December 19, 2019

Spring has proven to be an extraordinary season for snipe this year. With the extreme weather conditions in NSW and QLD caused by the drought, the reports of drying wetlands were already streamining in early in the season. With the hot weather and then the widespread fires, snipe numbers dropped off at many sites in the NSW, ACT and QLD, and numbers increased enormously in south, particularly along the Victorian and South Australian coastline. In fact, we had the highest count on the national surveys record at quite a few sites in September with Fox Lake at Robe bringing in another whopping count of 147 snipe. Not to be outdone, the numbers increased between September and November, such that we had the highest total count ever during the November with a total of 1636 snipe (see graph below). Sites like Phillip Island and Peterborough in Victoria, and Alstonville in northern NSW broke their own records. Many other sites also had high counts. These results suggest that the drought and fire conditions have pushed the snipe further south earlier than normal, and caused greater congregations than usual. Perhaps snipe are taking advantage of refuge sites when others have become unreliable.

We expect that numbers may drop off into January as the hot and dry conditions push birds into wetter areas, which we may or may not count. For example, the wetlands at Jerrabomberra where we usually catch snipe were already very low by the end of November and as of mid-December, have dried out. It doesn’t seem likely that there will be significant rains between now and mid-january to offset this drying.

Once again, these surveys would not be possible without the assistance of a large number of people and groups from across the eastern states and territories. We have been fortunate this time around to add a host of new sites in places in south-east Queensland, Newcastle, western Victoria, and a handful here and there in eastern Victoria and Tasmania (many on private land). Interestingly, while the count went up in September and November, the number of sites counted stablised. This is due to a number of people not being available for surveys. It is always tricky trying to manage our various volunteer commitments, so thanks once again to all snipe surveyors.

A merry snipe christmas to you all!

September 20, 2019

An important site for Snipe in Cairns in Tingara Street, Portsmith, has been virtually destroyed by the Port Authority, who has dumped dredge spoil on the roost site there. This site has held nationally important numbers of snipe on at least once occasion (during the 2019 northward migration season). But this hasn’t helped protect the site from Queensland Government-approved destruction.

On the morning of September 17, inspection of this snipe count revealed that the salt marsh was filled in, and in the big paddock where snipe regularly roost, nothing was left but a small plot of grass. The plot was otherwise filled with dredge spoil – a greater area than was originally approved. The small plot that remains has been severely mown, and is being used as a roadway, making the remnants of this site completely unsuitable for snipe.

This is a sign of the times, when governments seemingly place no priority on protecting the habitat for species that are supposed to be protected. It is particularly disastrous timing for snipe, who are only just arriving back in Australia after their long and arduous migration from Japan.

We are very disappointed that this has been allowed to occur.

August 01, 2019

The Latham’s Snipe season is almost upon us! Snipe should already be arriving back in Australia, so keep an eye open for our returning birds!

This season’s count dates are September 21, November 16 and January 18. Please keep those dates free.

Contact Birgita if you need details about the surveys or have any questions.

May 23, 2019

We were hugely excited when Nintai spent at least a week in Papua New Guinea during the middle of April. And then we were exceedingly disappointed that the transmissions from her tag ceased after PNG. She had made a monumental effort in flying to central Queensland, where she obviously spent additional time fattening up, and then flew direct across the ocean to PNG where she made her first stop in the southern lowlands (around 200m in altitude). Her last fixes were from >2500m in the central highlands (Enga Province).

Her use of PNG as a stopover site is a fantastic discovery and for the first time ever, we have some detailed information on where PNG snipe stopover sites might be, and what they might look like. Her last fixes were from a large swampy area close to a small village, around 10km NE of Laiagam.

While it is very sad that we have lost contact with Nintai, we plan to put all the new knowledge from her movements to good use next season when we deploy our remaining PinPoint Argos tags.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported this part of the tracking and I hope to see you all again next season.

March 15, 2019

We are very excited and thrilled to report that Nintai has started her migration and as of yesterday (March 14), was in the sugar cane growing district of Mackay, central Queensland.

Hopefully she stages for a while in Queensland and then heads safely on her way further north. It is possible she may stop next in Papua New Guinea before flying further north.

The resolution of the GPS data has been very good, and we can be fairly confident to within about 50m where she is at the time of the fix. The most recent Sentinel images (available to view in National Map) show the sugar cane field, where her latest fix came from, cropped and presumably, bare earth. This makes sense, as we would expect both sugar cane and corn (dominant tall crops for the Mackay district) to be too tall for either foraging or roosting.

Thanks again everyone who has helped get us this far, even if the help recently has been moral support!

