Good spot at my local patch.

[senatore]

Popped down to my local patch yesterday morning ( Marsh lane in Warwickshire) mainly because it was a nice bright morning.

Saw the resident Stonechat from the first hide which was a nice start but it was not tilll I got down to the second hide that I got a really good spot.I quickly scanned the scrape and saw nothing of great interest so I checked out the area of partly flooded reeded and grassed area to the side of the hide and quickly spotted a partly hidden Snipe about 10 metres away.

It was resting and not moving but I was encouraged because I could see that there was a dark stripe along the centre of it's crown.Was it a Jack Snipe?One had been reported sometime ago.

I had to wait 30 minutes before it moved and then it showed it's smaller beak and obligingly started to bob up and down as it began to feed.Yes a Jack Snipe and in the open and pretty close.WOW !!!! I had seen one before at Titchwell from the Parradine hide but it was a long way away and it was other birders who identified it as a Jack Snipe.This one was mine.

Has anyone else seen one as close as this?

Max.

[marek_walford]

I've nearly stood on Jack Snipe!

[saluki]

Popped down to my local patch yesterday morning ( Marsh lane in Warwickshire) mainly because it was a nice bright morning.

Saw the resident Stonechat from the first hide which was a nice start but it was not tilll I got down to the second hide that I got a really good spot.I quickly scanned the scrape and saw nothing of great interest so I checked out the area of partly flooded reeded and grassed area to the side of the hide and quickly spotted a partly hidden Snipe about 10 metres away.

It was resting and not moving but I was encouraged because I could see that there was a dark stripe along the centre of it's crown.Was it a Jack Snipe?One had been reported sometime ago.

I had to wait 30 minutes before it moved and then it showed it's smaller beak and obligingly started to bob up and down as it began to feed.Yes a Jack Snipe and in the open and pretty close.WOW !!!! I had seen one before at Titchwell from the Parradine hide but it was a long way away and it was other birders who identified it as a Jack Snipe.This one was mine.

Has anyone else seen one as close as this?

Max.

When I was a kid Jack Snipe weren't all that uncommon. I'd regularly find them each year in favoured spots on local farmland. There was one field that had a natural spring surfacing in the middle of it, when the weather was frosty Snipe would flock to it - often including Jacks. They're more reluctant to rise than Common Snipe, one almost has to tread on them. They rarely fly far when disturbed.

saluki