December 07, 2015
It’s been a busy time here recently for the Latham’s snipe project team.
Catch attempts on November 20-22 resulted in another five birds being caught, and released with leg-flags and geolocators. This makes 13 birds out there collecting valuable data for us. The next catches are planned for early January, while a snipe count is also scheduled for later in January. Please let Birgita know if you would like to participate in either event.
November 13, 2015
This Saturday (14/11/2015), teams of volunteers will be out and about their local wetlands in parts of Victoria, Tasmania, ACT, NSW and South Australia to look for snipe. Whilst we haven’t got all potential snipe wetlands covered, we will still get information from a larger area than on any previous count.
As it’s such a dry year, there are far fewer snipe in the wetlands and we are keen to work out where they might be.
So if you have a local wetland or swamp with snipe and you’ve got some free time on Saturday, please have a walk through and see how many you can count there.
You can contact Birgita for more information b.hansen@federation.edu.au
November 13, 2015
We are excited to announce that the South Beach Wetlands and Landcare Group have been successful in getting funding through the Glenelg Hopkins CMA for wetlands restoration work around Port Fairy to enhance snipe habitat and raise awareness about the importance of Port Fairy’s wetlands & swamps. The grant includes funding to purchase radio transponders for tracking local movements of snipe around Port Fairy. We hope to get a better understanding of day-to-day movements by birds and which wetlands they use at night.
This project will be a great opportunity for school children and community members to get involved and help find snipe with radio tags. We will aim to start tracking in the new year.
Congratulations to Jodie and the landcare team on their grant success!
November 07, 2015
After a failed attempt at the Education Land near Powling Street wetlands on October 15, we tried again this morning (Saturday 7th) back at the wetland. Keen to capitalise on the recent rains across Victorian during the week, we went for nets over the wetland and over the kikuyu adjacent to the wetland. It was very windy over night and we were not at all positive about our catching chances. But Lo and Behold! A dozen or more birds lobbed into a wet grassy area around 530am and started foraging. We managed to twinkle several birds towards the nets set over the kikuyu and 2 stuck long enough for us to get them. Less success with the other nets which had been stretched by the wind. Regardless, we were thrilled to capture 2 more birds, one still bearing traces of breeding plumage!
Next attempt will be the weekend of November 21. Please get in contact with Birgita if you’re keen to help out.
And don’t forget the next Port Fairy / Warrnambool snipe count on November 14.
Snipe photo by Karin Lundström. Photo of Don (left) and Rich (right) by Jodie Honan.
October 08, 2015
To catch snipe, it really was a case of third time lucky.
After two previously unsuccessful attempts, where we learned a lot about snipe behaviour and even saw a couple bounce out the nets, and a lot of discussion with local experts, the catching crew assembled with a slightly new plan. On Thursday afternoon in Powling St wetlands we set two double nets higher than normal (thanks for the loan of new equipment from Simeon) where birds had been seen landing (previously we’d been setting them where they had been seen leaving). On advice from Clive Minton, we also set a double net over thick kikuyu grass adjacent to the wetland, where snipe often roost during the day.
September 30, 2015
It’s a beautiful sunny weekend in Port Fairy and we have a team ready to go and catch snipe! Dave has joined Jodie, Don, Rich and Birgita for 2 days all out action. We also have Malcolm Brown, who has caught many snipe over the years, and Tracy-Ann Hooley, both from the VWSG, coming to join the team.
There has been a lot snipe around Port Fairy but unfortunately, there is also daily noise from machinery blasting out rock in the new development being built next to the wetland. Rich, Don and Jodie haven’t seen as many snipe leaving the wetland at dusk, so we don’t know if they are avoiding the area or have re-distributed themselves in other wetlands around town. We will find out tonight!
Powling Street wetland with earth-moving machinery visible in the background to the left.
September 11, 2015
The counts on September 5 were very successful with 11 people participating to cover 13 wetland sites. A total of 66 snipe were counted around Port Fairy and 81 in Peterborough. Thanks to Rich, Karin, Dan, Don, Bill, Jane, Janet, Michael, Peter and Chris for helping out.
Photos by Karin Lundström and Rich Chamberlain.
We will schedule another count in early October (on a weekend). Anyone interested please contact Birgita.
On Friday 11th September we start catching snipe at Powling Street wetlands. Any birds we catch will be fitted with geolocators and released again at the site. We hope they will undertake a full migration to Japan and back, and deliver us a story about the migration route they use.
September 03, 2015
Over the last couple of weeks, the first reports of Latham’s snipe returning for the non-breeding season have been trickling in along the eastern coast of Australia.
The earliest record this year for Australia was on 8 August, at Oxley Creek Common, near Brisbane (via eBird – see photo above showing some of the ideal snipe habitat at the Oxley Creek Common).
Hot on its wings were separate reports from three locations in Queensland on 9 August: one from Bundaberg (via eBird), another at Tyto Wetlands, Ingham (via eBird) and the third from Dunne Rd Swamp in Cairns (via eBird).
Further south, the first record for NSW is from from Yamba on 20 August, and from the ACT comes from Jerrabomberra Wetlands (ACT) on 16 August. This is about ~10 days later than the long term average for New South Wales (we’re working on this data at the moment).
In Victoria, the first snipe were reported at Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove on 22 August, closely followed by two at Port Fairy and one at Torquay on 23 August (via Eremaea Birdlines and R. Chamberlain). There are yet to be any reported from Tasmania.
Do you have earlier records than these? Or do you have arrival records for snipe from a place you regularly bird? If so, we’d love to hear from you as we’re trying to build up a long-term understanding of migration patterns across Australia for the species. Contact djdwilson@gmail.com with any information and we’ll tell you how your observations fit into the bigger picture of snipe migration.
Header photo credit – via http://www.peakstopoints.com.au/event/
September 03, 2015
The first snipe were observed at Powling Street wetlands on September 23 by our man on the ground, Rich Chamberlain. Since then quite a few birds have turned up around town including at Sandy Cove. We plan to start our first surveys of the season on Saturday 5th September. Contact the project team if you’re interested in helping out with snipe counts.
Photo of two snipe at Sandy Cove by Rich Chamberlain.
July 31, 2015
Great news! We’ve just been successful in securing our first funding, which means we can start planning this season’s fieldwork. Funds from the Australia-Japan Foundation have allowed us to purchase 40 geolocators to put onto snipe at Port Fairy wetlands in the coming spring (September / October).
It’s also covering a trip to the species’ breeding grounds in Hokkaido, Japan, where we plan to meet up with our Japanese collaborators and undertake research and training on snipe at their breeding grounds.
