GELLERMAN: It's Living on Earth, I'm Bruce Gellerman.

GELLERMAN: Florida’s Big Cypress Swamp is a vast wetland teeming with life; 'gators, bears, 'coons , rattlers and a lanky bird with a loud call. Here’s Michael Stein of BirdNote®.

STEIN: It’s before dawn on a spring day in the Big Cypress Swamp of Florida. Mist is rising from quiet water into Spanish moss, hanging from the Cypress branches. Suddenly, a startling sound breaks the silence.

STEIN: A male limpkin has awakened! This relatively tall bird, whose dark brown feathers are streaked with white, stretches and calls again.

STEIN: In the distance, a red-shouldered hawk responds.

STEIN: The limpkin hops down from its perch and begins probing the dark water with its long bill. It’s foraging for apple snails, each the size of a golf ball. When it touches a big, round shell, it grabs it quickly and pulls it from the water.

Then, moving to solid ground, the limpkin positions the shell, and using the curved tip of its lower mandible, it scissors loose the operculum, the door that closes the shell, and pulls out the snail. One quick swallow, and it’s on to find the rest of breakfast.

STEIN: By this time, other birds have awakened, and Carolina wrens and white-eyed vireos are declaring their territories.

STEIN: A pig frog adds to the amphibian and avian chorus of the Big Cypress Swamp.

STEIN: I’m Michael Stein.

GELLERMAN: To see some photos of limpkins, flock over to our website L-O- E dot org.