After we left this spot we headed on to Bahama swamp. As we waded out into the weeds we couldn't find any Pygmy sunfish, Golden Topminnows or Bluespotted sunfish like we had on previous visits to this spot. At this spot I found a melanistic male Gambusia with lots of black mottling over what appears to be a blue background. A man walked up, on the bridge and told us that he see's a gator in there almost daily and that we should watch out because it was a big one, around 10-12 ft. I told Dustin "I ain't doing any seining here!" He didn't argue to much and we agreed that we should stay close to each other and keep a close eye for anything resembling a gator. We continued dipnetting, finding many Heterandria and Gambusia, and finally found about four okatie back under the railroad trestle there. We had not seen any signs of a gator and were finally getting a little relaxed. At that time, while about hip-deep in the water and vegetation, we saw the gator...about ten feet lo
ng, out in the water right in the spot where we would have been seining, not more than 40 ft from us. Needless to say, we slowly backed away and left shortly after this. This is a list of what we found here:
Bluebarred Pygmy Sunfish - E.okatie
Banded Pygmy Sunfish - E.zonatum
Least Killifish - H.formosa
Eastern Mosquitofish - G.holbrooki
Pirate Pearch - A.sayanus
Enneacanthus spp. (juv.)
Swampfish - Chologaster cornuta(another small juv.)
Mud Sunfish - Acanthus pomotis (about 1 1/2")
Eastern Mudminnow - Umbra pygmaea
After the excitement we decided to explore a little so we hit a dirt road (SSR 169) and sampled a little in ditches where the road crossed a canal. We also saw a small gator (around 4') on the canal bank and a comarant. This is what we found here:
Bluebarred Pygmy Sunfish - E.okatie
Least Killifish - H.formosa
Eastern Mosquitofish - G.holbrooki
Enneacanthus spp. (juv.)
Eastern Mudminnow - Umbra pygmaea
Flier - Centrarchus macropterus
We visited one more spot. It was in the roadside ditches on Hwy 321 along the same canal. We saw another small gator, and heard what we think was two others here. This is what we found:
Bluebarred Pygmy Sunfish - E.okatie
Least Killifish - H.formosa
Eastern Mosquitofish - G.holbrooki
Enneacanthus spp. (juv.)
Golden Topminnow - Fundulus chrysotus
Bowfin - Amia calva (Juv.)
Flier - Centrarchus macropterus
I was excited about the bowfin. I had been wanting one and had not found any so far. We finished up here. The temp was around 85-90 with sunny skies. We headed back to Columbia on 321. As we neared Orangeburg we hit the rain again and the temp dropped to the middle 50's. We're going back out on
Wednesday to get some more stuff for the zoo. Hopefully we can get some Elassoma boehlkei for the breeding program and Enneacanthus chaetodon for them to put on display. I'm also going Friday with a guy from the DNR who is sampling in the Congaree Swamp National Park. We're gonna be visiting a spot
called the "Dead River Gut". Sounds kinda spooky/interesting. Will post updates on these trips later in the week.
Chip Rinehart
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