Limpkin with Snail
This morning I went to the Wellington Environmental Preserve at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Habitat. Opened in November, the preserve was created by the South Florida Water Management District and the Village of Wellington.
There are 365 acres of new wetlands which was created to remove the phosphorus from the water in the same way that the Everglades system is doing. The water is cleansed by the wetlands and then goes into the Everglades.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, after whom the habitat was named, was a noted journalist and environmentalist who wrote for the Miami Herald. She fought for the preservation of the Everglades and wrote the influential book, The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and died in 1998 at the age of 108!
Birds and other wildlife are slowly moving into the habitat. Today we saw hawks, ducks, vultures, herons and limpkins. The limpkin in the photograph has captured one of the abundant apple snails and is taking it to his three juveniles in the nearby grasses.
The Apple Snail is a favorite.
The limpkin (Aramus guarauna) loves mollusks including the apple snail seen in his beak. The limpkin is similar to cranes and the males and females have similar plumage. The curved open beak is helpful in getting the snail out of his shell. The piles of empty shells now seen in the preserve is common because after extracting the snail, the limpkin leaves the intact shell behind.