Tim writes: I don’t consider myself to be a photographer. I’m a wildlife enthusiast who takes photographs of the things I see. So serious photographers will look with scorn at this photograph as being dull and lacking detail. But keen birdwatchers will (hopefully) be impressed knowing what a lucky shot this is because in my experience Jack Snipe is one of Britain’s most difficult birds to photograph.
They are not particularly rare as winter visitors, but they are usually extraordinarily elusive. But their elusiveness also makes for notoriously unreliable population estimates. From my own personal experience I see well over a hundred Common Snipe for every Jack Snipe during winter, but Common Snipe fly off at the slightest disturbance making them much easier to see. Jack Snipe usually sit tight among vegetation in swampy marshes, usually only flying when you almost tread on them. That’s what happened to me in early March as I was walking across some high blanket bog (c400m asl) in the West Yorkshire part of the Peak District. The Jack Snipe flushed from my feet and flew away, giving me a fraction of a second to take a shot.
Its scientific name is Lymnocryptes minimus which translates as the smallest marsh-hider. The name “Jack” simply means small, as they are noticeably smaller than Snipe. In fact at 55g they weigh just half that of a Common Snipe, and an old name for them was Half Snipe. It has a noticeably shorter bill than Snipe and more prominent golden tramlines down the back.
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Well Done Tim! I’d be ecstatic with that shot! Even when trying to find them they usually flush at an inopportune moment . When I lived in Harrogate or indeed the Midlands and visited the family home at Christmas it was an almost guaranteed bird in a wet rushy field between Harrogate and Knaresborough especially if it was frosty, as said field had running water. Many years ago a visit flushed 17 Common Snipe and 11 Jacks, although the norm was two to four Jacks. Here in Wales we live next to a similar field, where the water runs into the Severn and whilst not quite as regular one can sometimes find a Jack or two. They are in fact beautiful birds if you get a good look, I’ve caught them here and in Sweden occasionally. And that bobbing feeding and walking method very special to see.
Absolutely fascinating. Thank you.
Your blogs are superb!
I don’t consider myself a birder but I’m impressed. Wow for your mongoose-type reflexes in catching this amount of detail.
In the late eighties at my parents home, my dad was locking up one night when he heard a fluttering noise, which he traced to the front room, narrowing it down to the gap between the sideboard and the wall.
Not a place you would ordinarily think of looking for Jack Snipe.
Logically, the cat had brought it in, though it rarely went far and was not known for its hunting skills.
The house backed on to a dry ploughed field, pub car park, and church yard, the nearest hint of dampness the river Rother half a mile away.
I took it to a competent, if dodgy, taxidermist, along with an egg bound Curlew, and the finest cock Sparrowhawk i have ever seen.
He swears he lost them all when his freezer went down while away
from home.
At Derby Cathedral in the years when we were collecting prey remains below the peregrine nest platform we had installed back in 2006, jack snipe turned up several times with a far greater number of commons. In all the falcons seemed to have a distinct preference for waders with twelve species being recorded. Woodcock were favourite but we found bar and black tailed godwit, knot, turnstone, dunlin, whimbrel and redshank as well as the rather frequent lapwings and golden plover…and some of these in the middle of winter rather than at migration times.
Derby is about as far from the sea as you can get so we came to the conclusion that at least some of these birds were commuting overland at night between the Wash and the Severn estuary among other cross-country routes.
Noc-mig without the need for any electronic gear!
Ochre, that is the word always used to describe the colour of the two stripes
great photo
Hi. Maybe not a totally relevant question, but perhaps some kind person who knows the answer might respond. Is there any chance that a jack snipe might stay in/migrate to the UK during summer? I live in the far NW of Scotland where occasional ‘winter only’ bird species will stay all year. Summer temperatures do not often get much above 20C. Perhaps a jack snipe which usually overwinters much further south would find the wetter parts of the NW Highlands sufficiently far enough north to satisfy its migratory tendencies… I look out of my bedroom window most mornings, as early as 5am. In summer it is very light, but with a particularly still start to the day, and with cloud cover, the number of birds can I see is quite impressive. My garden borders the open hillside, rough gorse and mixed poor grasses plus bracken. The are many lochans further uphill, providing perfect conditions for common snipe. I was more than a little surprised to see a snipe sitting in my garden. But I thought it too small for a common snipe. It sat very low to the ground – just grass and the usual daisies and buttercups and other ‘weeds’ when left to grow – and looked too small and low-slung to be a common snipe. Its back was VERY markedly contrasted between very dark brown, almost black, back colour, and straw-coloured stripes, most distinct. I did not notice/note the head markings however – the surprise at seeing a single snipe-like bird poking at the grass amid several blackbirds, the usual number of ‘spuggies’, and a single song thrush was distracting enough. I had cut the grass very short the day before, and watered it well as, despite this being the very maritime NW coast, and known for its rainfall, it hasn’t rained much since winter (a recent feature – climate change most evidently). It is late July now. Anyone out there able to answer this enquiry, please? Of course, I LOVE it to be a jack snipe! I didn’t see it leave as I rushed to fetch my good binoculars, and it was gone, along with all the other birds. Something must have spooked them all in the 20 seconds I was gone, sadly. Any answer/s would be most appreciated, please (-;)~
BTW – nothing dull about your photo of the jack snipe! As you say, a hard shot at a moment’s notice – probably only a second or two, I’d imagine. It catches the back markings perfectly, and is how anyone is likely to see the bird most commonly as it flushes. Don’t knock your shot!