Snipe touch down in their long travels
THEY come to our wetlands each year, not as many as there once were, but safe now from the hunters’ guns.
Latham’s snipe nest in parts of Japan and on the adjacent mainland in the northern summer, but in August they take the long flight to Australia.
They were once considered prime game-birds, so their time in Australia was one of considerable risk.
But as their population declined, from habitat loss as well as hunting, they were afforded protection here.
A recent count of the snipe at Jerringot on the Belmont Common revealed only 14 birds, while a similar count at Begola Wetlands at Ocean Grove yielded 65 snipe.
From banding studies, they are known to be “site-faithful”, returning to the same wetland year after year.
At Port Fairy, a study of the snipe involved capture of the birds using mist-nets and fitting them with lightweight geolocators.
Results showed that one bird flew from Port Fairy to southeast Queensland where it spent two months before flying to Cape York.
From there it flew straight to Hokkaido where it presumably nested before returning to Port Fairy.
A more detailed study showed that one snipe caught at Canberra and fitted with a geolocator left the ACT on February 4, 2018.
It spent from February 17 to March 15 in southeast Queensland and was at its breeding ground 10 days later.
On August 6 it flew back to the ACT via Honshu and possibly PNG, arriving there by late September.
The round trip undertaken in seven months was about 19,000km. Wildlife information and questions can be sent to ppescott@gmail.com