I found Ian's article about the Greenfield Great Snipe of 1979 and the intriguing photographs most enjoyable. Wouldn't it be something to find one on Horrocks's Flash next month? After all, dreams do sometimes come true.
One of the big events this year was the Cley occurrence in early May of an adult Great Snipe which was displaying outside one of the hides, (apparently the first time display has been noted in Britain). I wonder if any G.M. birders got to see this?
The event was well written up in "Birding World" with some excellent photos. What staggered me however were details of the amazing non-stop flights recorded for several individuals by means of radio tracking. The article mentions that one bird flew 3,834 miles in 3 days (Europe to Africa), another 4,445 miles in 3 1/2 days, and a third bird did 2,871 miles in 48 hours. They apparently can maintain speeds averaging 60 mph for several days and nights. I just find such feats to be truly awesome.
Volume 1X of Bannerman's "Birds of the British Isles" devotes much detail to his account of the Great Snipe, though of necessity, he relies heavily on accounts of both Scandinavian ornithologists and shooters; -( the Great Snipe referred to in those circles appropriately enough as the "Double Snipe.")
Apparently the birds are capable of laying down considerable fat reserves as can be imagined prior to taking on such prodigious feats of endurance, and to quote directly from the text : "When the first flights come down from the Norwegian highlands in August, the birds are in such good condition, and carry so much fat, that the skin of one falling to the gun will burst as it strikes the ground."
Wouldn't it be something to find one on Horrocks's Flash next month? After all, dreams do sometimes come true.
One of the big events this year was the Cley occurrence in early May of an adult Great Snipe which was displaying outside one of the hides, (apparently the first time display has been noted in Britain). I wonder if any G.M. birders got to see this?
The event was well written up in "Birding World" with some excellent photos.
What staggered me however were details of the amazing non-stop flights recorded for several individuals by means of radio tracking.
The article mentions that one bird flew 3,834 miles in 3 days (Europe to Africa), another 4,445 miles in 3 1/2 days, and a third bird did 2,871 miles in 48 hours. They apparently can maintain speeds averaging 60 mph for several days and nights.
I just find such feats to be truly awesome.
Volume 1X of Bannerman's "Birds of the British Isles" devotes much detail to his account of the Great Snipe, though of necessity, he relies heavily on accounts of both Scandinavian ornithologists and shooters; -( the Great Snipe referred to in those circles appropriately enough as the "Double Snipe.")
Apparently the birds are capable of laying down considerable fat reserves as can be imagined prior to taking on such prodigious feats of endurance, and to quote directly from the text :
"When the first flights come down from the Norwegian highlands in August, the birds are in such good condition, and carry so much fat, that the skin of one falling to the gun will burst as it strikes the ground."