The (Mythical?) Snipe

So who's this hiding from the camera?

Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata), Potter Marsh, Anchorage, AK 8/10/2012

This is a Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata), a rather large sandpiper with a preference for wet meadows and shallow wetlands. They used to breed here in Illinois, but in recent decades that's become an extremely rare event. However they still migrate through, and I saw my first one of the year earlier today.

Here's one that's not hiding -- you can see the long bill, on the long side even for shorebirds, and the stripes that act as camouflage in the deep grasses they prefer to live in.

Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata), Potter Marsh, Anchorage, AK 8/3/2012

Now, if you grew up in the Boy Scouts, or watching Cheers and the second incarnation of Star Trek, you may be thinking "What's wrong with this picture?" After all, everyone knows that there's no such thing as Snipe. I was told that by a junior-high shop teacher, and campers everywhere used to be introduced to Snipe hunts, where you're handed a pillowcase and told to go out in the woods at night and make weird noises. On the other hand, if you're a birder, or a bird hunter, you smile when you hear that claim. When I go looking for Snipe, I find them.

Sadly, the tradition of Snipe hunting seems to be dying out. These days, I rarely if ever find a student who's even heard of snipe.

Those long bills are used to probe into soil or mud for invertebrate prey, either on land or in the water. This means that the type of soil is going to be as important as the amount of prey it contains when the bird's trying to decide where to forage. Green, et al. found that females foraged close to their nest on dry ground when the soil was moist and prey was plentiful, but moved farther away when things dried out. (1) They also found that the preferred prey type varied with how wet the summer was, although they didn't state whether this was a result of foraging conditions or an actual preference for one or the other.

This sort of preference may explain the findings of McCloskey & Thompson, who found that females wintering on the Texas coast predominated in wet meadows with plenty of vegetation whereas males predominated in more open wet environments. (2)

That's fancy findings for a species that many people insist doesn't exist!

(1) Green, R. E., Hirons, G. J. M., & Cresswell, B. H. (1990). Foraging habitats of female common snipe Gallinago gallinago during the incubation period. Journal of applied ecology, 325-335.

(2) McCloskey, J. T., & Thompson, J. E. (2000). Sex-related differences in migration chronology and winter habitat use of Common Snipe. The Wilson Bulletin, 112(1), 143-148.