March 12, 2019

As of March 5, Nintai was still in Canberra using the area around Jerrabomberra wetlands. Her fixes are now coming only at midnight and all the recent fixes have originated from the turf farm to the north of Fyshwick sewage treatment plant.

Unfortunately we haven’t had any daytime sightings of her, so we don’t know if she is returning to Jerrabomberra wetlands during the day to roost, or remaining in the turf farm.

The GPS tags need to be programmed in advance, and so Nintai’s tag was originally programmed based on T0’s and P3’s geolocator data. The timing of the foxes was set to approximately match northward migration and staging of T0 and P3. Because Nintai hasn’t left yet, it means that the fixes have dropped back to 1 every 3 days at midnight. So we are hoping that when she finally decides to leave the ACT, the GPS data will still pick up her stopover sites.

For some great photos taken of (flagged and unflagged) snipe at Jerrabomberra wetlands (as well as other ACT sites) see the Canberra Nature Map site

February 21, 2019

February has proved to be an exciting but challenging month, with the team in Canberra setting out to deploy 6 PinPoint Argos 75 satellite transmitters on snipe at Jerrabomberra wetlands. We learned much from our trial two years ago with the PTTs, so quite a lot of changes were made to our protocols to improve the deployment process. A big part of this was  holding snipe for a period time after the transmitter harness was fitted, to allow the bird to settle into its harness and us to monitor the bird to check it is OK.

With this in mind, we set about building the best ever indoor wetland! It took nearly two days and about a dozen people to set up. With the help of some of the parks rangers, the nearby Environmental Watering construction contractors (and their earth moving equipment), a group of people trudged into the wetland to fetch the enclosure “furnishing”.

We needed a tent, a tarp floor, dirt, wetland mud and plants, trays for wetland mud, water trays, plenty of live food like mealworms and small crickets, a way to recapture a bird and a even a security camera with night vision! Some poor souls even picked through the compost for fresh maggots!

On thursday 7th february, a large team of volunteers both experienced and new, set out nets in Kelly’s swamp north, in readiness for catching friday morning. At first light on Friday, the team caught 6 snipe, of which only one ended up being big enough to fit a transmitter. Also included in that catch was 2 recaptures – one juvenile from earlier in the season (engraved leg flag 78) and one from the previous year (ELF 90), which has been seen at Jerra on and off throughout the whole season.

Birgita, with help from Inka Veltheim, painstakingly fitted the harness. Once that was done, the snipe was weighed and placed in “Snipe Hilton”. After that, it was nearly 24 hours of walking on tiptoes, whispering, shooing away an unexpected arrival of two busloads of people wanting to tour the wetlands, eating crappy food and chocolate, and taking turns to monitor the camera and check how the bird was going.

The team was heartened to observe our snipe drinking, resting, picking at the mud like she was foraging and occasionally preening without any obvious signs of trouble from her harness.

After dark on friday, while 2 people were left monitoring our snipe, the rest of the team head back out into the wetland, this time to set nets at the south end of Kelly’s swamp. Unfortunately, during that afternoon Canberra had torrential rainfall and by the evening, there was water everywhere. Which meant the snipe that left overnight to forage elsewhere did not return. Only a single snipe was caught saturday morning in an area that is usually very successful for catching. And our single bird was not big enough for a transmitter. It was very disappointing, especially as we had out biggest team of helpers that morning!

We decided to check and adjust the harness on our tagged bird before processing the newbie. We let her go after re-weighing her and off she flew strongly, straight into the wetland right out the front of the wetland centre! It was fantastic to see her fly off, looking so well.

The team decided to name her Patience (Nintai 忍耐 in Japanese – we apologise to our Japanese colleagues if we have used the wrong Kanji here!). This is because she was the most patient bird ever the whole time the transmitter was fitted! But, also the patience of us as researchers and volunteers deserved some recognition.

During the first week, Nintai’s transmitter was programmed to take fixes twice a day, once at midnight and once at midday. During the week, she has spent most of her time at the nearby turf farm, although by the weekend, she had returned to Jerra wetlands.

Heaps of people helped with this catch and were amazing. Birgita would like to thank all the volunteers who were part of this fantastic team: Lori Gould & Kelly Bateup, Nicki & Emily Taws, Michael Maconachie, John Lawson, Inka Veltheim, Grant Battersby, Mark Jenkins, Heather Mcginness, The Callaway family, Chris Davey, Kristy Gould, Sophie and Lily Mills, Tristan Derwick, Adam & Tom Leavesley, Millie and John Sutherland Saines, Pete Morris, Shoshana Rapley, Jas & Ash Allnutt, and Jon Coleman. And a special thanks to Kristy, John, Kumiko and the rangers who had to dig up my pedantically-identified patches of wetland mud from the swamp!