An excerpt from my 2017 Okefenokee Journal:
Paddling up the red trail just before 9:30 AM, we came to a pod of juvenile gators. What a serene scene. Many lay sleeping in the sun, content with life and protected by their mother nearby. But not far above them, an unobserved danger glided through the branches. A Red-shouldered Hawk silently perched above the baby reptiles’ refuge and cocked an eye to look down upon the spatterdock where the gators relaxed. Had this hawk become accustomed to picking off baby gators and was coming back for more?
Life can be tough for young alligators. Hawks, large wading birds, mammals and even other alligators will dine upon baby gators. If they make it past this vulnerable state, wild alligators can reportedly live around fifty years. But a very low percentage of hatchlings make it to adulthood.
While we waited to see if the hawk would dive for a baby gator, a second Red-shouldered Hawk flew in. Diverting its gaze from the baby alligators, the second hawk was quickly chased away with piercing screams from the first. My daughter then spotted a nest high up in a Cypress where the hawk returned. I do not know the meaning of the interaction between the two hawks, but I do know the baby alligators were, for the moment, spared from becoming lunch.
iNaturalist observations:
- Baby Alligator: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38177881
- Red-shouldered Hawk: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61555260
Okefenokee Photography Project by William Wise 
Interesting story, William! We have groups in Florida who take some eggs from nests and raise baby alligators to the size where they are not too vulnerable and them release them.
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