Whilst working on TODAY'S FUNNIES to send out, I heard a limpkin calling from the direction of Marie's Pond. Considering that I was across the street, inside the house, behind hurricane-resistant sliders, it was remarkable that I would hear it at all. They don't usually vocalize during the day, and it sounded so loud and close by, that I grabbed my camera, went outside and realized that it was in a tree behind Marie's house.
As I have her permission to go into her back yard whenever I wish to do so, in pursuit of birds and/or alligators, I put my camera on VIDEO and began filming, thinking that even if you can't SEE how close to me it was, you could certainly HEAR it. I really could have used a spotting scope or telephoto lens, THAT's for sure! You can hear this magnificent bird HERE, HERE & HERE IT IS A TALL TREE, SO I VIDEO'D VERTICALLY. DUMB. LIVE 'N' LEARN. You can hear that there is a scream and a more gutteral call. Luckily, unlike peacocks, limpkins vocalize intermittantly, mostly at dawn & dusk. You can hear answering calls, from two different directions, in the second video. In the third video, off it went to answer one of the return calls. I thought as long as I was back there, I'd show you the view . . . The house next to Marie's, which has this view, is FOR SALE, if anyone's interested. Yes, there are alligators in this beautiful pond; I think they live on the island farther down. As Neal was at the dentist, the dogs were left alone for maybe five minutes; this greeted me when I came back inside . . . (SweeTea was there, too, but when she realized it was only me, she crawled back under the couch cover before I could take a pic.)

A LITTLE BLUE HERON STOPS BY FOR LUNCH HERE