Tickfaw State Park, Ponchatoula, LA, Alligators

We left Shepard State Park and are now at Tickfaw State Park in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.  Much of Tickfaw State Park is a cypress swamp with miles of boardwalks throughout for viewing wildlife in their natural habitat.  Lots of hiking trails and a popular place for canoeing and kayaking.

Our Route

Our Site

We visited Ponchatoula, Louisiana which is the self proclaimed strawberry captial of the world and is actually a nice little town with much of the downtown restored to how it looked in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  There are lots of antique shops and many places to eat.

Turn of the century locomotive of the Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. which was based in Ponchatoula

View Of Downtown

Sign at the State Park

Section of the many elevated boardwalks through the cypress swamp

Another section of the boardwalk

Our first alligator of the year - about 7 or 8 feet long

He looks Happy! 

The second alligator we saw here - about the same size as the first - he was blocking our hiking trail - it was a loop so we reversed direction and sure enough he was still there when we came around the other way so we had to backtrack back to the campground

View of same alligator from the other side

Another alligator

5 Line Skink - right behind the camper

Pretty good size Rat Snake - about 4 to 5 feet long

Close-up of the same snake

Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge - More Alligators

We went back to one of the other sections of the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge.  This section is across the lake in Georgetown, Georgia.  We saw quite a bit of waterfowl but didn't get any pictures. The place was just full of alligators - I lost count at 20 but we probably saw 40 or 50 in a four mile hike.   I had one jump in the water about 5 or 6 feet from me - he was at the edge of the shore and I didn't see him and I guess he didn't see me until the last second - not sure who scared who the most - didn't know I could still move that fast. 

The refuge was a series of impoundments (large square areas contained by dikes - probably 1/2 to 3/4 mi. square.

They are sometimes hard to see - the lower long black object in the picture is a log - the upper long black object is an alligator.

This is a baby - about 2 feet long

This one was not jumpy at all - we walked by him within a few feet and he didn't move.

There were quite a few sunning themselves on the banks of the impoundments - there are two in this picture

This was about a 10 footer

Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge

We spent several hours Thursday at the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge just a few miles from the campground. This was a very interesting place and we saw a lot more wildlife than is depicted in the images below - just didn't get photos of everything - it was overcast and not a good day for photography.  The refuge has 3 main sections a few miles apart from each other - these photos are from one of the sections - we hope to visit the other two in the next week or so.

Entrance

 Black vultures enjoying a meal of opossum.

Black Vulture - similar to turkey vulture but with black head and shorter tail

Snowy Egret

 Snowy Egret

Huge alligator - probably about 12 feet long - we watched him and his buddies stalk and take out 3 or 4 black ducks in a mater of about 30 minutes -  when they were fairly close to their prey they would go under and a little while later there would be a big splash and one less duck

The same guy - closing in on a duck

These are some of the ducks they were after

Donnelley Wildlife Management Area - Alligators, Birds, Armadillo

We went to the Donnelley Wildlife Management area in Green Pond, SC on Wednesday. This is a large natural area with opportunities to see a diverse array of wildlife in their natural environment. We will probably make another trip here before we leave as we only saw a portion of the park - great place to hike and see wildlife.  We didn't get to the area that is famous for the diversity of water fowl including Whistling Swans, Roseate Spoonbills and many others.  We did see lots of alligators, some birds and an armadillo. This is a great place and one of the few wildlife preserves in the area that allows dogs (on leash).

Crossing the Harbour River on the way between Hilton Head and Beaufort

Fighter jets on display at one of the entrances to Paris Island (Marine base on the way to Donnelley)

Very large 200-300 year old Live Oak tree at Donnelley

Lots of live oaks and Spanish moss

A Little Blue Heron - similar to the Great Blue Heron we see up North but smaller

Armadillo - busy rooting for bugs - never could get a picture of his snout

Small island with several alligators

Close-up

Two of the alligators

Close-up - this one was about 7 or 8 feet long

This one was about 10 feet long - the next picture is the same alligator

The big guy - about 10 feet long

Another one

And another - this one was a big one - probably 9 or 10 feet

Black Crowned Night Heron

A couple of Cormorants in a tree - look like the same Cormorants that were common in Maine