CHICAGO — While on a recent visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden, Ann Harness spotted a creature she’d never seen before. The tall brown bird with a long bill looked like a cross between a rail and a heron.

It was a limpkin — far from its home.

The bird lives in tropical areas, from southern Florida to the Caribbean islands, Mexico and Central and South America, where it gives a piercing cry from its wetland habitat.

Harness’s sighting was one of at least 24 in Illinois this year.

“Limpkins spend their time in wetlands and aren’t that easy to see, so there’s probably a whole bunch more that we don’t know about in Illinois,” said Mike Ward, an avian ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey.

Geoff Williamson, recording secretary of the Illinois Ornithological Records committee, agreed.

“Of all the bird species that have expanded their range northward into Illinois, the limpkin is the most dramatic,” said Williamson, a longtime Chicago resident.

Though climate change may quickly come to mind as a reason for the expansion, biologists say this phenomenon has a lot more to do with the introduction into the United States of several nonnative snail species, a new food source for the limpkin.

Others have been seen this year at McGinnis Slough in Orland Park, McHenry Dam in McHenry County and Grass Lake in Lake County. Two were reported at the Nygren Wetlands in Winnebago County, and others have been found farther south in counties such as Bureau and Johnson, where two were seen together.

“Illinois had its first (sighting) in 2019 (in Olney), then two each during 2021 and 2022, and now I can’t keep pace with the records in 2023,” Williamson said.

Hundreds of nature lovers are traveling the state to document this species for their state and county lists.

The Chicago Botanic Garden limpkin has been seen most days since Aug. 13, and some of the others are also still around.

The limpkins are feasting on mussels and snails, using their uniquely adapted bills to retract the mussel or snail from inside its shell.

Once nearly wiped out in Florida, the limpkin has recently spread to the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana, where it successfully nested.

In the late 1990s, limpkin populations were declining in Florida as wetlands were drained and their main food supply, the native Florida apple snail, was decreasing. In the mid-2000s, various types of apple snails native to Central and South America as well as Asia were introduced to the United States, often for use in aquariums.

The nonnative snails have been tossed outdoors into waterways, and their populations began to explode.

Limpkins began eating the nonnative snails and increasing their numbers in Florida. They may have started to move northward as a result.

Other Midwest states documenting wandering limpkins within the last few years include Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

Ward said potentially more droughts in the South due to climate change could affect the limpkins’ movements.

“They have to move and find better habitat for feeding,” he said. “But I don’t think that is explaining the overall increased population of this species.”

As with other water birds, the limpkins may be engaging in what’s called post-breeding dispersal. After leaving their nests, immature birds like little blue herons often fly north seeking food, then fly back south for the winter.

“Though considered nonmigratory, limpkins may now be engaging in this new kind of behavior, and food supply and increase in population could be causing it,” Ward said.

Meanwhile, the nonnative snails are causing problems in aquatic ecosystems in Florida, Louisiana and other states.

Officials hope the limpkin may help keep the invasive species in check. But it will be difficult, because many of the introduced snails can reproduce twice as rapidly as the native ones, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

While Illinois does have the invasive Chinese mystery snail, often considered an apple snail, it also has 75 more mussels, snail and clam species the limpkins can eat. Mussels, snails and clams belong to the large group of aquatic creatures called mollusks, soft-bodied organisms without backbones enclosed in a hard shell.

“That’s a niche the limpkins seem to be taking advantage of in Illinois,” Ward said. “They seem to be hanging out in wetlands with a good population of snails and freshwater mussels,” he said.

The limpkins have been documented eating both native and nonnative mollusks in Illinois and Iowa.

Texas Democrat carjacked in Navy Yard neighborhood

WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry Cuellar was carjacked by armed assailants Monday, Oct. 2, in the Navy Yard neighborhood south of the Capitol, the latest iteration of violence against lawmakers or their staff.

The Texas Democrat was not injured, and the car was recovered, his office said. But a phone and iPad were stolen from the car.

“As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, three armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement,” Cuellar’s chief of staff, Jacob Hochberg, said in a statement. “Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressman’s vehicle.”

Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department said it had a report of an armed carjacking around 9:32 p.m. at the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and K Street Southeast.

The Capitol Police said the victim has been identified as a member of Congress, and the department’s investigators are working with MPD on the case. “Injuries were not reported. Detectives are working to track down the suspects,” the Capitol Police said.

The incident comes as violent crime in Washington is up 39% over the past year to date, according to the MPD.

Other members and their staff have faced violent crime in Washington. Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minnesota, was attacked in the elevator of her D.C. apartment building in February. And Phillip Todd, a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was stabbed several times near the 1300 block of H Street Northeast in March.

India tells Canada to remove 41 diplomats as spat intensifies, FT says

NEW DELHI — India has instructed Canada to reduce the number of diplomats in the South Asian country by two-thirds as relations between the two nations continue to slide over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, the Financial Times reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

New Delhi has told Canada it must repatriate about 40 diplomats by Oct. 10 and has threatened to revoke the immunity of diplomats who remain after that date, the newspaper said. Canada has 62 diplomats in India and has been told to reduce that by 41, it said.

The Canadian foreign ministry and the Indian government declined to comment to the newspaper.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India’s government of involvement in the June killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who was in Washington last week, said he had discussed the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and added that political assassination was “not consistent with our policy.”

India said last month it informed the Canadian government that there should be parity in the nation’s diplomatic presence in New Delhi and expects Canada to reduce its diplomats in the country.