Hello and welcome to the American Birding Podcast from the American Birding Association.

I am Nate Swick.

Who can forget those heady summers post-COVID when birders were amazed, amazed, dumbfounded even,

at the spread of Limpkins across the eastern half of the ABA area,

with at least two intrepid individuals making it as far as Colorado and a couple lingering

to nearly Christmas bird count season in such unlikely locales as Ontario, hardly a Limpkin-rich

environment. Hot Limpkin rich environment.

Hot Limpkin summer reached its farthest extent in 2023 before falling back a bit the next summer.

But we shouldn't forget that 2024 had birds as far north as central Michigan.

So while we haven't seen the sort of crest that Saw Limbkins make huge news,

they are still pressing their gains. The only reason they're not making as much fuss now as they

did then is because most of the states and provinces have so many records that they hardly trip

rarity filters these days. Everyone who really wanted a Limken in Pennsylvania or Missouri or Nova Scotia

was probably able to scratch that itch. Except for me, because much of the Limkin madness

seemed to find its way up the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. My state of North Carolina,

we didn't rack up the

Limpkins like some of the Great Lakes, locales did. Even so those crazy summers added

about a dozen new records for the state. None close to me, though, and too many of them

were one-day wonders or birds that required a long trek up a muddy reservoir arm. But I knew, I knew if I waited,

if I kept my powder and my shoes dry, one would show up practically in my backyard. And that

friends is what happened last week here in good old Guilford County, North Carolina. I was

driving home one evening when I

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