Earlier this year, I witnessed something new while at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC.

I had followed one alligator up the causeway to watch it cross over to the other side. After that one had crossed, I kept my eye on another that looked like it was headed up and over as well. 

But, just beyond that one, there was another. It was swimming fast, and clearly had something in its jaws. I hurried my pace to catch up with it to get a shot of its catch. But, when I caught up to it, this is what I saw. 

It had attacked a can float. It looked like it was really struggling to dislodge it from its mouth but just couldn’t seem to do so. After a few minutes of following it, the gator was finally able to pop it out.

One of my favorite things about nature and wildlife photography is that you never know exactly what you’ll see on any given day.