Sunday, 29 April 2001 my husband Sam, my mother, Ann Phillips, and I stopped at Harris Neck NWR approximately 9:00 AM to retrieve a recorder we had left on the dike the evening before to tape the swamp sounds. After scanning the swamp for 20 minutes or so my mother asked about the large bird on the other end of the dike. We watched with binoculars as it slowly sauntered across the dike and down into the corner of Woody Pond. We pulled out The Sibley Guide to Birds and The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America and in all innocence decided it was a Limpkin:

• chocolate body with white streaks

• fairly thick bill

• dark legs

It didn't act anything like the Glossy Ibis we had seen two weeks before at Savannah NWR, and the bill didn't look like an ibis'. Besides, the map in Sibley looks like Limpkins might be found regularly in southeast Georgia. We watched other birds and animals for some time, then Sam located the Limpkin again in the far corner of the pond and suggested I to get some shots of it. Good idea. We got several shots as it calmly fed, looked at the rest of the pond some more, got another few shots and left the pond around 11:00 AM to see the rest of Harris Neck. At that time, the Limpkin was still in the same corner of the pond. Later in the day I was trying to confirm my ID by checking in Giff Beaton's Birding Georgia where and when Limpkins might be seen in Georgia. I started getting nervous when I couldn't find a bar chart then couldn't find the species listing. At that point we decided to call the rare bird hotline.

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