Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge

Alligator River NWR is absolutely beautiful. They have paddling trails, wildlife drive trails, and nature trails, where you might be fortunate enough to see black bears, alligators, or even red wolves! We've been here before...We just wanted to come down again to explore all of the driving trails on 154,000 acres! We did a little "four wheeling" on some of the more muddy and over grown trails. It was a beautiful sunny day!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Brian's muddy TJ from wildlife trails"][/caption]

We were really hoping to see alligators, but it was cold. My dad had visited Alligator River a couple weeks earlier and he told me he saw one... so I know they are here, but I'm sure we won't see any till this summer. I also wanted t0 see SNOW GEESE! Brian and I over heard a man talking about seeing them here when we were at Pea Island NWR. Unfortunately we didn't see any.  We saw lots of Tundra Swans, Northern Pintails, and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. Most of them where too far away to photograph.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="391" caption="Lone Tundra Swan "][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Tundra Swan Family :)"][/caption]

The winter has been really cold this year! Today, it was a little warm and in the upper 50's. All of the Tree Swallows were going nuts over all the little gnats hovering in the sunshine. I managed to capture a couple of neat shots.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Tree Swallow hovering over water"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Tree Swallow swooping in for a gnat snack"][/caption]

While driving on the wildlife trails.  We saw lots and lots of red-tailed hawks. One flew directly over top of the jeep.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Red Tailed Hawk scanning for food"][/caption]

And while I was taking pictures of the Red-tailed, a tree swallow landed right in front of our jeep, and wouldn't move!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Stubborn Tree Swallow"][/caption]

We enjoyed our sunny day at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. I can't wait to visit in the spring and summer and maybe I'll get to see some gators or even a Red Wolf! till then...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Kestrel "][/caption]