Snipe

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 We do occasionally see snipe in our bog meadow. Snipe are notoriously difficult to spot (until you nearly tread on them) as they are wonderfully camouflaged and stay motionless in the reeds. I am showing a couple of photographs from my archives to prove my point.



Did you spot the fact that there are two in the second photo?
There are two types of snipe regularly found in the UK. The common snipe and the jack snipe. In practice these are hard to tell apart unless you get a really good look. Normally one doesn't see a snipe until it explodes out of the marshy land ahead of you . Common snipe tend to stay put until you are less than 10m away when it flies off with a zig zag flight, flying high up before settling down some distance away. On the common snipe in my photo you can pick out the diagnostic pale stripe over the top of its head. The jack snipe is a much smaller winter visitor with a shorter bill. Jack snipes are only flushed when you all but step on them. I have only seen common snipe in our bog meadow.
Snipe nest on the ground and have a very distinctive display in the mating season where they climb to a height and then fall allowing the wind to vibrate  stiffened outer tail  feathers to produce a sound called "drumming". Snipe are common at Tarn Sike reserve where I help out and I often hear this sound in the spring and summer.

Diary Notes
Some great views of our female sparrowhawk yesterday. I was pleased with this photo of her taking off from the perch I leave in the garden hoping that birds will use it.
















We had fewer birds on the feeders (for obvious reasons with a predator about) and I caught a shot of the stoat again on the camera traps around 0100 hrs last night. Another trap captured a shot of a badger.

It is still wintery with wet snow falling at valley level this morning with day time temps of around 3C.






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