Fooled by an anhinga

 The name, meaning “snake bird,” comes from Brazil. The last one I saw fooled me. I was sure it was a snake swimming across the creek.

The anhinga is a big bird, similar to a cormorant, though thinner. But it rides so low in the water that only its head and neck stick out. It looks a bit like a submarine running at periscope depth.

Cormorants ride low in the water too, but not that low. You can see a bit of back above the surface. One noticeable difference between the two is the bill. The cormorant has a hook on the end of its bill — it’s like a pruning knife. The anhinga has a harpoon, a long, slender needle, not curve. He spears fish, brings it to the surface, flips it like a pancake and opens wide. When the fish goes down the hatch, it’s a long, heron-like hatch.

Anhingas have supple feet, webbed and clawed. You see them in trees.

Anhingas have slow metabolisms. Like the cormorants, they spread their wings, but the behavior is not thought to be wing drying. It’s thought to be a matter of regulating body temperature.