Nature, WOW!

Today, I was helping out a co-worker by volunteering and digging at the burial mound at Magnolia Plantation.
While we were out there, one of the crew noticed an Egret with what looked like a fish in it's mouth. After a couple seconds, we realized that this was not a fish, but a baby alligator. The bird had the gator by the shoulder and it moved and flexed to the point where it was able to grab latch onto the bird's beak with it's jaws. It hung there for a little while before letting go and falling to the ground. Next, the bird picked it back up, this time by the neck and proceeded to choke it out. The gator fought the best that it could, even getting the bird to drop it a couple times, but each time the bird latched it's beak around the gator's neck and continued with the suffocation. Once most of the fight was out of the little guy, the bird dropped it and with a hit so hard that we heard it 30 meters away put it's beak THROUGH the gator's skull. A second hit followed in short order. Upon withdraw of this blow, the gator was hanging off the bird's beak and with a shake, it fell. The bird hit it another time, this time through the midsection. Now that it seemed that the gator was completely dead, the bird proceeded to eat it like you have seen so many pelicans devour fish on nature shows, and Bugs Bunny episodes. Once it was done, the bird washed the blood off it's beak in the brackish swamp water and wandered off.
I used to carry a little digital camera with me whenever I was out in the field, however, the thing got jammed with some sand and now won't focus, or close it's shutter. So, noone had a camera.. Trust me when I say that it was an impressive sight, at an impressive site.

Ciao