Samantha and I and perhaps 28 other birders descended on this WMA near Hope Saturday. Our targets were Purple Gallinule, Common Moorhen, and hopefully an American Alligator. We got there at about 9:30 and immediately saw the first two plus young and later saw an alligator, Samantha’s first wild gator. We called it a short day and headed home around noon. Unfortunately, my 200-400mm zoom started acting up and I had to put the camera away before the alligator showed up. At the commuter parking lot, where the journey started and ended, we saw a family of Killdeer including two or three young ones.
