In the swamp tour photo below with a mixed group from Canada, Connecticut, New York, and Baton Rouge, you can see it was cold, and the only green in the swamp was the duckweed covering the bayou.
The water at Lake Martin is so high in this last week of 2009 that it is actually flowing out of the old spillway on the north side for the first time in over ten years, as seen below.
I had a couple from Japan out on a tour this week and you can see in the background that the swamp is grey as seen below.
If you are coming to do a tour this time of year, mid day is the warmest time of the day, but the sunsets and sunrise may be the most colorful opportunity.
If you are coming to do a tour this time of year don't get your hopes up about seeing alligators. Photos like you see below may be a month or two before coming into season again.
But. if you are lucky, and it does happen in winter, we can have clear sunny days and 70' temperatures, and the alligators come and sun themselves as you can see below.
Below is a photo I took on a swamp tour in December, 2008.
As you can see it was warm, sunny, and the gators were out.
