Recent round-up

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.

Birgita and Rich both presented work at the Australasian Ornithological Conference, held in Adelaide last week. Birgita talked about the Latham’s snipe count data and the importance of urban wetlands to the species in their non-breeding season. These counts are on-going and are an integral part of this current project. Rich talked about his Masters research on wetland management and waterfowl responses in Sweden.

Records of snipe continue to come in from along the eastern states, so thank you to everyone who has sent one in, and keep the records coming. Records can be sent to b.hansen@federation.edu.au. The highest totals have been at least 50 birds reported from Clyde, on Melbourne’s south-eastern ouskirts, while in Tasmania 19 birds were observed near Smithton and 10 birds were at Grassy, on King Island.