This is Bird Note.

Driving through marshes, fields, and pastures in the rural southeast, you might not notice

the watery ditches along the country roads, but they're worth a look.

These channels, known as bar ditches, run for miles, providing narrow slivers of wetland habitat that are often teeming with life.

Herons stalk the shallow water, stabbing at minnows.

Plump water birds, called galanules, swim on the surface.

Reeds and bulrushes provide cover for secretive marsh birds like King Rails.

Red-winged blackbirds flash crimson epaulets as they sing. And boat-tailed grackles offer their own rough music.

Many of these ditches are artificial, created when Earth was dug up or borrowed, to create roads.

They've created conservation challenges, draining wetlands and changing the natural flow of water across the landscape.

But many birds have adapted to this artificial habitat. Great news for the carbound birder.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

Birdnote gives you the sounds of birds every day, and you get the sites as well when you follow us on Instagram at Bird Note Radio.