Pink Houses

This weekend, a splotch of pink suddenly appeared on the trunk of our little cypress tree.

Upon closer inspection, we discovered a clutch of apple snail eggs.

Apple snails (family Ampullariidae) are freshwater snails that are able to survive both on water and on land. By laying their eggs above the water line, apple snails protect the eggs from predation by fish and other water dwellers.

Apple snails are the primary food source for limpkins, a common wading bird in My Florida Backyard. Limpkins have specially adapted beaks that curve slightly to one side, allowing them to easily extract the apple snail from its shell. Limpkins will only live in areas with large apple snail populations, so they are found only in scattered locations throughout Florida in the United States. We feel very lucky to have this bird as a regular visitor here in our yard, and we owe that to the apple snails and their pretty little pink eggs.