Alligator Bayou Nature Photos

Louisiana pelicans and other migratory birds spend several weeks each year in the basin, a stop along the Mississippi River Flyway.

At sunset, flocks of egrets, herons, ibises, and cormorants fly over Cypress Flats into the swamp as the croaking of frogs washes across the basin like a wave.

"Clothilde" sunning on a log. In 1997, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries released 24 baby gators into the swamp.

The small Green Heron, like its wide-winged relative the Great Blue Heron, is a fisherman. It is one of 250 species of birds seen in the Spanish Lake Basin.

This giant bald cypress tree, about 750 years old, was saved in 1993 when Frank Bonifay, shown here, and Jim Ragland, co-owners of Alligator Bayou Tours, preserved 901 acres of the basin in a national non-profit organization. In the dry season, Frank and Jim walk visitors back to see-and hug-this majestic cypress, which was missed by timber cutters at the turn of the century. The giants in the basin are among the last of Louisiana's old growth cypress trees.

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