Quote:
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Originally Posted by FLAG!
"...But after about 5 minutes the stick quickly went under, head first with a nice swirl in the water behind it..."
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In the winter, I live lakeside in Central Florida. (And if you're at a lake in Florida, that means you have alligators in your lake).
Gators are shy critters, and mostly just "hang out" on the surface. Very few are "cruising". (Although I saw three ducks followed by a "stick" once. The rearmost duck repeatedly paddled back to check out "the stick", which was a cruising gator!)
When gators are at the surface, you can't see the last foot or two of their tails. If you see it again, the rule for estimating length is to multiply the length of their eyes-to-nose-distance
by ten to get their full length.
Even when disturbed, all the gators
I've seen sink slowly from view—with their eyes the last to disappear from the surface. They leave no swirl.
Otters swimming on the surface make a pronounced dive, bending in the middle, as do beavers. My guess, since beavers use their broad tail in diving and swimming, is that the beaver would leave the bigger swirl.
Until recent years, there were
two beaver lodges just east of Wolfeboro's airport, one being just 50 feet from a roadway. The nearer lodge had at least one beaver active this May—in plain view of rafting boaters—but haven't seen any lodge activity after then.