It occurred to me that during my Christmas Day ride, I only got to see the northern half of the island. Today, I decided to pick up where I left off and pedal around the southern half.

I parked in the same place, unloaded the bicycle, and headed to the convenience store to fill the water bottles. Since it sits next to the store's parking lot, I hit the Crane Road trail toward the Historic District.

I came to a clearing that offered a great view of the marsh and stopped for a few pics.

The photos above and below look east across the marsh.

Three-picture panorama of the saltwater marsh looking east from the Crane Road trail.

A couple pedaling past me on the trail directed my attention to the bird in the pond behind me.

I turned around to check out the pond. My camera thought I was trying to take a picture of a branch in the foreground. But the picture is pretty awesome thanks to the reflections in the background.

There he is.

He was just hanging out on a branch enjoying the sun.

Pretty soon, another bird came in for a landing.

The passing couple mentioned a Blue Heron, which seems to match the coloring I am seeing.

My guess is that he stopped to say hi to his buddy.

Suddenly, an alligator joined the party. The funny thing is that I was completely focused on the bird and had no idea the 'gator was there until I downloaded the pics to my laptop.

The heron doesn't seem to be concerned.

Maybe he's using the "if-I-ignore-him-he'll-go-away" approach.

His buddy seemed to notice, though.

I rounded the corner and managed to get all three individuals in the shot. Once again, I had no idea the alligator was there until after I downloaded the pics. I wish I would have seen him so I could have taken a bunch of closeups.

I did get a few closeups of the birds, though.

The blue heron decided to get his feet wet.

His buddy saw that and tried to warn him.

"Dude ! You know there's a 'gator next to you, right ?"

"Oh ! Well what do you know, I didn't notice him. Thanks !"

I continued on the trail and passed a large patch of bamboo.

Of all the greenery I encountered on the island, I don't recall seeing bamboo very often.

I continued on my journey along the Crane Road trail and came across a giant leaning branch.

In this case, only this one very large branch seems to be leaning.

The Crane Road trail took me to the Historic District where I got a couple of nice shots of the Club Resort.

The Jekyll Island Club Resort's famous turret.

The Jekyll Island Club Resort's famous turret.

I headed down to the waterfront area by the Wharf.

The water came right up to the retaining wall where I was standing which lead me to believe that this was some form of high tide.

The photo above is of the same boat I photographed in the dark on Christmas Eve.

The Lanier Bridge in the background.

Two-picture panorama of the marsh looking west toward the Lanier Bridge.