Revealing a hidden UK visitor
THE best wildlife days are when you go home thinking: “I’ve learned something new today.”
During my time at The Lancashire Wildlife Trust I have met many people who have dedicated their lives to recording and safeguarding the wonderful creatures we have all around us.
One such expert is Dave Steel, the ‘Birdman of the Mosslands.’
Dave has spent a huge part of his life wandering, watching and listening on the peaty wilderness between Irlam and Wigan.
Spending time with Dave is wonderful because he is so passionate about the birds and other beasties he sees.
He regularly sends records of the wildlife he has seen, enabling us to pick out interesting facts to use in a number of ways, which will eventually benefit the creatures.
I love looking at these records and I wish I had been by his side with a camera to take pictures of some of the spectacular occurrences he sees on a daily basis. One record Dave sent recently recorded jack snipe on Little Woolden Moss, a Lancashire Wildlife Trust nature reserve near to Cadishead.
On a day-by-day basis it read 3,4,2,1,11,2,2,2,1,1,3.
I looked again and spotted the 11!
I have seen single jack snipe on our reserves but I’ve never seen 11 in one place. It must have been a wonderful sight.
The jack snipe is a wader which spends winter in our region before flying back to the tundra of northern Europe and Russia, where it can breed in peace.
So if it hasn’t already left, the bird will be getting ready to fly off in the coming days.
Although their names are the same, it is not closely related to the common snipe, but it looks a bit like it. The jack snipe is smaller with a shorter bill.
It’s about 20cm long and weighs about the same as a medium hen’s egg.
The jack snipe is mottled brown above and a pale brown below, with a dark stripe from its eye to its beak. Its wings are narrow and pointed and, when it is flying, you can see yellow and black stripes on the wings.
Its bill is long, straight and brown and it has green legs. When the bird needs to hide its plumage is great, looking a bit like dead leaves.
Jack snipe are difficult to photograph because you tend to only see them when they dart out of cover right in front of you and fly away.
That camouflage is so good you can almost step on them before they flee.
Breeding takes place in northern Europe in the early summer, when the male gives aerial courtship displays and makes a sound like a horse galloping.
It eats insects, earthworms and some plants, pecking around in the soft mud of a wet British winter and spring.
It’s sad to see our winter birds taking off for warmer climes, but they will be back when the temperatures start to drop again. But let’s not think about that now.
To support the work of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, text WILD09 with the amount you want to donate to 70070.