These birds like to swim in the open, from time to time

Brenna Hicks snapped this photo of a family of gallinules on East Lake in Lake Padgett Estates, in Land O’ Lakes. Common gallinules are swimming birds that frequently hold their wings up, so the wingtips stick up on the back. These marsh birds reside in freshwater or brackish marshes, ponds and lakes with a mix of submerged, floating and emergent vegetation and open water.