Somerset Ornithological Society - Bird News
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Re: Jack Snipe Greylake?

Nice conversation, everyone. Thanks for your attitude Carl. I found the photo very helpful and went looking for it again on your website. Have you removed it? It really did demonstrate bill-length difference between the two "Snipe".

Cheers, Chris

Re: Jack Snipe Greylake?

Hi Chris.

No, I haven't removed the offending picture, it's still there!
I didn't realise common Snipe came in different sizes!! This bird was definitely smaller than the others with a shorter bill, it also moved about a lot quicker!
However, as I said, I'm no expert in Snipe-ology!

Re: Jack Snipe Greylake?

Interesting thread indeed. It's funny how some top birding sites often prove fantastic for some surprising scarcer species as well as really rare birds. Scillies, Fair Isle and Spurn for example are all great places to see Jack Snipe and often up close. The 2 snipe species then appear like chalk and cheese in fact. Jacks quietly bob up and down like little clock-work toys as they feed at the water's edge or in a wet ditch, usually just on their own or perhaps in twos or threes; or they freeze completely and let you walk to within a few feet of them! They like very shallow water that is out of site to humans who are out in the open, and on Scillies and at Spurn in the autumn, you can often watch them from hides. On Fair Isle in autumn, there can be good numbers of Jack Snipe on the island and it's then possible to eventually surprise one in a ditch that freezes instead of flying off... Common Snipe, as you know, busily probe wet ground, heads down, (no bobbing) often in sizable groups and often in plain view. Walk up to them and they're off like a shot though.

Anyone know of other UK sites where you can watch Jack Snipe from hides? (it's occassionally possible at Chew, I know)

The small snipe at Greylake is striking in the photos. Thanks for posting.