottles capped with an unattractive pig’s snout. Their shells are relatively flat like an oversized, gray, rubber pancake.

Softshell Turtle; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015.

A little bit further on, the water stirred and swelled just beyond the “Danger, Alligators Present” sign. Again we waited. After a minute we spotted a foot-long scaled creature just below the surface. But it wasn’t an alligator. We had been tricked again, this time by a Gar. Often, Gar resemble alligators (in fact, one subspecies is named an Alligator Gar). They possess long, scaly-armored bodies and long snouts filled with jagged teeth. An outdoors magazine once contained an article about a sportsman fishing for Gar with a crossbow that was pulled from his boat and dragged through the water after spearing an impressively large Gar. It was a neat fish to see, but not the alligator we were looking for.

Twice tricked, but not giving up while there was still some light, we decided to walk further down the canal. Out towards the swamp we spotted a dark object in the lane between the lily pads. By the v-shaped ripples breaking in front, we could see it was travelling rather quickly in our direction. Finally, a gator, and heading our way! I began snapping photos even though it was low light. It swam all the way in and circled the boat bay; quite comfortable in close association with the visitor’s office. As the sky darkened, I tried some low-light manual camera settings. Using the flash brought out some beautiful red-eyed gator shots that turned out to be my favorite photos from the entire week.

Sophie, the resident American Alligator of the Stephen C Foster State Park; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015.

We later learned from the park staff that this was Sophie, the “resident gator.” She frequented the boat bay and had babies along the bank opposite the rental canoes.  Each morning and evening for the rest of our trip we stopped to say hello to Sophie. She calmly patrolled the boat bay in the evenings and occupied a small opening or harbor in the lily pads during the day. Just behind her daytime resting spot was a ramp of loose dirt up the bank; no doubt a convenient ascent to her nesting site. Our final morning of the trip, we were finally able to catch a glimpse of one of Sophie’s babies crawling out of the duck weed.