Wednesday, April 8, 2015

A Wilson Snipe

This is a very different Spring for us.  We usually have Spring floods from melting snow cover and rains.  Some parts of the United States had a lot of snow and moisture this winter, while other parts have drought conditions.  We are somewhere in between overall, but far less moisture than we are used to.  Because of the change in our landscape, we are seeing some birds we seldom see.  One of these is called a Wilson's Snipe.  I originally thought I was seeing an American Woodcock because of the long beak and other similar features.  I posted a photo on a nature group and was corrected.  I was told it was a Wilson's Snipe.  I didn't even know a snipe was a real bird.  When I grew up a snipe hunt was a term that was used to send someone on a wild goose chase for something impossible to find.  My husband remembers his older brother sending him on a few snipe hunts until eventually he caught on.  I should have known if a wild goose was real, so was a snipe.  The snipes blend in with the brown grass and mud in the marsh.  When I got out the binoculars, I noticed there were several poking their long beaks down in the mud.  I imagine they were finding insect larvae and worms.  It was nice to learn something new this year.



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