The great Snipe hunt is over at last! My email list reported Wilson’s Snipes at Oxbow Lake near Fort Meade, so I went to take a look and they were there and cooperative. Fellow birders Neil and Emily were there as well, and we enjoyed the bounty together. Neil used his phone to call up a Winter Wren, which was a nice bonus.
Emily went into the marsh to flush the Snipes.
There were probably 75 of these birds in the marsh grass, but they were very hard to see.
Cornell:
“A common shorebird of wet, grassy spots, the Wilson’s Snipe has an extremely long bill that it uses to probe in the mud for small invertebrates. Its camouflage is so good that it often is not seen before it flushes from the grass.”
This is the first time I’ve seen a Great Blue Heron with a frog.
A small flock of Blue Winged Teals was dabbling in the marsh.
As I walked through the marsh, I disturbed a Canada Goose on her nest.
Neil used the Ibird app on his phone to call this Winter Wren.
It’s very entertaining to watch a Caspian Tern hunt fish.
