Once called Wilson’s snipe, now this solitary bird goes by Common Snipe. I got to see one feeding tonight at Colliers Mills WMA, and I have to say in my experience Common is a stretch.
Beautiful little guy, he looked like he would tip over from the length of his bill. The bird was in the front burn part by the maintenance building. I walked right up on him, less than 3feet, and the only movement the bird gave was a wink of an eye lid. After I left and came back, I found him foraging again. It’s amazing to see that long bill be used like an ice pick in the wet soggy marsh. Thumbing threw an old Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America by Frank M. Chapman, I read that Common Snipes need two things:
“Two things are essential to its requirements-ground so thoroughly water-soaked as to afford slight resistance to its long and highly sensitive bill when probing, and such concealment as tussocks, hillocks, or long grass afford, for, unlike the Sandpipers, the Snipe rarely ventures out on bare mud-flats, save under cover of darkness.”
It also goes on to say that they are good eating and that hunters especially find good sport in shooting them. I hope if any hunter reads this post remember that there was only one and he looked very unsavory to me.
Yellow-Rumped Warblers were all around the Turnmill pond. Only other bird of interest was a green backed heron hunting near the entrance.
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