Photographers flocking to Gatorland
Thousands of birds join park’s reptile regulars every spring
These days, Gatorland is for the birds.
It’s the time of year when thousands of feathered friends gather at the south Orlando attraction, interacting peacefully with hundreds of full-time reptilian Gatorland residents.
Also flocking to the spot are wildlife photographers and birdwatchers, who observe from a walkway that skirts the breeding marsh.
Despite their differences, the animals get along.
“They seem to know their own boundaries and leave each other alone,” said Mark Smith, a photographer from Vero Beach who has been coming to Gatorland since childhood.
“There’s a pond where all of the alligators are, and you can actually see some of the egrets, like, surfing on the alligators’ backs,” Smith said. “When you photograph it and show people, they don’t believe that this is happening.”
In reality, the gators have the birds’ backs. The natural troublemaking predators for birds and for their eggs — raccoons, possums and rats among them — are thwarted by the reptiles, said Stephen Whalen, who runs Gatorland’s birding program and is one of its gator wrestlers.
“Those alligators sort of act as guard dogs, keeping them way out of this area,” he said. “That’s why the birds love it so much.”
In the springtime, there can be as many as 20 species of birds at the park, primarily wading birds, Whalen said. Visitors may spot snowy egrets, great blue herons, banded cormorants, wood storks, black vultures and anhingas — a.k.a. snakebirds. Currently, there’s a range of bird activity going on, from courting to nest-building to hatching and fledgling. Mark Smith, a photographer from Vero Beach
“You’ll have pretty much the whole spectrum of the life cycle of a bird right there,” Whalen said.
In the mornings, the cries of hundreds of birds ring across the marsh. Sometimes the gators join in with low, rumbling bellows, Whalen said: “It’s mating season for them, too.”
The spike in bird population is a boon to photographers. John Wise, who moved to nearby Hunter’s Creek from England 20 years ago, likes the variety.
“I came here one day about 15 years ago, and I never stopped coming back,” said Wise, who say the birds become accustomed to the stream of people visiting Gatorland and are less likely to flap away.
“They are much easier to photograph here than they are out in the wild,” he said. “They don’t care about us. They get on with their lives — same with the alligators.”
Smith, who posts instructional videos about photography and conservation on YouTube, said the birds can inspire humans.
“Their day-to-day life is a struggle. They can’t go to the store to get food. They have to do everything they can just to live day-to-day,” Smith said. “You can learn a lot from them.”
Gatorland offers an early morning ticket to the bird area. Smith, who photographs birds all over the state, says he spends a lot of time at Gatorland in the spring. Wise says he’s there three or four times a week.
“I’m always looking for that perfect photograph, which we never get. Everything has to be just right, the light and everything,” Wise said. “Somehow it never seems to come, but you keep trying.”