I had a message from Adam Bassett about 10:30am but I was already committed to buying some Christmas lights, so I did not manage to get down there until after 3pm. Several local birders had seen it during the day so I was fairly confident it would still be there. Fortunately Mick McQuaid was on site when I got there and he soon put me in the right area for the bird.
It was feeding fairly close to the west side of the sand spit and about 30 yards from the start of the reeds. It was moving around slowly and constantly bobbing up and down. At times it would either crouch down or go into a dip and be impossible to see. It was also close to some Common Snipe at times (50+ on site) which enabled a good comparison to be made.
This is a very scarce bird at this site and often very hard to see. They are probably present most winters but stay out of the sight in one of the marshy areas.
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| Late afternoon in very poor light and even with a high ISO the shutter speed was only 1/13 second! |
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| A better view of the head markings on the Jack Snipe. Shame about the Common Snipe! |
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| Note the lighter coloured lines on the head and down the back on the Jack compared to the common. |
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