BirdNote®
Limpkin, Bird of the Swamp
Written by Dennis Paulson
That is BirdNote.
[A quiet cricket chirping]
It’s earlier than daybreak on a spring day within the Massive Cypress Swamp of Florida. Mist is rising from quiet water into Spanish moss hanging from the cypress branches. All of a sudden, a startling sound breaks the silence.
[Loud Limpkin call]
A male Limpkin has woke up! This comparatively tall chicken, whose darkish brown feathers are streaked with white, stretches and calls once more. [Limpkin] Within the distance, a Crimson-shouldered Hawk responds.
[Call of Red-shouldered Hawk]
The Limpkin hops down from its perch and begins probing the darkish water with its lengthy invoice. It’s foraging for apple snails, every the scale of a golf ball. When it touches an enormous, spherical shell, it grabs it rapidly and pulls it from the water. Then, shifting to strong floor, the Limpkin positions the shell, and utilizing the curved tip of its decrease mandible, it scissors unfastened the operculum – the door that closes the shell – and pulls out the snail. One fast swallow, and it’s on to seek out the remainder of breakfast.
[A Limpkin call]
By this time, different birds have woke up, and Carolina Wrens and White-eyed Vireos are declaring their territories [songs of Carolina Wren + White-eyed Vireo]. A Pig Frog provides to the amphibian and avian refrain of the Massive Cypress Swamp.
[Pig Frog (Rana grylio) calls]
I’m Michael Stein. [A Limpkin call]
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Bird sounds and Pig Frog supplied by The Macaulay Library of Pure Sounds on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Name of Limpkin 2789 recorded by D. McChesney; Crimson-shouldered Hawk 105335 by G.A. Keller; Carolina Wren by T.A. Parker III; White-eyed Vireo track 73896 by G.A. Keller; Pig Frog 42082 by O. Hewitt.
Producer: John Kessler
Government Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org April 2014/2018/2019/2022 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# LIMP-01-2012-04-18 LIMP-01
