Wood snipe and Latham’s Snipe update

April 27, 2022

As of April 25, one of the Wild Bird Society of Japan snipe was in north-east Hokkaido, in the Engaru-cho area. It is possible it will settle somewhere in this region to breed. Even more exciting is that the other snipe, which was in the far south of Honshu in early April, is now somewhere along the south-west coast of Sakhalin Island!

There have been no further transmissions from the two Canberra snipe.

There have been recent updates from the Wood Snipe tracking project also. The team now has complete southward migration tracks for two individuals (see the tracking map below). The latest point for one bird, carrying a Lotek tag, was 26/02/2022 and the other bird, carrying a HQXS tag, was 13/04/2022. The team is expecting the two birds, which were presumed to be on their wintering grounds during mid-April, to start their journey back to breeding grounds very soon.